Vital Signs: Music, Movies, and Other Manias

Alongside Greil Marcus, Nick Kent, and Lester Bangs, Ian Penman is one of the most important cultural critics of his generation. He had his first review published in the New Musical Express in 1977, and Britain's leading music paper then embarked upon its most glamorous era, with Penman its star writer. Perming Barthes with dub, drink, and Walter Benjamin, Penman achieved something few music writers even dream of -- he changed the way the subject was written about.