In this engaging and lucidly written book, Dale Purves makes the important case that we can never fully understand music and the way it affects us without understanding its ecological context and origins. These, he argues, lie in human vocal communication, with the characteristics of music and our reactions to them having been shaped by natural selection. This perspective, supported by a concisely marshaled battery of evidence, is a timely complement to evolutionary approaches to the origins of music and should stimulate valuable debate and research.–Iain Morley, University of Oxford