And It Don't Stop on Substack
Robert Christgau's newsletter And It Don't Stop
appears three (or four) times a month on Substack. Subscribe
here.
Robert Christgau's Big-Hearted Theory of Pop
Book Reports features reviews of not only the pop-music
tomes you'd predict but also literary fiction, Marxist-adjacent
cultural commentary, feminist debates over pornography, and even books
about the past decade's financial crisis. It follows a collection that
Christgau published last year, Is It Still Good to Ya? Fifty Years
of Rock Criticism, 1967-2017, which includes Christgau's takes on,
among many other things, classic rock, Kanye West, the music of Desert
Storm, Lollapalooza, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and so-called guilty
pleasures--a category that Christgau rejects, since, for rock critics,
as he puts it, "pleasure is where meaning begins." Together, these
collections make the sneaky case that Christgau is not just the Dean
of American Rock Critics, his self-awarded and perhaps slightly
off-putting nickname, but one of America's
sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly
one of its most influential--not to mention one of the better stylists
in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why.
--David Cantwell, The New Yorker
News
This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Iris DeMent/Carolyn Mark:
- Iris DeMent: Sing the Delta (Flariella) A-
- Carolyn Mark: The Queen of Vancouver (Mint) A-
- Odds and Ends 016:
- The Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo Magellan (Domino) ***
- The D.A.: You Kids! (self-released) ***
- Leland Sundries: The Foundry EP (L'Echiquier) **
- The Soft Pack: Strapped (Mexican Summer) **
- Carolina Chocolate Drops: Leaving Eden (Nonesuch) **
- Swearin': Swearin' (Salinas) **
- The Very Best: MTMTMK (Moshi Moshi)*
- Phineas and the Lonely Leaves: The Kids We Used to Be (lonelyleaves.com) *
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-10-05] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-09-28] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- P.S. Eliot:
- P.S. Eliot: Sadie (Salinas) A-
- P.S. Eliot: Introverted Romance in Our Troubled Minds (Salinas) B+
- Patterson Hood/Dylan Hicks:
- Patterson Hood: Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance (ATO) B+
- Dylan Hicks: Sings Bolling Greene (Two Deuces) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-09-21] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-09-14] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
Also at Barnes and Noble Review:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-09-07] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Odds and Ends 015:
- Lyrics Born: As U Were (Decon) ***
- Nas: Life Is Good (Def Jam) ***
- Big K.R.I.T.: K.R.I.T. Wuz Here (Green Streets Entertainment download) ***
- Bang On!: [Sic] (Big Dada) **
- Radioinactive: The Akashic Record (Flying Carpet Studios download) **
- Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music (Williams Street) **
- Azealia Banks: Fantasea (free download) **
- Big K.R.I.T.: Live From the Underground (Def Jam) *
- Ab-Soul/Kendrick Lamar:
- Ab-Soul: Control System (Top Dawg download) A-
- Kendrick Lamar: Section.80 (Top Dawg download) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-08-31] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Elle Varner/Saint Etienne:
- Elle Varner: Perfectly Imperfect (RCA) A-
- Saint Etienne: Travel Edition 1990-2005 (Sub Pop '04) A-
- Ry Cooder/Serengeti:
- Ry Cooder: Election Special (Nonesuch/Perro Verde) B+
- Serengeti: C.A.R. (Anticon) A-
Also at Barnes and Noble Review:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-08-24] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Bessie Smith/Men Are Like Streetcars:
- Bessie Smith: The Essential Bessie Smith (Columbia '97) A-
- Men Are Like Streetcars . . . Women Blues Singers 1928-1969 (MCA '99) A-
- Ma Rainey:
- Ma Rainey: Heroes of the Blues: The Very Best of Ma Rainey (Shout Factory '03) A-
- Ma Rainey: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Yazoo '91) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-08-17] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Odds and Ends 014:
- Guelewar: Halleli N'Dakarou (Teranga Beat) ***
- Koo Nimo: Highlife Roots Revival (Riverboat) ***
- The Rough Guide to African Roots Revival (World Music Network) ***
- Cheikh Lô: Jamm (World Circuit/Nonesuch) **
- Spoek Mathambo: Nombolo One (Motel11 download) **
- I Have My Liberty!: Gospel Sounds From Accra, Ghana (Dust-to-Digital) *
- Sibiri Samaké: Dambe Foli: Bamana Hunters Music (Kanaga System Krush) *
- The Funkees: Dancing Time (Soundway) *
- Linkoban/Owiny Sigoma Band:
- Linkoban: Super Into On It (Super Billion) A-
- Owiny Sigoma Band: Owiny Sigoma Band (Brownwood) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-08-10] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Chuck Berry:
- Chuck Berry: The Chess Box (Chess '88) A
- Chuck Berry: The Definitive Collection (Geffen/Chess '06) A+
- Orchestra Baobab:
- Orchestra Baobab: La Belle Époque: Volume 2 1973-1976 (Syllart) A-
- Orchestra Baobab: La Belle Époque 1971-1977 (Syllart) B+
Also at MSN Music:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-08-03] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Khaira Arby:
- Khaira Arby: Timbuktu Tarab (Clermont Music) B+
- Khaira Arby: Tchini Tchini (Clermont Music) A-
- Fiona Apple/Regina Spektor:
- Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Ever Do (Epic) A-
- Regina Spektor: What We Saw From the Cheap Seats (Sire) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-07-27] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-07-20] New Pieces
New pieces by Robert Christgau:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-07-18] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Blind Willie Johnson/Tommy Johnson:
- Blind Willie Johnson: The Complete Blind Willie Johnson (Columbia/Legacy '93) A
- Tommy Johnson: Essential Blues Masters (Goldenlane '09) B+
- Odds and Ends 013:
- Clams Casino: Rainforest (Tri Angle) ***
- Sao Paulo Underground: Três Cabeças Loucuras (Cuneiform) ***
- Jazz Punks: Smashups (Foam @ the Mouth) ***
- Cut Chemist: Sound of the Police (A Stable Sound/Soul Kitchen) ***
- Supreme Cuts: Whispers in the Dark (Dovecote) **
- The Dirty Dozen Brass Band: Twenty Dozen (Savoy Jazz) **
- Paolo Fresu & Omar Sosa: Alma (Otá) **
- Fernando Otero: Vital (World Village) *
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-07-13] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-07-06] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-06-29] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Azealia Banks/Rye Rye:
- Azealia Banks: 1991 (Interscope) A
- Rye Rye: Go! Pop! Bang! (Deluxe Edition) (N.E.E.T./Interscope) B+
- Odds and Ends 012:
- Diamond Rugs: Diamond Rugs (Partisan) ***
- The Obits: "Moody, Standard and Poor" (Sub Pop) ***
- Wavves: Life Sux (Ghost Ramp) ***
- The Rapture: In the Grace of Your Love (DFA) ***
- Herzog: Cartoon Violence (Exit Stencil) **
- Surfer Blood: Tarot Classics (Kanine) **
- Art Brut: Brilliant! Tragic! (The End/Cooking Vinyl) **
- The Front Bottoms: The Front Bottoms (Bar/None) *
Also at Barnes and Noble Review:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-06-22] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Odds and Ends 011:
- Otis Taylor: Otis Taylor's Contraband (Telarc) ***
- Ahmad Zahir: Hip 70s Afghan Beats! (Guerssen) ***
- Gregg Allman: Low country Blues (Rounder) **
- William Michael Dillon: Black Robes and Lawyers (Flying Free) **
- Stephen David Austin: A Bakersfield Dozen (StephenDavidAustin.com) **
- Waco Brothers & Paul Burch: Great Chicago Fire (Bloodshot) *
- Jimmie Vaughan: Plays Blues, Ballads & Favorites (Shout! Factory) *
- Jerry Lee Lewis: Mean Old Man (Verve Forecast) *
- Neil Young With Crazy Horse/Rhett Miller:
- Neil Young With Crazy Horse: Americana (Reprise) A
- Rhett Miller: The Dreamer (Maximum Sunshine) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-06-15] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Francis Bebey/Joan Soriano:
- Francis Bebey: African Electronic Music 1975-1982 (Born Bad) A-
- Joan Soriano: La Familia Soriano (iASO) B+
- Plug/Seefeel:
- Plug: Back on Time (Ninja Tune) A-
- Seefeel: Seefeel (Warp) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-06-08] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2012-06-01] Most Recent -- More Recent -- More Ancient
More Information
|
RSS