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

Update

The database was updated today, for the first time in several months. All Consumer Guide records up through August 2008 are now in the database. Sorry for any confusion these delays may have caused.

[posted by Webmaster on 2008-08-16]
Consumer Guide (August 2008)

New Consumer Guide for August 2008. Featured albums:

  • Jean Grae: Jeanius (Blacksmith) [A-]
  • Hammell on Trial: Rant and Roll (Righteous Babe) [A-]
  • K'naan: The Dusty Foot Philosopher (iM Culture) [A]
  • Seun Kuti + Fela's Egypt 80 (Disorient) [A-]
  • Menya: The Ol' Reach-Around (no label) [A-]
  • Nas: Untitled (Def Jam) [A-]
  • Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump: Original Heavyweight Afrobeat, Highlife & Afro-Funk (Strut) [A-]
  • Ponytail: Ice Cream Spiritual (We Are Free) [A-]
  • Three 6 Mafia: Last 2 Walk (Hypnotize Minds/Columbia) [C]
[posted by Webmaster on 2008-08-01]
Blender (August 2008)

New reviews:

[posted by Webmaster on 2008-07-21]
Consumer Guide (July 2008)

New Consumer Guide for July 2008. Featured albums:

  • Atmosphere: When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh*t Gold (Rhymesayers Entertainment) [B+]
  • Be Your Own Pet: Get Damaged (Universal/Ecstatic Peace) [A-]
  • Blitzen Trapper: Wild Mountain Nation (Lidkercow Ltd) [A-]
  • Al Green: Lay It Down (Blue Note) [A-]
  • Honeyhoney: Loose Boots (Ironworks Music) [A-]
  • The Kills: Midnight Boom (Domino) [A-]
  • Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Universal/Motown) [A-]
  • Lil Wayne: The Drought Is Over 2: The Carter 3 Sessions (mixtape4u.com) [A-]
  • Lil Wayne: We the Best (RBC) [C+]
[posted by Webmaster on 2008-07-01]
Blender (July 2008)

New reviews:

[posted by Webmaster on 2008-06-21]
Consumer Guide (June 2008)

New Consumer Guide for June 2008. Featured albums:

  • Hayes Carll: Trouble in Mind [A-]
  • DJ Yoda: Fabriclive.39 [A-]
  • The Magnetic Fields: Distortion [A]
  • No Age: Nouns [A-]
  • Old 97's: Blame It on Gravity [A-]
  • Orchestra Baobab: Made in Dakar [A]
  • Santogold: Santogold [A-]
  • Steinski: What Does It All Mean?: 1983-2006 Retrospective [A]
  • Tokyo Police Club: Elephant Shell [A-]
  • Leona Lewis: Spirit [B]
[posted by Webmaster on 2008-06-01]
Blender (June 2008)

New reviews:

[posted by Webmaster on 2008-05-24]
Consumer Guide (May 2008)

New Consumer Guide for May 2008. Featured albums:

  • The B-52s: Funplex [A-]
  • Drive-By Truckers: Brighter Than Creation's Dark [A]
  • Robert Forster: The Evangelist [A-]
  • Kid Creole: Going Places: The August Darnell Years 1974-1983 [A-]
  • Gabi Lunca: Sounds From a Bygone Age: Vol. 5 [A-]
  • Man Man: Rabbit Habits [B+]
  • James McMurtry: Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod) [A-]
  • The Mountain Goats: Heretic Pride [B+]
  • The Roots: Rising Down [A]
  • DeVotchKa: A Mad and Faithful Telling [B-]
[posted by Webmaster on 2008-05-01]
Blender (May 2008)

New reviews:

[posted by Webmaster on 2008-04-24]
Consumer Guide: World Music Edition

MSN Music published a special Consumer Guide: World Music Edition:

  • Les Amazones de Guinée: Wamato [A]
  • Youssou N'Dour: Rokku Mi Rokka (Give and Take) [A]
  • New York City Salsa [A-]
  • Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues [A-]
  • Tabu Ley Rochereau: The Voice of Lightness [A+]
  • The Rough Guide to Congo Gold [A]
  • Think Global: Women of Africa [B+]
  • Umalali: The Garifuna Women's d Project [A-]
  • Latin Reggae (Putumayo World Music) [C-]
[posted by Webmaster on 2008-04-15]
Consumer Guide (April 2008)

New Consumer Guide for April 2008. Featured albums:

  • Buck 65: Situation [A-]
  • Dollar Store: Money Music [B+]
  • Mariem Hassan: Deseos [B+]
  • Jens Lekman: Night Falls Over Kortedala [A-]
  • Los Campesinos!: Hold on Now, Youngster . . . [A]
  • Kate Nash: Made of Bricks [A-]
  • Setona & African Crossroads: [Live] [A-]
  • Toumast: Ishumar [A-]
  • Snoop Dogg: Ego Trippin' [B-]
[posted by Webmaster on 2008-04-01]
Blender (April 2008)

New reviews:

[posted by Webmaster on 2008-03-15]
Blogging

Robert Christgau is now blogging at ARTicles, blogsite of the National Arts Journalism Program, where he's vice chairman. Other bloggers so far include the other board members and NAJP members Sasha Anawalt, Jeff Weinstein, Patti Hartigan, Glen Lovell, and Donald Munro. Pretty smart and informative stuff, recommended to anyone interested in arts coverage in general. One way or another, all five of Christgau's posts as of March 7 have been about music journalism, but often in a fairly broad way. They include his typo-ridden take on this year's Idolator and Pazz & Jop polls. The link: http://www.najp.org/articles/.

[posted by Robert Christgau on 2008-03-10]
Consumer Guide (March 2008)

New Consumer Guide for March 2008. Featured albums:

  • Daft Punk: Alive 2007 [A-]
  • Lupe Fiasco: The Cool [A-]
  • Lil Wayne: Da Drought 3 [A]
  • Look Directly Into the Sun: China Pop 2007 [A-]
  • Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard/Ray Price: Last of the Greed Vol. 1 & 2 [A-]
  • Vampire Weekend [A-]
  • Wussy: Left for Dead [A]
  • Foo Fighters: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace [B]
[posted by Webmaster on 2008-03-01]
Blender (March 2008)

New reviews:

[posted by Webmaster on 2008-02-02]
Moving On

On January 1, I left my Contributing Editor gig at Rolling Stone to become a Senior Critic at Blender. My friend and now-colleague Jon Dolan, who was a Senior Critic before I was, refers to me as the Junior Senior Critic. I am very happy about this change. One thing it means is that I no longer have to wait to Consumer Guide records I review for Blender--Stone mandated a four-month lag. Of course, sometimes I'll wait anyway, just to make sure I have something new to say.

[posted by Robert Christgau on 2008-02-02]
Consumer Guide (February 2008)

New Consumer Guide for February 2008. Featured albums:

  • Babyshambles: Shotter's Nation [A-]
  • Ghostface Killah: The Big Doe Rehab [A-]
  • The Peeps of Soulfunk: Tribb to JB [B+]
  • Ponytail: Kamehameha [A-]
  • Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight [A]
  • Soulja Boy: Souljaboytellem.com [A-]
  • Wu-Tang Clan: 8 Diagrams [A-]
  • Deerhoof: Friend Opportunity [C+]
[posted by Webmaster on 2008-02-01]
Website Update

New pieces include the 2007 Dean's List. We've continued to keep track of the top 40 results from the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll, but Robert Christgau is no longer associated with the poll, and there is no year-end essay.

New NPR links added:

[posted by Webmaster on 2008-01-28]
Rolling Stone (February 7, 2008)

New reviews in the February 7, 2008 Rolling Stone:

[posted by Webmaster on 2007-01-22]
Rolling Stone (January 24, 2008)

New reviews in the January 24, 2008 Rolling Stone:

[posted by Webmaster on 2007-01-07]

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