sometime i read christgau and am amazed...

Because it's called a Consumer Guide. And this is listed under "Other Consumer News." Please don't say "Oh, he's being ironic, you moron." Just don't.

"This idea that every review of a particular record has to say the same things about makes no sense at all to me."
I didn't say it did. I WAS praising this review for hitting the distinctive bits and not bothering with what everyone already knows. Now I'm not so sure.

"What if he thought the samba or grand concept weren't IMPORTANT?? What if he thinks, as I do, that Grand Concepts are almost NEVER important, and rarely have anything to do with what might make a record worth listening to??"

Maybe you're right about the Grand Concept. But if it were a salsa record, would that be a less salient fact of "what might make a record worth listening to" then a couple of lyric snippets?

"Or what if he thought they were SORT OF important, but not as important as the fact that there are songs about reincarnation and penile lengths and girths within Vatican City, and he said, "oops, I only have ten words! Better stick to what REALLY MATTERS here?"

Then I might buy the Blondie album, find out that he completely missed the boat on the most distinctive thing about the album, figure that his priorities regarding music are completely worthless to me, and never read him again.

Jesus, Chuck. Like I said, I WAS praising this review. Now I'm not so sure.

Great - now my mind's eye is flashing on the cover shot of Can't Slow Down.

In the immortal words of Alice Cooper, "GOOD NIGHT!"

Yes blount, the refusal to indulge rock critics who care more about being prose stylists than giving their readers some idea what the recordings under discussion sound like is the first step on the slippery slope to an imperialist plutocracy.

Rockist, who do you think actually falls in this category? Obviously, you can't say that about Christgau in general.

J.D. Considine was at the EMP Pop Conference! He gave a paper (that I missed) on J-pop, sounded intriguing. Otherwise I think he lives in Toronto and freelances for Blender among others.

Say Something Interesting about "The Threepenny Opera"

DeRo to thread, obv.

(I'm not into those French guys.)

I need a new job. This one leaves me too much dead time with a PC in front of me.

x-post: Rockist, who do you think actually falls in this category? Obviously, you can't say that about Christgau in general.

What I've seen of Christgau often falls into this category, but I haven't gone out of my way to read him.

xpost: DING DING DING DING DING

Sort of like salsa music, Rockist? Do you not think that's "worthwhile for its own aesthetic value, or for what it reveals about its author" either, since people dance to it? Bizarre. How, exactly, does walking prevent a person from chewing gum??

How it's different from music designed to be danced to I'd have to think about. I guess for one thing, in my experience, salsa or some other music made to accompany dancing is enjoyable to me when I'm just listening to it without dancing.

Also, if I went out to see a salsa band, with the intention of dancing, and found that they were going off on their own tangents which made it difficult to dance to them, I'd be frustrated and feel cheated (unless I just happened to really like their tangents). In a similar way, if I read one of Christgau's really compact, elliptical and hard to decipher reviews, when I wanted to get an idea of how something sounded, I'd be unsatisfied.

And I guess my complaint would be with critics who aren't taking care of the functional side of their work.

So mainly, you enjoy cookbooks, phone books, and auto repair manuals?

BUT...

I think that game reviewer as a whole definitely take the course that I think Rockist is talking about -- i.e. giving consumers nuts-and-bolts explanations of a consumer product and what works and doesn't work about it...

Obv. games are different because they are software as well as art--- bad graphics or technical glitches are just bad graphics and technical glitches -- there's no "lo-fi" charm in gaming...so we have a lot more simply "black and white" issues that aren't really a matter of taste or philosophy....but it is funny because this discussion would never happen with a bunch of game journalists....

I sometimes wonder as games get more complex in terms of plot/story/emotional content if this might change...obv. graphics are getting better and better so in the future technical issues won't be as paramount in the minds of gamers...hopefully they'll become more focused on the impact and style of the experience...

"Believes in reincarnation, wishes the pope had a bigger dick" = "All music is horrible." How could anybody have interpreted it otherwise?