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:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-08-16] Website Moved We've moved the website to a new server. The new service plan eliminates
disk quotas, which have caused us problems in the past. It also promises
fewer bandwidth restrictions, and at least initially seems to be running
on a faster machine, so response should be improved.
The move involves a migration to (much) more recent software revisions,
especially of the PHP scripting language and the MySQL database. Among
other things, that means some things may break. We're not seeing much
wrong at this point, but this is a pretty large site so it is impossible
to recheck everything. If you see anything wrong, please send email to
webmaster at robertchristgau.com and we'll look into it.
For now, some changes:
- In the left nav box, "Last CG" has been removed. It no longer links
to anything useful.
- In the left nav box, "Text Search" has been removed. This is probably
temporary, but it depends on some underlying technology that hasn't been
ported yet. "Google Search" still allows you to search for text inside
articles, using Google's search engine.
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-08-14] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Turn Around Bright Eyes:
- Rob Sheffield: Turn Around Bright Eyes: The Rituals of Love & Karaoke (It Books)
- Hailu Mergia/Spoek Mathambo:
- Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument: Shemonmuanay (Awesome Tapes From Africa) A-
- Spoek Mathambo: Escape From '85 (free download) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-08-09] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Odds and Ends 034:
- Shemekia Copeland: 33 1/3 (Telarc) ***
- Tricky: False Idols (!K7) ***
- Moby: Destroyed (Mute) ***
- David Murray Infinity Quartet: Be My Monster Love (Motema) **
- LL Cool J: Authentic (429) **
- Big Boi/Killer Mike: Trackstar the DJ Presents the Shoes for Running Tour Mixtape (free Trackstar download) **
- Iggy and the Stooges: Ready to Die (Fat Possum) **
- John Fogerty: Wrote a Song for Everyone (Vanguard) *
- Gogol Bordello:
- Gogol Bordello: Pura Vida Conspiracy (ATO) A
- Gogol Bordello: Multi Kontra Culti Vs. Irony (Rubric '02) A-
Also at Barnes and Noble Review:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-05-03] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Lil Green/Dionne Warwick:
- Lil Green: Why Don't You Do Right? 1940-1942 (Historic '96) B+
- Dionne Warwick: The Dionne Warwick Collection: Her All-Time Greatest Hits (Rhino '89) A
- Odds and Ends 033:
- Bettie Serveert: Oh, Mayhem! (Second Motion) ***
- Mariem Hassan: Shouka (Nubenegra) ***
- Kiran Ahluwalia: Aam Zamen: Common Ground (Avokado Artists) ***
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Mosquito (Interscope) ***
- Anaïs Mitchell: Hadestown (Righteous Babe) **
- Nikki Lane: Walk of Shame (IAmSound) **
- Bahar Movahed & Ali Akbar Moradi: Goblet of Eternal Light: Maqams of Kurdish Tanbour Music of Iran (Traditional Crossroads) **
- Lana Del Rey: Paradise (Interscope) **
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-07-26] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-07-19] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Odds and Ends 032:
- Frikstailers: En Son De Paz (ZZK/Waxploitation) ***
- DJ Koze: Amygdala (Pampa) ***
- Foals: Tapes (!K7) ***
- Future Sounds of Buenos Aires (Waxploitation/ZZK) **
- Major Lazer: Free the Universe (Secretly Canadian) **
- Fac. Dance 02: 12" Mixes & Rarities 1980-1987 (Strut) *
- Disclosure: Settle (Cherrytree/Interscope) *
- Daft Punk: Random Access Memories (Columbia) *
- Sing Me the Songs/Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer:
- Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle (Nonesuch) A-
- Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer: Child Ballads (Wilderland) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-07-12] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Bobby Bland:
- Bobby Bland: Blues and Ballads (MCA '99) A-
- Bobby Bland: The Anthology (Duke/Peacock/MCA '91) A-
- Odds and Ends 031:
- Kanye West: Yeezus (Def Jam) ***
- J Cole: Friday Night Lights (free Roc Nation download) ***
- Oreo Jones: Betty (Rad Summer) ***
- Young Fathers: Tape One (Anticon) **
- Fat Tony: Rabdargab (HomeSkool Rekordz) **
- J Cole: The Warm Up (free Roc Nation download) **
- Serengeti: Saal (Graveface) **
- P.O.S.: We Don't Even Live Here (Rhymesayers) *
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-07-05] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Chance the Rapper/Homeboy Sandman:
- Chance the Rapper: Acid Rap (free download) A-
- Homeboy Sandman: Kool Herc: Fertile Crescent (Stones Throw) B+
- Serengeti/J. Cole:
- Serengeti: The Kenny Dennis LP (Anticon) A-
- J. Cole: Born Sinner (Roc Nation/Columbia) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-06-28] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-06-21] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
Also at Barnes and Noble Review:
Also at MSN Music:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-06-14] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Rachid Taha/Mariem Hassan:
- Rachid Taha: Zoom (Wrasse) A
- Mariem Hassan: El Aaiún Egdat (Nubenegra) A-
- Odds and Ends 030:
- Calvin Harris: 18 Months (Ultra/Rocnation/Columbia) ***
- Rihanna: Unapologetic (Def Jam) ***
- Lucy Love: Kilo (Superbillion) **
- Lucy Love: Superbillion (Superbillion) **
- Alicia Keys: Girl on Fire (RCA) **
- Frank Ocean: The Lonny Breaux Collection (free download) **
- K'naan: Country, God or the Girl (A&M/Octone) **
- Justin Timberlake: The 20/20 Experience (RCA) *
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-06-07] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Martha Redbone Roots Project/The Handsome Family:
- Martha Redbone Roots Project: The Garden of Love: Songs of William Blake (Blackfeet Productions) A-
- The Handsome Family: Wilderness (Carrot Top)
- The Beautiful South:
- The Beautiful South: Golddiggas Headnodders & Pholk Songs (Sony Music UK '04) A-
- The Beautiful South: Superbi (Sony BMG '06) A-
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-05-31] 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 2013-05-24] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Odds and Ends 029:
- Jenny & Johnny: I'm Having Fun Now (Warner Bros. '10) ***
- George Jones: Cold Hard Truth (Asylum '99) ***
- Lil Wayne: I Am Not a Human Being (Universal/Motown '10) ***
- The Go! Team: Rolling Blackouts (Memphis Industries '10) ***
- Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: I Speak Fula (Sub Pop '10) **
- They Might Be Giants: Join Us (Idlewild/Rounder '11) **
- The Old 97's: The Grand Theatre: Volume Two (New West '11) *
- Liz Phair: Funstyle (Rocket Science Ventures '10) *
- Kenya Special/Orchestra Super Mazembe:
- Kenya Special (Soundway) A-
- Orchestra Super Mazembe: Mazembe @ 45RPM Vol. 1 (Sterns Africa) B+
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-05-17] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- The Uncluded/Pistol Annies:
- The Uncluded: Hokey Fright (Rhymesayers) A
- Pistol Annies: Annie Up (RCA) A-
- Odds and Ends 028:
- Todd Snider: Happy New Year Vol. 1 (Aimless) ***
- Miles Davis Quintet: Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 (Columbia/Legacy) ***
- Omar Souleyman: Jazeera Nights (Sublime Frequencies) ***
- The Postal Service: Give Up: Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition (Sub Pop) **
- Omar Souleyman: Dbake 2020 (Sublime Frequencies) **
- They Might Be Giants: Album Raises New and Troubling Questions (Idlewild) **
- Jimi Hendrix: People, Hell and Angels (Legacy) **
- Fleetwood Mac: Rumours: 35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Warner Bros.) *
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-05-10] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-05-03] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-04-26] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-04-19] This Week in Expert Witness
New posts this week in Robert Christgau's
Expert Witness blog:
- Lil Wayne/Skrillex:
- Lil Wayne: I Am Not a Human Being II (Cash Money/Republic) A-
- Skrillex: Leaving (Owsla download) A-
- Rilo Kiley:
- Rilo Kiley: RKives (Little Record Company) A
- Rilo Kiley: The Execution of All Things (Saddle Creek '02) A
[posted by Webmaster on 2013-04-12] Most Recent -- More Recent -- More Ancient
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