| Author | Message | ||
     Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 213 Registered: 09-2006 |
For anyone interested (if you haven't already seen it), here's the Christgau A list for 2006, beyond just the Top 10 printed in the Voice poll. http://robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/deans0 6.php | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1264 Registered: 05-2005 |
how drab.... ... ... | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 390 Registered: 08-2006 |
I think it's a pretty good, typically eclectic list, and I'm glad he saw fit to post it. It's true the top 10 is heavy on the oldsters, but, even so, Christgau's tastes are entirely his own. Can you imagine any Pitchfork writer, for example – or almost any other critic anywhere - being open-minded enough to include Maria Muldaur or Todd Snider or the Klezmatics in his or her top 10? I haven't heard the Muldaur CD, but it's that kind of maverick, off-the-grid originality that's earned him his reputation as a pretty damned reliable critic. I don't know how he comes off on the other side of the Atlantic - his tastes are what I would call America-centric (note his top 10) – but, directly or indirectly, he's introduced me and tons of others to bands as various as Sonic Youth,Youssou N'Dour, Pavement, King Sunny Ade, Public Enemy and, yes, the Go-Betweens. So maybe I'll pick up that Muldaur record. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1597 Registered: 03-2006 |
I agree, Rob. What a fascinating, rich, diverse list. I think Christgau includes weird, off the beaten path stuff by, say, the oldsters, simply because he thinks it's great music - no other reason. He is completely, if you will, colorblind, and age-blind and style-blind - the only criterion is if it rocks his world. I have the Muldaur record, btw, though I, admittedly, didn't pay a lot for it. But, it's great, as you might expect. Not in any crass, earth-shattering way - just warm, solid, moving takes on classic Zimmy tunes. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 391 Registered: 08-2006 |
"Colorblind, and age-blind and style-blind" - right on, LK. What I admire about Christgau is his ability to appear completely aloof from critical consensus. That Outkast CD is a good example. The movie wasn't good and the album got tarred with the same brush. I dunno if it's top 10 worthy, IMO, but it was a damn good record, and Christgau looked past the hype (or anti-hype as the case may be) and judged it on its merits. Whether I agree with him or not on certain picks, there's no question he's true to his opinions, and more often than not his unpopular or off-the-beaten-path choices have withstood the test of time. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 479 Registered: 01-2005 |
Sorry, but I think he's got some crap in there like Beyonce at #36 and Pink at # 52 and no Neko Case, Robyn Hitchcock, Midlake, Pernice Brothers and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1598 Registered: 03-2006 |
Maybe visual appeal is factored in: I'd much rather look at Beyonce than any of those other artists! Joe Pernice looks like Popeye and the guys from Midlake look like cast members from Deliverance. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 576 Registered: 08-2004 |
He's not sexy-blind then? The lack of banjo's on Van Occupanther were part of the disappointment for me. Is Christgau the yank Paul Morley? I've always found Morley very straight-forward on TV & I generally agree with his opinions. But his wrriting style is very annoying. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1599 Registered: 03-2006 |
No, in fact, he's trying to bring sexy back... No banjos on Van Occ, but I've heard the lead singer goes around telling people, "you got a real pretty mouth on you, boy"... Don't know Morley, though his name rings a bell. Christgau's writing style can be very knotty and convoluted...it reminds me of the writer lampooned in Martin Amis' "The Information", whose novels are so impossible to read, they cause incurable migraines and epileptic attacks in anyone who tries to read them... | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1014 Registered: 03-2005 |
Neko Case is a hottie. There's no real basis to argue with that. Leaving her album out of this list is pretty incomprehensible. It's more or less about 11 or 12 months since I first got that album and I still say it is a masterpiece that breaks through the straitjacket conventions of country as mere genre music (whether you choose to call it alt-country or not I don't care) to blossom as honest-to-God art. I still say it will ultimately leave nearly everything else issued in its year in the dustbin. I don't know the overwhelming majority of the people on the list so I can't comment on them at all but Beyonce must have just been put there to wind people up. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1243 Registered: 04-2005 |
The Dean doesn't like Neko Case. Best I think she ever got from him was his "***" rating, which I think is about a "B" using his old-style (less lazy) rating system. He gave "Blacklisted" a bomb rating, if that gives you any idea. I think he views her as sort of a poser. This is just my simplified interpretation, of course--he could write a 10,000 word essay on why he doesn't rate her as an artist. LK, I haven't read "The Information" yet, but do you think that Amis's incomprehensible author was a takeoff on Thomas Pynchon? | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1265 Registered: 05-2005 |
i am cynical today, this list is bollocks, i'll never get back the 20 seconds i spent reading it, i resent that. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1600 Registered: 03-2006 |
Kurt, possibly it is a riff on Pynchon, but the writer described, who happens to be the protagonist and narrator, is a complete, utter failure, so maybe not...Pynchon's moved some units, as headache-inducing as his stuff is... The calamities that befall the readers of that guy's work are really pretty hilariously over the top, btw - I think one person even ends up having some kind of fit that kills him... ***, as I recall, means something along the lines of, "people who like this sort of thing might well like this a lot"... | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 482 Registered: 01-2005 |
LK wrote: >the guys from Midlake look like cast members from Deliverance.No banjos on Van Occ, but I've heard the lead singer goes around telling people, "you got a real pretty mouth on you, boy"... Too funny!It's not like they come from a dump, hillbilly town in Georgia either, there from a northern suburb of Dallas, Denton TX. As for rather looking at Beyonce, you can always rent the Austin Powers movie she was in. I was never impressed with Destiny's Child or her solo crap. Her music never will move me like the classic Shirelles, 60's Motown chick singers, The Ronettes, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin. Beyonce is all flash with no soul. |