Born in the USA [Columbia, 1984]Imperceptible though the movement has been to many sensitive young people, Springsteen has evolved. In fact, this apparent retrenchment is his most rhythmically propulsive, vocally incisive, lyrically balanced, and commercially undeniable album. Even his compulsive studio habits work for him: the aural vibrancy of the thing reminds me like nothing in years that what teenagers loved about rock and roll wasn't that it was catchy or even vibrant but that it just plain sounded good. And while Nebraska's one-note vision may be more left-correct, my instincts (not to mention my leftism) tell me that this uptempo worldview is truer. Hardly ride-off-into-the-sunset stuff, at the same time it's low on nostalgia and beautiful losers. Not counting the title powerhouse, the best songs slip by at first because their tone is so lifelike: the fast-stepping "Working on the Highway," which turns out to be about a country road gang: "Darlington County," which pins down the futility of a macho spree without undercutting its exuberance; and "Glory Days," which finally acknowledges that among other things, getting old is a good joke. A+
>>128489911This was one of 29 non-comp albums that he gave an A plus to.
i could see earlier Springsteen but some how i'd have thought he wouldn't like BITUSA as a commercial sellout or something
>>128489938Or that he liked the Grateful Dead since they were unpopular with quite a few rock critics notably Steve Marsh.
>>128489911100% correct. Perfect album.
>>128489945He liked the Dead in their 60s-early 70s heyday, not after 74 when they fell off.
>>128489927Understandable, I don't like the disco-era Dead either.
surprised he didn't give an A+ to any Velvet Underground albums
>>128489976From his review of the S/T I get the impression he didn't rate it an A plus because of "Murder Mystery."
>>128489985i kind of agree tbqh. every VU album had one extremely annoying track you skip.
>>128489927Looking at the list I give him credit for his idiosyncratic picks anyway unlike RSM album lists or whatnot which are as safe and corporate as possible. Can't say the DeBarge album deserved an A plus though, that shit aged like old milk.
>>128490013the worst offender on his A plus list imo is The Neon Bible. no way is that above a B minus.
>>128489999Pet Sounds could be an A+ too but I'll never rate it that high knowing "Sloop John B" is on there.
>>128490025definitely don't think Modern Times should be considered A+. It is solid but overrated by critics.
>>128490146same with Love and Theft. it's decent but not an A plus album.
>>128489911never had much use for Cuckgau. his best quality was mainly that he wasn't Dave Marsh, but that's not a high bar to clear. i find his praise of late career Sonny Rollins borderline bizarre, but then he does admit he's not an expert on jazz.he is open about disliking some genres like metal, prog, and folk and opinions are assholes as they say, but at the same time i can't comprehend his giving Dirty Work an A and Empty Glass a B minus. that made him hard to trust back in the 80s when print media dominated and critics' opinions mattered more.
>>128490196After reading Consumer Guide to the 70s I always thought it should have been called "Christgau Rates His Record Collection". Only four reviews of Kiss albums, two of Nugent and ONE of Foghat... but THIRTEEN of Lou Reed, twelve for Taj Mahal and seven for The Meters (for example). I realize he had a huge NYC bias, but the Dolls have three A+ albums while the Rolling Stones have only one?Not really a "rock" album guide.I still enjoyed reading his book, but remember - this is the guy who originally gave Led Zeppelin IV a "C+", upping it to a "B" years later. Now I see he finally gives it an "A" in his online reviews (several decades too late).
>>128490215NYD definitely did not deserve an A plus lol.
>>128490244I remember the book Stranded from the late 70s (rock critics with essays about which album they'd take to a desert island) had him writing about the Dolls and why he got a massive boner for them. So far I haven't gotten into them either.
>>128490263>>128490244That would be interesting to see. I do read something into the way he champions certain New York rock attitudes, and I get the sense in which he wants it to work. You clearly get that from his take on Television, as an example. But in this case, I just don't feel it's there. I don't have a 'so far' with the Dolls and they remind me of John Lennon's take on Bowie - "I like him but it's just rock-and-roll with lipstick on."
>>128490146Dylan was great live in the L&T era but the albums are boring and generiuc.
A friend of mine owns 20 Ornette Coleman albums on vinyl and Of Human Feelings which Cuckgau gave an A+ to is imo one of Coleman's worst.
Decade [Capitol, 1989]Liars till the end, they pretend their decade didn't end around 1984-'85, when U.K. new pop conquered the world and went phfft. But the best-of proves it. First side's all anyone needs of the brightly tuneful meaninglessness that made them video stars, and after side two cut one, "The Reflex," they sink into an anonymity relieved only by the greatest record they never made, Nile Rodgers's "Notorious," and the softcore closer "All She Wants." Sometimes I think the little girls don't understand a damn thing. B-
>>128490263i always get the impression that his reviews are based mainly on how much he enjoyed his breakfast that morning
>>128490409I mean it's not as if things don't change a lot over time. His opinions on some things have shifted over the years for example he's not as hostile to pre-rock pop now as he was in the early days when he was a young guy and pre-rock pop was seen to young rock -heads as their parents music and the enemy that had to be struggled against.
>>128490427i do remember he said Procul Harum's A Salty Dog was overrated and he wouldn't give it an A plus now
Rolling Stone Magazine was worse, much worse.
>>128490444^This. They've always been super-corrupt.>reviews determined by sales concerns+Jan Wenner's petty whims>anyone he wanted to fuck, interview, or ingratiate himself with got praise>if you feuded with Wenner, he didn't like you, or you played a genre of music he didn't like, bad review, bad press>big company paying for advertising space? Good review, good press etc. Not a conspiracy at all. The nefarious mechanics of RS are pretty well documented at this point.
He's probably the only person on Earth who still listens to those Firesign records. Never liked the guy. Demeaning, smarmy dismissals of so many quality artists and records. Lou Reed was right.
>>128491070To me, Christgau was always ultra-narrow in his tastes, fairly insufferable, and totally convinced he was the smartest guy in the room. I'm old and used to read his yearly Pazz & Jop column back in the 80s mostly for a laugh/eye roll moment at his horrible takes on stuff.
His rating of Fishscale by Ghostface Killah is a total welcome surprise. Anybody who ever had an ear for storytelling and narrative would tell you that "Shakey Dog" is one of the finest examples of narrative in hip-hop in any decade -- at any time. The way in which Ghost tells the story in pop song format is riveting and compelling. Christgau must have appreciated it to grade the record the way he did. What a welcome stamp on an album that I've long thought was maybe the standout hip-hop album of the decade.
>>128491100there are times when he hit the nail on the head, like with that one Nicolette Larson review but at least 1/3rd of his reviews are totally incoherent and i can't for the life of me make out what he's trying to say
As anon his opinions have evolved somewhat over time like hating Sonic Youth in 82-85 and praising most of their late work. Or how his hostility to pre-rock pop softened with time and he eventually came to appreciate Queen after being unable to stomach them in the 70s.
>>128491208or ABBA. all the critics detested them until Pete Townshend and some other respected rock figures upboated them.
I disagree with him more than I agree with him. I still like to read the reviews even when I strongly disagree with him. Which is often. I also do not get his hatred of prog rock nor many of the bands in the genre. Like any other genre, there are good bands and bad bands.
>>128491257Christgau's opinions on prog generally mirrored the critical consensus in the 70s and some later generations of critics began reappraising some prog and metal albums. That said, a lot of boomers who were there and experienced Yes and ELP firsthand might well understand Christgau's dislike of the format.
no Beatles A plus surprisingly
>>128491317Not surprising since he started Consumer Guide in mid-1969 when there were only six months remaining in the 60s and the only Beatles album he reviewed contemporaneously was Let It Be, although he's done retroactive reviews of 50s-60s artists.
>>128491257only it's kinda bad when he reviews albums in genres he clearly dislikes for no purpose except to shit on them
>>128491334Not really. He has tended to avoid reviewing genres he doesn't like like metal, prog, and classical unless the album was an exceptionally big seller or there was something that struck him as particularly noteworthy.
>>128490296Christgau includes Dylan's "Love and Theft" in this 2020 list, rather than Bringing, 461, Blonde or Blood. To me, that's nuts--and the same with Second Album over some other Beatles titles--but hey, that's Christgau. I'm just happy I can't find any other examples like that on the 2020 list. (Well, maybe Rolling Stones, Now! over Let It Bleed--but that's it.
>>128489911OK boomer
>>128491368to be fair I mean the Dylan electric trilogy was out in the mid-60s before he was reviewing music
>>128491382About that. He said Beatles Second Album and Rolling Stones - Now! were the first two rock LPs he ever bought. He also said TFWBD was the first Dylan album he heard and it remains his favorite one. As for the first three electrics he’d start with Highway 61 and Bringing It All Back Home though he says he listens to Blonde on Blonde more than either of those.
>>128490244i knew people who saw the Dolls live and thought they killed it, and they totally epitomized NYC in that era. rude, crude, edgy, and no fucks given.
In such fairness a lot of Christgau's more egregious put-downs of albums are from the early years; by his own admission he didn't really start writing a lot of proper long-form reviews until around '73 and the first couple years of Consumer Guide had a lot more 1-2 sentence shitposts (often replaced with upgraded reviews in CGTT '70s). It took him a while to develop into writing longer reviews and maybe maturing a little bit as he got into his 30s, since he was an edgy 20-something when he first started in '69.
>>128491461I find it funny that not long ago he said Lennon's Rock 'n Roll was better than the B minus grade he originally gave it.
>>128491495well good for him i guess but i still hate that album and find not one of the covers there improves on the original
I would say DeBarge was the least deserving entry on his A plus list.
Springsteen suckscuckgau suckssimple as>>128490444Rolling Stone magazine are even worse than cuckgau and Fantano and all those guys. They're a joke. They do nothing but fluff bands Zeppelin and AC/DC now, even though they panned all their albums back in the day.
i mean you do have to allow for the fact that his reviews were usually written when an album came out without the benefit of 40 years of hindsight and yes his opinions of some albums have evolved over time
afaik he said he decides whether to review an album or not after listening to it and seeing if he can get through the entire thing without being so annoyed/filtered/bored he turns it off. if he can get through the whole thing then he'll review it, and after he gets through one play he listens to it usually a few more times before making his final judgement.
I don't think he'd have written that Tanya Tucker review in the 90s when he was a dad and more sensitive about sexualizing underage teens.
>>128489911He was one of the only rock critics who consistently reviewed black music outside basic obvious stuff like 50s R&R people or electric blues.
>>128491100i think his '82 one was the biggest bullshit i ever read
