“Carlin revisits those pivotal years [before the release of Born to Run] with a fan’s fervor and a journalist’s attention to detail.... Carlin’s prose heightens the drama of the album’s construction.... Tonight in Jungleland vividly summons the album’s struggle and its spirit.”

“Bolstered by interviews with Springsteen himself... this book thrives in exploring the hard work that preceded it. An admirably comprehensive study of a masterpiece and its creation.”

“Captivating. . . Carlin takes a fascinating look at the challenges of making an album whose success now seems inevitable, exploring what drives artists to create as well as how their relationship with their work can shift as it becomes part of popular culture. Springsteen fans should snap this up.”

“A book for fans with the voices of fans. The pleasure is much deeper than simply nostalgia. The story of R.E.M. is a reminder of who we were, and perhaps who we still hope to be.”

“Carlin brilliantly captures how a ‘spunky alternative band whose singer spoke in riddles’ became a powerhouse that brought alt rock into the mainstream. . . Vividly bringing to life the political and cultural ferment of the 1990s. . . Carlin examines how R.E.M. balanced their ‘countercultural’ ethos with the commercial appeal it brought them, touching on what it means for rock when the “rebels” become the ‘dominant culture.’ Kinetic prose elevates this perceptive portrait of one of America’s most vital bands.”

“Indie rock fans have long held up R.E.M. as a reflection and a goal: typical weird kids who found each other in art school or the aisles of a record store, old souls reborn as young punks, lovers of the American arts who tore them apart and built something fresh from the rubble. Peter Ames Carlin, one of our most thorough and insightful music biographers, recognizes the complexity of the R.E.M. story and honors it at every level: personal, musical, cultural. Longtime fans will love the deep dissections of the band’s musical process and the way Carlin weaves their story through the bigger tale of indie culture and politics in the 1980s and beyond. Newcomers will appreciate his deft perceptions of four very different personalities and the creative dynamic that produced some of the late twentieth century’s most indelible music.”

“Captivating. . . . What makes Sonic Boom so appealing is that it is actually three books in one. It’s a book about how music is made, but it’s also a book about how companies are run and then go off track. It’s also a biography of sorts of Mo Ostin.”

“Music journalist Carlin (Bruce) relays in his characteristic colorful style how music mogul Mo Ostin built Warner Bros. Records into an industry leader... Those looking for a gossipy tell-all won’t find one here; Ostin stuck with a formula, trusted and invested in his artists, took the music seriously, and honored the intelligence and taste of his customers. This brisk portrait of the man who made Warner Bros. into a powerhouse offers essential reading on the business and history of popular music.”

“A] nuanced, fascinating portrait…Carlin expertly tracks Simon’s professional career, from the earliest days with Garfunkel when they were finding their footing as performers, through the climax of their career as a band with their 1970 album ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water,’ to Simon’s solo artistic peak with the 1986 release of ‘Graceland.’ Simon’s music career defies easy categorization―much as his relationship with Garfunkel does―but in Carlin’s portrayal, his legacy as an innovative songwriter and musician is undeniable. An absorbing and layered study of ‘one of the most influential voices in Western popular culture.”

“Bruce Springsteen has been a muscular American icon for so long it’s hard to remember that he was once a scrawny kid from Nowhere, New Jersey, struggling to find his way. Peter Ames Carlin not only brings that kid into sharp focus, he connects the dots between the small-town boy and the superstar he became, in all his memorable incarnations—boardwalk poet, working-class hero, middle-aged philosopher, rock and roll evangelist, political activist. This is the big, expansive biography Bruce’s fans have been waiting for.”

“As he did with his superb biography of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Peter Ames Carlin has done it again. His biography of Paul McCartney has the same keen insights, the same flowing prose, the same crisp narrative. What emerges is a full-blown portrait of one of our greatest icons and enigmas. If there is anyone who writes about modern musicians better than Carlin does, I don’t know who it could possibly be.”

“The Beach Boys in Peter Arnes Carlin’s Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of Brian Wilson (Rodale Press): Great evocations of a great musician and the pop group he built, via great prose: ‘’As in our fantasies of America, what matters about a person in a Beach Boys song has nothing to do with who he or she is, and everything to do with the strength of their ambition and the things he or she chooses to do with it. This same message plays out across all cultural and racial lines in ‘Surfin USA,’ and it’s just as vivid in ‘The Girls on the Beach,’ where, as they repeat in the chorus, the young lovelies are ‘all within reach.’ That promise” extended in the warm, jazzy harmonies Brian cribbed from the Four Freshmen, who found them in the big band arrangements of Stan Kenton and Duke Ellington had as much to do with social opportunity as sex.”