RSSXgau Sez
Robert Christgau published his Xgau Sez question & answer forum, as part of his subscription newsletter, And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-01-15]
Two new essay collections, published by Duke University Press
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
And It Don't Stop
Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide continues beyond its 50th anniversary in his subscriber-supported newsletter, And It Don't Stop. Read about it, sample the merchandise, and subscribe.
News
Consumer Guide
Robert Christgau published his Consumer Guide: January, 2020, with thirteen reviews, including an old Otis Spann. This is part of his subscription newsletter, And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-01-08]
And It Don't Stop
Recent post on Robert Christgau's And It Don't Stop subscription newsletter:
- Lock Him Up: review of Jim DeRogatis: Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly.
Also look for Christgau's interview by Ted Panken: Still Good to Him: Robert Christgau on a Life of Writing about Listening.
[posted by Webmaster on 2020-01-05]
And It Don't Stop
Several recent posts on Robert Christgau's And It Don't Stop subscription newsletter:
- Dean's List: The 2010s: The 25 best albums of the last 10 years.
- Xgau Sez: In praise of differenter things, suggestive titles and (relatively) unmediated aesthetic pleasure.
- Playing With (and Burying) the Big Boys: The Clash's London Calling at 40.
- Consumer Guide: December, 2019
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-12-23]
Consumer Guide
Robert Christgau published his Consumer Guide: December, 2019, with fourteen reviews, including an old Armstrong-Ellington date. This is part of his subscription newsletter, And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-12-11]
XgauSez
Robert Christgau has added a public post to his And It Don't Stop subscription newsletter: The Swashbuckler, on Dave Hickey's 2017 book Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy.
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-11-27]
XgauSez
Robert Christgau published his now-monthly XgauSez q&a section. This is a free (public) post, one you would have seen first as a subscriber to his newsletter, And It Don't Stop. This, like all of XgauSez, is archived here.
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-11-20]
Consumer Guide
Robert Christgau published his Consumer Guide: November, 2019, with thirteen reviews, including a couple of oldies. This is part of his subscription newsletter, And It Don't Stop.
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-11-13]
Book Review
Robert Christgau wrote a review of Ted Gioia's Music: A Subversive History at Los Angeles Times.
Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide: October, 2019 was published through his And It Don't Stop subscription newsletter.
Robert Christgau's now-monthly Xgau Sez questions and answers column was also published through And It Don't Stop, where it is a public post. It is also belatedly archived in the usual place.
Another recent public post is A Dot of Iowa Blue.
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-10-28]
Consumer Guide, September 2019
Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide: September, 2019 has been published through his Substack subscription newsletter, And It Don't Stop. The records reviewed are:
- Charlotte Adigéry: Zandozi (Deewee) ***
- Hayes Carll: What It Is (Dualtone) B+
- The Daisy Age (Ace) A+
- Lana Del Rey: Norman Fucking Rockwell! (Interscope) ***
- Lost in China (Riverboat) B+
- Madonna: Madame X (Interscope) A-
- The National: I Am Easy to Find (4AD) A-
- The Paranoid Style: A Goddamn Impossible Way of Life (Bar/None) A
- Pink: Hurts 2 B Human (RCA) **
- 75 Dollar Bill: I Was Real (Glitterbeat/Tak:til) A-
- Bruce Springsteen: Western Stars (Columbia) *
- Taylor Swift: Lover (Republic) A-
Public posts will always be freely available at the above link, and Christgau intends to write more as he likes (e.g., There's Always Music in This Joint, on Rich Krueger), but future monthly Consumer Guides will be subscription only. To subscribe, go here.
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-09-18]
XgauSez
Robert Christgau answers a new batch of reader questions in XgauSez.
Robert Christgau's first monthly batch of new Consumer Guide reviews will appear in his Substack-based newsletter, And It Don't Stop, Wednesday morning. To get these reviews delivered to your mailbox, sign up for a subscription and help support Christgau's unique, far-reaching reviews of extraordinary new music ($5/month).
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-09-17]
And It Don't Stop
Robert Christgau announced (via Twitter):
ANNOUNCING--you know I care if I stoop to all-caps--And It Don't Stop, iteration who-can-count of my commercial staple, the graded album capsule. It will cost ya or it won't happen, but not quite yet. You know I care if I say retweets appreciated.
In email, Christgau wrote:
I just announced the launch of a Substack blog called And It Don't Stop. There was a glitch with the subscription details at first, but it's been fixed. Basic deal is $5/month for CG capsules, everything else--at the very least a book brief, often other stuff too--free.
Link to And It Don't Stop: Music. Books. Politics. Old Age.
Link to intro: It's a Start.
Robert Christgau also write a book review of Nicholas Lemann's Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream: To Bust You Shall Return.
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-09-12]
XgauSez
New batch of XgauSez questions and answers.
The Consumer Guide database has been updated to include the final Expert Witness reviews written for Noisey. The review-by-date list is here. Here's a list of 2019 albums. The current stats show 17271 albums from 7553 artists on 3347 labels, with 15212 reviews.
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-08-21]
XgauSez
New article by Robert Christgau:
Also recently added to the website:
- Who the Fuck Knows: Covering Music in Drumpfjahr II: from Paris Review, May 2, 2017.
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-08-14]
Expert Witness: Robert Christgau Reviews Nicki Minaj's 'Queen'
New in Expert Witness:
- Desaparecidos: Payola (Epitaph) A-
- Nicki Minaj: Queen (Young Money/Cash Money/Republic) A-
- Mekons: Deserted (Bloodshot) ***
- Kristi Stassinopoulou & Stathis Kalyviotis: NYN (Riverboat) ***
- Western Centuries: Songs From the Deluge (Free Dirt) ***
- Wreckless Eric: Transience (Southern Domestic) ***
- Better Oblivion Community Center: Better Oblivion Community Center (Dead Oceans) **
- Robert Cray: Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm (Jay-Vee) *
After this column was posted, Christgau tweeted:
I do this for money as well as love. So just in case this is the last Expert Witness not just at Noisey, which I'm sad to announce it is, but anywhere, it sticks to albums I'm way late on and albums I wanted to be sure to weigh in on. Enjoy. Consume, even.
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-06-28]
Expert Witness: Robert Christgau Reviews Charly Bliss' 'Young Enough'
New in Expert Witness:
- Chai: Punk (Burger) A-
- Charly Bliss: Young Enough (Barsuk) A-
- Tacocat: This Mess Is a Place (Hardly Art) **
- Abjects: Never Give Up (Yippee Ki Yay) **
- Drinking Boys and Girls Choir: Keep Drinking (Damnably) **
- Pup: Morbid Stuff (Little Dipper) *
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-06-21]
Expert Witness: Lizzo's Casual Confidence
New in Expert Witness:
- Lewis Capaldi: Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (Capitol) A-
- Lizzo: Cuz I Love You (Atlantic/Nice Life) A-
- Kevin Abstract: Arizona Baby (Question Everything, Inc./RCA) ***
- Lizzo: Coconut Oil (Atlantic/Nice Life) **
[posted by Webmaster on 2019-06-14]