The best music books of 2014

There were enjoyable stories of Pussy Riot, the Fall, Krautrock – and Viv Albertine’s account of the punk scene rocked like no other music memoir this year

The best rock memoir by some distance of 2014 wasn’t written by a big name such as John Lydon or Bernard Sumner but by Viv Albertine, former guitarist of cult all-female punk band the Slits. You needn’t be a Slits fan to find Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys (Faber) moving and compelling. Punk fans will enjoy her vivid insights into the scene’s key players, but themes established early on – creativity, belonging, the casual cruelty of men – recur with a vengeance in the book’s bleaker, post-Slits second half. Albertine’s fearless, discomfiting honesty makes this book as radical and valuable an artistic contribution as the music she made.

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