Ah, Autumn! The return of comfortable weather, cold nights, students, classes, jackets and sweaters, shorter days, and best of collections. How could we know what's worth reading without the multitude of "Best of" collections? I know the mid-90s were a heyday for these collections of the best writing of the year and they served their purpose admirably. Remember combing through the vast number of periodicals, trying to stay abreast of all the poetry, fiction and essays? The "best of" collections offered the results of someone else doing that work for you. And the collections were usually halfway decent and had material from a magazine that you had somehow skipped. The back pages of these collections were always rich sources for new magazines. But then the internet happened. Most magazines fearing being left behind by this new media made the leap to an online format. Oh, and then these pesky blog things popped up and well, by 2005 these dead tree collection seem quaint in their narrow focus on established musings. Anyone can now make their own collection of the year's "best" poems/ fiction/ essays/ blog posts/ photos. Take your blog, add a little research, a little reading, and some links and taa daa! You have something equivalent to these collections and probably a lot more personal. Of course you'll lack the professional veneer that most of these collection wear, but so it goes on the internet. [The publishing professional would like to interrupt and remind us that above all this is a quick and easy way to get some revenue. Let's not forget that the formula for these books still works in a publishing sense. So I shouldn't be so quick to discount this work. After all it's my bread and butter. And so ends my little disclaimer.] Having gotten that conflict out of the way, let's look at the latest installment of Da Capo's Best Music Writing for 2005. The series is now in its sixth year and is helmed by author JT Leroy. JT follows in the footsteps of Peter Guralnick, Nick Hornby, Jonathan Lethem, Matt Groening and Mickey Hart. The previous collections in this series have come in at around 350 pages. The galley I have for this year's collection falls a little short at only 204 pages. But this is without most of the front matter and back matter, and like it says on the galley, you should really check the finished book for the final verdict. This slimmer annual works for me. Gone is the huge centerpiece of an extremely long article on some important discovery or genius that I have completely forgotten reading by the time I finish the book. I'm grateful to the editors for keeping all the articles on the short side. It makes the reading experience much more pleasurable for the casual reader. And I do think this collection is aimed at the casual reader. Anyone who was really interested in music criticism would already be a loyal subscriber of the periodicals that originally published these pieces (Spin, New Yorker, Mojo, Rolling Stone, the Believer) as well as several other magazines and websites. Interestingly enough, there are no essays from any online magazines in either the collection or the list of other notable essays. What is in the book is death. And a whole lot of death. We have articles on the passing of John Peel and Ray Charles. We have 2 pieces that exclaim Punk is Dead (yet again). Then there's the articles on Buddy Holly, Kurt Cobain, Buddy Boland, and Arthur Love (I think, but I'm not cool enough to be in on the joke in "Revolution Blues.") Outside of death, we're left with a few articles including a revealing interview with Bob Dylan and a fascinating article on number stations (background here). Then there's the opening discussion between Ingrid Sischy and Camille Paglia that gives us a penetrating look at musicians based on their surface appearance. The remainder of the articles focus on hip hop and rap. Not actually about the music itself, but rater the response of the police, Rock Critics, and white America to rap and hip hop. That's about the closest we get to a balance in this collection. (There are 2 articles that do look past the Rock era- Robert Christagau's article on minstrelsy studies from the Believer, and Luc Sante's "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Shout" also from the Believer. But since I read the Luc Sante essay in The Rose and the Briar earlier this year I keep associating those essays with that book. Bad reviewer, bad. Focus on the task at hand, no one else read the Norton book.) This really should be the best "Rock and Pop Music Writing", since jazz, country, hip-hop and other forms of music still play second fiddle to great big God of Rock. You can forget about articles on classical, experimental or world music. They're as absent as any online writing. I know this has been an accusation that has been leveled at the series before, but it's still valid if you continue to claim the work to be a snapshot of the year in music writing. Final verdict- Mezza Mezza. I like the shorter-size as it keeps the collection moving, and I certainly think this anthology reflects the personality of the guest editor more so than previous years. But I wish the selections covered more genres and subjects. Then again there's always this here "internet" thing where I could just as easily look up these articles (and a lot more) on subjects as strange as Filk Music or something as hot as Grime (oh, just look it up on Pitchfork or Pop Matters if you don't know already). All in all, I put it solidly in the middle of the pack. It grows the franchise in new directions but still overlooks the rich resources of material.