One of the first things I did when I received Sex Between the Beats was to listen to the CD since I was hoping to use it with my lover to enhance our sexual passion. Being the impatient one, I popped it into my CD player while I was driving to work.

While my usual experience of driving is one of hustle and bustle with a dizzying array of ads and fast rock on the radio, listening to this new erotic, slow-paced CD definitely put me into a more relaxed state of mind. I began thinking about making passionate love to my partner, which was difficult given that I was only driving to work.

A few days later, I asked my lover to listen to it while I gave her a sensual massage. Her opinion was entirely different. She described it as a “soundtrack to a D-rated soft porn movie.” We only got through a couple of songs before the CD was returned to me, never to be requested again. Although I do have to say, however, it started an engaging dialogue about which songs and albums we each thought were sexy and helped us get in the mood.

As for the book itself, the first half was dedicated to convincing me as the reader how music plays a prime importance in regulating all our feelings and emotions, including sexual ones. With the exception of an interesting activity called the Three Minute Sensuality Test where you compare your fantasy with and without erotic music plus some other nuggets of musical wisdom, most of the chapters could best be described as fluff. While the author did make a valiant effort to convince me of the importance of music, it just didn’t grab my attention. I already know inherently music can change moods, and I felt it was unnecessary to read 60 pages to convince me of the same thing.

The last half of the book, unfortunately, was not much better than the first. Unless you are a music fanatic and enjoy studying the subject in depth for its own sake, you might not get a lot out of it. The book went into topics such as entrainment, syncopation, and rhythm. While I’m sure these subjects might be fascinating to some, again, these types of topics just didn’t hold my personal interest.

  There were a few parts of the book I enjoyed. For example, there was a chapter about men and women’s arousal patterns. Being the insatiable lesbian that I am, the women’s arousal cycle gave me an interesting insight into how a woman goes from her ordinary, everyday feeling to a state of complete emotional and physical ecstasy. The chapter on engaging the senses was also helpful, giving me ideas on how to turn on my lover and bring her to a new erotic level, using taste, smell, touch, etc.

The chapter I enjoyed most was the author retelling how he became a DJ for a notorious sex club in L.A. I wish this one had been longer than two pages. It was fascinating to read his story.

I thought the appendix was the most helpful part of the book. While only six and a half pages long, it suggested various songs and albums that could be used to set up a romantic scene ‘Outside the Bedroom’ all the way to the ‘Afterglow.’ I wish this section could have been made into a major part of the book rather than simply an afterthought.

Speaking for myself, the hardest part of getting the music just right for a night of sexual bliss is keeping it sexy yet still fresh. A more thorough list to choose from would have been wonderful. The author also made a plug for his own site, Blush Records, and while a review of that site is outside the scope of this review, it might be worth a listen since everyone’s musical tastes vary.

Overall, while there were some helpful nuggets of musical wisdom, I can’t see myself buying this book. If you’re an in depth music enthusiast, you might want to check it out, but as for me, I’m going to keep shopping.