PanThe Washington PostThe scope of the book poses a problem. Wikipedia offers a perfectly full outline of the music created in 1971, in what order, the people who shaped it and what was going on in society. What Wikipedia doesn’t do is make clear why the music still matters. That’s where Hepworth should come in, but too often he misses his cues. Fortunately, Hepworth offers interesting observations about some of the music from that year ... Hepworth re-creates 1971, convincingly, as an ensemble play in which characters are constantly bumping into one another and having life-changing encounters ... These passages make you appreciate the sort of stumbling around and naivete of the era, but they can’t explain the staying power of the music. Instead, where musical insights feel as necessary as sound checks, Hepworth just offers dry ice.
