FILTER BOOKS
Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence
★★★★
Will Hodgkinson
NINE EIGHT. £22
Portrait of ex-Felt/Denim one-off.
Rock books often promise to be candid and brutal, but chicken out. Not so here. Over 12 months as Boswell to living artwork/hyper-aesthete Lawrence, confidante Hodgkinson trudged the street markets of outer London to bear witness to a life’s journey, entwining comedy and misfortune at every step. Along the way Lawrence tuts and protests too much on subjects including his profound love of pop music, ambition, addiction, old companions (ex-girlfriend Vikki V-Sign recalls their seven-year association as “dreadful, dreadful, dreadful”) and his gigantic marble bust. The latter is a useful metaphor: though rife with contradictions – Hodgkinson grits his teeth on occasion at his subject’s wilful ways – Lawrence is an artist who’s never compromised on the promise, however mindbending it may be squaring the gravity and delicacy of peak Felt with the current Lidl-jingle derangement of Mozart Estate. The pop star austerity Britain needs, if only it knew.
Ian Harrison
Never Understood
David Tonge/Getty Images
★★★★
William & Jim Reid
WHITE RABBIT. £25