it's undignified & makes him sound like a bitter old hippie.
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 11 February 2007 12:29 (seventeen years ago) link
And I still don't understand why people think what Lily Allen's parents did for a living is "relevant" as far as whether her music's any good or not (which is not to say it's not interesting; that sort of thing is always interesting. Actually, maybe the Joanna Nuisance review would be better if Bob was more specific about her class upbringing. Which I know nothing about; is it common knowledge? When Bob uses "privilege", I definitely assume "class" is coming into play, though I could well be misinterpreting him.)
I'm with Scott on the Clipse's words. Just like with lots of rappers (and plenty of non-rappers, though not too many country guys), I'm generally clueless on what the lyrics are supposed to add up to, and I'm not sure why being clueful about them would be a prerequisite to liking the record. Some lines they do sound cool; some less so. CD gets by on mood, inasmuch as it gets by (I'd give it a B+ or so too.)
― xhuxk (xhuck), Sunday, 11 February 2007 12:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk (xhuck), Sunday, 11 February 2007 12:40 (seventeen years ago) link
is your position "people can't help being rich"? on the one hand, you're right, but on the other hand, privilege is a fair critique of a narrative/aethetic stance think: economic privilege, racial privilege, gender privilege, what have you - Newsome's vision is sorta by-and-for a real specific demographic and as such is profoundly limited, isn't that the point of what he's saying?
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 11 February 2007 12:49 (seventeen years ago) link
-- Thomas Tallis
I liked Milk Eyed Mender but Ys is nigh-on unlistenable to me.
I keep saying this but go find the live recordings (w/accompanying players substituting VDPs arrangements on folkier instruments (not the full-orchestra shebang) and you'll be amazed how much more instantly palatable her singing is (vocally, calmer phrasing with some breathing space), how much warmer and musically appropriate it sounds, how the depth finally reveals itself... and then want to *slap her* for wishing to make Ys some kind of point-proving outré monolith that unfortunately turned into a plain unfriendly complete fuck up.
Shit like this is SO frustrating to me that although I think she's capable of being very, very good, in the long run I honestly think I'm better off just giving up on her NOW >:-(
― about:coffee (fandango), Sunday, 11 February 2007 13:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Sunday, 11 February 2007 13:08 (seventeen years ago) link
There's NO REASON Ys should be that impenetrable, and when presented with a little bit of care... it isn't! But I found out a bit too late and now all I feel towards it is hate for wasting so much of my fucking time "getting" it.
― about:coffee (fandango), Sunday, 11 February 2007 13:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― about:coffee (fandango), Sunday, 11 February 2007 13:11 (seventeen years ago) link
This is true enough, but Christgau giving props to a gangsta rap album without tackling the moral issues is always going to come off as weirder than it would with most critics, because he worked more than most at putting these issues in the forefront of other reviews he's written (see his stuff on N.W.A., Dr.Dre.)
― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Sunday, 11 February 2007 14:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 11 February 2007 14:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk (xhuck), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― xhuxk (xhuck), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:13 (seventeen years ago) link
But hip-hop is now where rock was in the early '80s, when veterans such as Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman and Lou Reed were the equivalent of what the book trade called publishers' poets back when commercial publishers dealt poetry.
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:36 (seventeen years ago) link
Not trying to take us back to Newsom, but I think this pretty much sums it up for me. If not for the big names involved and the genuinely promising debut album, I highly doubt as many critics would've reacted to Ys. as positively as they did. Impossible to know, though, of course.
― marc h. (marc h.), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― titchyschneider (titchyschneider), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:27 (seventeen years ago) link
I think with Xgau they're often almost an instrumental flourish, to strain a metaphor - if you read his stuff out loud and say the letter grade at the end, it puts a cap on the thing, like a more weighted "The End." Otherwise co-sign completely in re: both letter & number grades, they've been unhealthy for crit in general & I'm happy that the only place you see 'em in book reviews is in fucking People, which is exactly where they belong
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:31 (seventeen years ago) link
This makes me realize that I've never actually read a review of the album before Christgau's! At least I don't think I have. I was almost going to say that he really goes out of his way to squeeze a vague art-rock square peg into an un-vague political protest hole to justify PBS-style his not disliking it as much as he did their debut, but then I re-read the review and Bob really does make a case for it as a protest record of sorts. Not that that makes me remotely more interested in going back and listening to the thing again.
― xhuxk (xhuck), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:35 (seventeen years ago) link
x-post I'm glad he admits that a lot of the appeal is that its prettier. But yeah, political acknowledgement can be an easy bump to A- for him.
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Matos W.K., Wednesday, 21 February 2007 20:13 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco, Wednesday, 21 February 2007 21:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco, Wednesday, 21 February 2007 21:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison, Wednesday, 21 February 2007 21:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― m coleman, Wednesday, 21 February 2007 21:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison, Wednesday, 21 February 2007 21:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― JN$OT, Thursday, 22 February 2007 16:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 February 2007 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― nabisco, Thursday, 22 February 2007 18:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― gershy, Friday, 20 April 2007 22:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― deej, Friday, 20 April 2007 22:41 (seventeen years ago) link
new one out http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide
OH SNAP! paris goes to jail, then gets a "dud" from xgau
(i feel his reviews are somehow less predictable now that he's on msn - not sure why.....)
― gershy, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 04:32 (seventeen years ago) link
The column seems more shallow this time around - not as densely layered. And is there really so little new music that he needs to review Girl Talk and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah?
― Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 05:51 (seventeen years ago) link
I wish he tied the idea that the Girl Talk album is oppressive more to its never coalescing into something deeper rather than its proving filthy rappers are bloody good fun. And even more than that to the fact that Night Ripper is a mash-up album with all the significance and longevity that implies.
I top tened this record but with reservations. Something about it always disturbed me. And Xgau's review has now lead me to figure out why (however unwittingly). The obviousness of the samples only underlines our inability to escape information-as-commodity or at least to step outside of it (to whatever extent), perhaps even to make something, well, deep of it. This never bugged me with "The Payoff Mix" or DJ Shadow or The Best Bootlegs in the World Ever (though I never got what The Avalanches were doing) because mixology was never a career option for Double Dee & Steinski and because Shadow did something fathomless with his samples and because the mash-uppers on Best Bootlegs were so anyonymous and most of the song one-offs. But mixology IS a career option for Greg Gillis whose name is displayed in the review and whose face is displayed on the CD (or one of them, I forget). And I fear that no matter how much is renown increases, we'll never get to know who he really is which means we'll never get to know where HE stands in relation to his samples which means we won't discover a new, inventive relationship with information. Which means I may be transforming from a pomo yaysayer to a modernist crank.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 08:01 (seventeen years ago) link
how much HIS renown increases...
― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 08:17 (seventeen years ago) link
The 2006 Dean's List
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/deans07.php
― The guy who just votes in polls, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:16 (sixteen years ago) link
Um, he dug the Burial album? I'm stunned. Is there a review anywhere?
― Kevin John Bozelka, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:18 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, I was surprised, too. I best it will be reviewed in Feb's MSN Consumer Guide.
― The guy who just votes in polls, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:20 (sixteen years ago) link