Note: Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and author Chris DeVille for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

The age of Indie Rock was a little past my time, although any of the bands author Chris DeVille talks about in his book Such Great Heights are somewhat familiar to me. Some of them had popular songs that garnered a lot of radio airplay over the years while others had a lot of buzz around the music industry. I’d argue that real Indie Rock didn’t happen until after the age of Napster, when file sharing and the internet forced the record industry to change.

DeVille does a good job charting the origins of Indie Rock all the way back to the 1970s, really, where punk and alternative musicians managed to have an impact without a record label. However, I’d argue that real Indie Rock came in the age of the Internet, where it became much easier for bands to reach fans without a recording contract. He does talk about this phenomenon and gives credit where it’s due to MySpace, which had a huge impact on musicians in the early 2000s. He also credits some of the television shows of the era, which embraced Indie Rock for their soundtracks, with giving these artists a big boost.

Indie Rock was what DeVille had during his teenage years. I can understand that since I am partial to the music I grew up with in my teenage years. Many of the bands he chronicles are familiar to me, and many are not. The depth to which he discusses each band is pretty good for a book that’s not specifically about each of these bands. After reading this, a lot of the music of the Indie Rock era that I paid little attention to sounds much more intriguing to me.

I have to admit that, as someone who did not gravitate to Indie Rock, I had a hard time following the book. The bands weren’t names I instantly knew, and I think that will affect the reader’s enjoyment of the book. I think Such Great Heights will appeal mostly to people who were followers of the bands in this era. DeVille’s love of this music is catching, as it helped me decide to give the bands he talked about another chance.