Easy-Listening Acid Trip

[Lanza] examines how the exponents of easy-listening - producers, conductors, arrangers - adapted to the challenges presented by the musical currents of psychedelia to offer their listeners an over-the-counter version of psychedelia's already synesthetic rapture. The book is full of smart analogies and turns of phrases like this that help explain and contextualize the paradox of psychedelic easy-listening. - Ugly Things magazine If you've ever read any of Lanza's cultural history lessons, you know to expect a heavily researched, but breezy tour filled with incredible sights -- in this case, full-color album art every few pages, potentially hallucinogenic and definitely addicting. -- Bookgasm.com Easy-Listening Acid Trip: An Elevator Ride Through '60s Psychedelic Pop... is a cousin to Joseph's 1994 classic Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong, which went a long way in transforming the public's understanding and appreciation of various ignored music categories. - Music Journalism Insider Lanza's new work explores what happened when MOR and orchestral artists like Mike Curb, The Hollyridge Strings, 101 Strings, and James Last turned their attentions to the pop, rock, and psych hits of the era. - Shindig magazine Elevator Music is a fascinating tour of the sonic inferno we all unconsciously inhabit. ---J. G. Ballard, author of Crash and Empire of the Sun Lanza takes background music seriously as both music and social utility. In doing so, he's written one of the few pop-history books that won't put you to sleep - not to mention the only one that dares to probe the very real connections between shopping-mall music and Devo. --Entertainment Weekly Snobby musicologists ignore this fascinating topic, but I learned a lot while being well-entertained by Lanza's delightful book. --Wendy Carlos, composer, soundtracks for A Clockwork Orange and The Shining