Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Shop small, give big!
With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.
Start gifting
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Sign up todayPerfect Sound Whatever
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreBookseller recommendation
“Up there with some of the best music journalism of recent memory. James Acaster is a joker, but as well as being a big name in comedy, he's an avid musician. Perfect Sound Whatever shows just how deeply he loves and thinks about music - and I'm almost ready to go with him on his theory that 2016 is the greatest year for music of all time because some of the albums he lists that I'd never heard of have gone into frequent rotation since. Acaster's accompanying podcast of the same name delves into albums he couldn't squeeze into this book and is well worth a listen once you've finished this. ”
— Stacey • Dorothy Brown's
The brand new memoir from James Acaster: cult comedian, bestselling author of Classic Scrapes, undercover cop, receiver of cabbages.
PERFECT SOUND WHATEVER is a love letter to the healing power of music, and how one man's obsessive quest saw him defeat the bullshit of one year with the beauty of another. Because that one man is James Acaster, it also includes tales of befouling himself in a Los Angeles steakhouse, stealing a cookie from Clint Eastwood, and giving drunk, unsolicited pep talks to urinating strangers.
January, 2017
James Acaster wakes up heartbroken and alone in New York, his relationship over, a day of disastrous meetings leading him to wonder if comedy is really what he wants to be doing any more.
A constant comfort in James's life has been music, but he's not listened to anything new for a very long time. Idly browsing 'best of the year' lists, it dawns on him that 2016 may have been a grim year for a lot of reasons, but that it seemed to be an iconic year for music. And so begins a life-changing musical odyssey, as James finds himself desperately seeking solace in the music of 2016, setting himself the task of only listening to music released that year, ending up with 500 albums in his collection.
Looking back on this year-long obsession, parallels begin to grow between the music and James's own life: his relationship history, the highs and lows of human connection, residual Christian guilt, and mental health issues that have been bubbling under the surface for years. Some albums are life-changing masterpieces, others are 'Howdilly Doodilly' by Okilly Dokilly, a metalcore album devoted to The Simpsons' character Ned Flanders, but all of them play a part the year that helped James Acaster get his life back on track.
James Acaster is an award-winning stand-up comedian and the author of three Sunday Times bestselling books. In 2018, James released his four-part Netflix stand-up collection, Repertoire. A year later he completed a mammoth tour of his hugely successful show, Cold Lasagne hate Myself 1999, around the UK, Australia and America. His podcast Off Menu, which he hosts with Ed Gamble, is a regular in the Apple top 10 list.
James Acaster is an award-winning stand-up comedian and the author of three Sunday Times bestselling books. In 2018, James released his four-part Netflix stand-up collection, Repertoire. A year later he completed a mammoth tour of his hugely successful show, Cold Lasagne hate Myself 1999, around the UK, Australia and America. His podcast Off Menu, which he hosts with Ed Gamble, is a regular in the Apple top 10 list.
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores!
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks