― 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
I bet
― The guy who just votes in polls, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:21 (sixteen years ago) link
45. Daft Punk: Live 2007 (Virgin)
!!!
― Matos W.K., Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:22 (sixteen years ago) link
ditto. i guess i'm allowed to own that shit now.
― gabbneb, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
No Age, too. Great record.
― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:23 (sixteen years ago) link
Goddamn that's a shitty list
― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:41 (sixteen years ago) link
lol on Lucinda Williams, a permanent member of his Unimpeachable Canon.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:47 (sixteen years ago) link
I'd be hard pressed to come up with 10 albums on that list that I enjoy.
― stephen, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:54 (sixteen years ago) link
who made a really pretty good album with a great single on it
― gabbneb, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, but still, that list blows.
― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 19:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Lil Wayne: The Carter 3 (Purloined Datadisc)
lol
― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 20:15 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.dickdestiny.com/nomorepeas.jpg
Please Mommy, stop reading teh Christgau to me!
― Gorge, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:57 (sixteen years ago) link
That's how I felt after going to Christgau's website (1996 graphics and all) and checking his Sabbath reviews on the archive. This guy gets paid for this shit?
― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:59 (sixteen years ago) link
http://image.blingee.com/images15/content/output/000/000/000/2a0/33828693_860182.gif
― omar little, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:17 (sixteen years ago) link
2006? am i missing something?
― pshrbrn, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:18 (sixteen years ago) link
lol + o_O
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:19 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, a typo
― Matos W.K., Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:23 (sixteen years ago) link
-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, January 29, 2008 5:19 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
^^sfj's #1 of the year
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:25 (sixteen years ago) link
i mean he didn't even bother saying like "bootleg" or something
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:26 (sixteen years ago) link
weird that neither of those dudes bother to totally differentiate between Carter 3 the as-yet unreleased 2008 album and the various 2007 mixtapes of leaked material that probably won't be on the album but get called Carter 3 anyway. it'll be pretty confusing if the album actually comes out this year and they put that title on their lists for the second year in a row.
(xpost yeah, what jordan said. i mean he said "purloined datadisc," which is the part where I'm laughing with him, but still....dude's top 3 rap albums are the year are Soulja Boy and two Weezy mixtapes).
― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 29 January 2008 23:30 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm slightly astonished that we shared a taste in Singles.
― Gorge, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 00:17 (sixteen years ago) link