Rachel's brilliant tome is as far from the snotty, gossipy stereotype of music journalism as it's possible to get. These 23 interviews dig beneath pop's sheen to uncover the inspiration and techniques of key British songwriters, arranged chronologically from Ray Davies to Laura Marling.

His style is respectful (he writes generously about parts of the careers of Sting and Oasis that many would consider best left forgotten) but never bland. Instead, the introductions, and the questions that follow, reveal real insight. The interviewees mostly respond in kind, and we get Jimmy Page on riffs, Joan Armatrading on piano v guitar, John Lydon on rhyming couplets, Jarvis Cocker on coloured notebooks and Lily Allen on swearing. Some high-profile faces (including the Beatles, the Stones and Bowie) are missing, but it's testament to the book's success that you feel they are the ones who missed out. The subject here is "classic" songwriting, and there's a disappointing lack of dance music or hip-hop. Isle of Noises may not have much to say about pop's more recent incarnations, it's one hell of a look back.

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