Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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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

Rock & Roll &: Dad-Rock Makes a Stand

New Rock & Roll & column at Barnes & Noble Review:

This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Odds and Ends 003:
    • Canibus: C of Tranquility (iM) ***
    • Scroobius Pip: Distraction Pieces (Strange Famous) ***
    • Del the Funky Homosapien: Golden Era (The Council) ***
    • Murs: Love and Rockets Vol 1: The Transformation (DD172/Bluroc) **
    • Open Mike Eagle: Unapologetic Art Rap (Mush) **
    • Awol One & Factor: The Landmark (Fake Four) **
    • Lupe Fiasco: Lasers (Atlantic) *
    • Pharoahe Monch: W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) (W.A.R. Media/Duck Down Music Inc.)
  • Piano Blues/19 Classic Blues Songs From the 1920s:
    • Piano Blues: A Film by Clint Eastwood (Columbia/Legacy '03) A
    • 19 Classic Blues Songs From the 1920's: Vol. 9 (Blues Images) A-
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

Rock & Roll &: Dark Night of the Quants

New Rock & Roll & column at Barnes & Noble Review: Dark Night of the Quants: Ten books on banking:

  • Michael Lewis, The Big Short
  • John Lanchester, I.O.U.
  • Ha-Joon Chang, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism
  • Richard Posner, A Failure of Capitalism
  • Matt Taibbi, Griftopia
  • Robert Scheer, The Great American Stickup
  • Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner, Reckless Endangerment
  • Danny Schechter, The Crime of Our Time
  • Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, All the Devils Are Here
  • Henry M. Paulson, Jr., On the Brink
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Rihanna/David Guetta:
    • Rihanna: Talk That Talk (Deluxe Edition) (Def Jam) A-
    • David Guetta: Nothing but the Beat (Astralwerks/Capitol) B+
  • Bachata Roja/Vijana Jazz Band:
    • Bachata Roja: Amor y Amargue (iASO) A-
    • Vijana Jazz Band: The Koka Koka Sex Battalion: Rumba, Koka Koka & Kamata Sukuma: Music From Tanzania 1975-1980 (Sterns) B+
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

Update Notes

Update today: Consumer Guide database up to date, new articles (or at least stubs), new old articles, better cross-references. For details, see:

This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

Also of interest:

This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Pietra Montecorvino/The Sway Machinery:
    • Pietra Montecorvino: Napoli Mediterranea (Taranta Power/Rai Trade) A-
    • The Sway Machinery: The House of Friendly Ghosts, Vol. 1: Featuring Khaira Arby (JDub) B+
  • Tom Waits/Pusha T:
    • Tom Waits: Bad as Me (Anti-) A-
    • Pusha T: Fear of God II: Let Us Pray (GOOD/Decon/Re-Up Gang) A-

Also new, in The New York Times' Sunday Book Review:

This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • 40 Odd Years:
    • Loudon Wainwright III: 40 Odd Years (Shout Factory)
  • Mates of State:
    • Mates of State: Team Boo (Polyvinyl '03) B+
    • Mates of State: Re-Arrange Us (Barsuk '08) A-

Also new, in The New York Times' Sunday Book Review:

  • Enthusiasms: review of Jonathan Lethem's The Ecstasy of Influence
Rock & Roll &: Pioneer Days

New Rock & Roll & column at Barnes & Noble Review:

This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Wussy:
    • Wussy: Strawberry (Shake It) A
    • Wussy: Funeral Dress II (Shake It) A
  • Odds and Ends 002:
    • Wilco: The Whole Love (Anti-) ***
    • The Mountain Goats: All Eternals Deck (Merge) ***
    • Radiohead: The King of Limbs (XL/TBD) **
    • Comet Gain: Howl of the Lonely Crowd (What's Your Rupture?) **
    • Giant Sand: Blurry Blue Mountain (Fire) **
    • Faust: Something Dirty (Bureau) **
    • Wire: Red Barked Tree (Pink Flag) **
    • New York Dolls: Dancing Backwards in High Heels (429) *
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Mayer Hawthorne/J. Cole:
    • Mayer Hawthorne: How Do You Do (Universal Republic) A-
    • J. Cole: Cole World: The Sideline Story (Roc Nation/Columbia) B+
  • Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton/Nils Petter Molvaer:
    • Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton: Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play the Blues: Live From Jazz at Lincoln Center (Reprise Jazz) A-
    • Nils Petter Molvaer: Baboon Moon (Thirsty Ear) A-
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Odds and Ends 001:
    • Ruth Gerson: Deceived (Wrong) ***
    • Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs: No Help Coming (Transdreamer) ***
    • Jonny Corndawg: Down on the Bikini Line (Nasty Memories) ***
    • Amy LaVere: Stranger Me (Archer) ***
    • Rod Picott: Welding Burns (Welding Rod) **
    • Blake Shelton: Red River Blue (Warner Bros.) **
    • Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside: Dirty Radio (Partisan) **
    • Martina McBride: Eleven (Republic Nashville) *
  • Deer Tick/Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams:
    • Deer Tick: Divine Providence (Partisan) A-
    • The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams (Egyptian/CMF/Columbia) B+
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Ian Dury and the Blockheads/B-52s:
    • Ian Dury and the Blockheads: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll: The Best of Ian Dury and the Blockheads (Rhino '92) A
    • The B-52s: With the Wild Crowd! (Eagle) A-
  • Jeffrey Lewis/Kimya Dawson:
    • Jeffrey Lewis: A Turn in the Dream-Songs (Rough Trade) A-
    • Kimya Dawson: Thunder Thighs (Great Crap Factory) B+
This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

Also new on NPR:

This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Radioclit/BLNRB:
    • Radioclit Presents: The Sound of Club Secousse Vol. 1 (Crammed Discs) B+
    • BLNRB: Welcome to the Madhouse (Out Here) A-
  • Ry Cooder/Note of Hope:
    • Ry Cooder: Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (Nonesuch) A-
    • Note of Hope (429) A-

Also new on NPR:

This Week in Expert Witness

New posts this week in Robert Christgau's Expert Witness blog:

  • Jens Lekman/Fruit Bats:
    • Jens Lekman: An Argument With Myself (Secretly Canadian) A
    • Fruit Bats: Tripper (Sub Pop) A-
  • Das Racist/Ice Cube:
    • Das Racist: Relax (Greedhead) A
    • Ice Cube: The Essentials (Priority '08) A-

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