Tonight the Music Seems So Loud: The Meaning of George Michael Author: Sathnam Sanghera ISBN-13: 978-1035063871Publisher: PicadorGuideline Price: £22Since childhood, Sathnam Sanghera has been a George Michael superfan – a trait that was once met a mix of curiosity and ridicule from his peers. To many straight young men, teen pop (Michael’s Wham! years) and adult contemporary (his solo oeuvre) were not exactly fashionable genres, particularly when being performed by an artist who was a constant victim of homophobic tabloid ridicule.In death, Michael’s legacy as a pop legend and British national treasure has been written in stone. Still, Sanghera, best known as a relentless critic of empire, finds his attention turned by a feeling that there has never been a serious examination of George Michael the music-maker. “The obsession with his biography continues to blind people to his talent today,” he writes. Sanghera’s solution is Tonight the Music Seems So Loud: The Meaning of George Michael, a revelatory portrait of a great artist, pop culture icon and complicated man.[ Una Mullally on George Michael: A gay man devoid of shameOpens in new window ]This desire to get to the heart of Michael’s artistry begins simply enough: An early chapter is solely dedicated to the enduring ballad Careless Whisper. More challenging is the examination of Michael’s presence in music that’s considered black culture (“You mean George is white? Are you serious?” once joked Stevie Wonder) and his mysterious ability to write and arrange classic music while rarely being seen with an instrument.Sanghera’s analysis is sharp and smart, but the writer also brings his own light touch, comfortably veering between analysis and first-person narrative. He also lingers on issues from outside the studio, such as Michael’s personal journey from closeted teen girl pin-up to gay icon. This journey, both internally and publicly, proved a fraught and tangled narrative that no Hollywood biopic can capture neatly, but pursued now by Sanghera with appropriate care and nuance.[ George Michael: Quiet philanthropist who helped thousandsOpens in new window ]A perfectionist, George Michael would painstakingly go through photographs of himself for the rare shots that met his standards. Every frame of his music videos would be pored over with painstaking precision. In the studio, Michael would sometimes lay down his vocals syllable by syllable, ensuring every note sounded exactly as it should. Though his prose may bear a sense of levity, Sanghera is appropriately trenchant in his pursuit of the star. There are more discoveries in Tonight the Music Seems So Loud than 1,000 shameless tabloid journalists could ever dream of showing. Dean Van Nguyen is an author and critic