Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s

by Robert Christgau

Presents an overview of the music of the 1990s, discussing rock, rap, country, world music, and other genres, and grading albums from A+ works to total failures.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312245602
• ISBN13: 9780312245603
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Griffin
• Length: 396 Pages
• Weight: 1.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The Only Critic Who Matters

Robert Christgau has been writing rock criticism for over 35 years. He has graded over 12,000 albums. That's TWELVE THOUSAND. He's almost certainly heard more albums than anyone in history. When I read any other critic (not to mention outspoken laymen), my response is "Is that your opinion based on the 6 albums you've heard?" This book is the definitive work on the music of the 1990's. Oh no. Did he give OK Computer a B-? And What's The Story Morning Glory only got an honorable mention? And Anthology 2 got a dud? Yes. Have you heard Iris Dement: My Life? D J Shadow: Entroducing... D J Shadow? Freedy Johnston: Can You Fly? The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs? Have you heard The Rolling Stones: Exile On Main Street? Every critic panned it when it came out except one.

flawed but essential

The new rating system, with its "turkey," "bomb," and "choice cut" icons, is confusing. The cover looks like Granny's leftover Christmas foil. My first edition is riddled with typos and has what looks like blobs of ink on a few of the pages. And, most disappointing of all, there's no "Core Collection" list, as with the 70s and 80s versions (both also highly recommended). Still, if I had to pick only one record guide from the many titles out there, it wouldn't take long... Why is Christgau better than even such venerable rock critics as Ken Tucker and Greil Marcus? He thinks and listens harder, for one thing. And in an age when most critics are little more than paid lapdogs for the corporate record industry, he remains immune to what he calls "autohype." (Which, as I interpret it, means "loving" a record because of the artist's public image rather than on its own merits.) I have been following Christgau's monthly Consumer Guides in The Village Voice since the mid seventies, and I can honestly say that he has broadened my perspective on not only popular music, but politics, race, and sex as well. (Can reading a music criticism make one a better husband/father/citizen? In this case I'd have to say yes.) In short, he is, to quote that dreaded phrase "the thinking person's rock critic," albeit one who also possesses the occasional ability to make you laugh so hard beer shoots out of your nose. (He isn't known as "the king of the pithy one-liner" for nothing!) Finally, I would take Christgau's own advice when deciding whether or not to purchase this book: Find a copy at a library or book store, and turn to the year-end best-of lists in the back. If at least a few of his higher ranked cds are also among your faves, then purchase immediately. If, on the other hand, you find yourself turning up your nose at most of them, then pass.

In praise of shorter reviews

This book claims "over 3800 reviews", but that's more like a sample size. That's far from exhaustive, but no doubt exhausting work for any single reviewer: more than a new record a day, every day for ten years. (For what it's worth, I have a web site where I've rated some 3000 records from the same decade, including many reissues, and it's taken me 8-10 hours/day listening time to accumulate that -- without writing reviews. Much more is hard for me to imagine.) Sure, most are quickly disposed of with icons for Bombs, Neither (good nor bad), short lists of Choice Cuts, or cryptic Honorable Mentions, but in most cases that's information enough. That leaves us with about 1100 single paragraph reviews: mostly "A List" records, with a smattering of Turkeys for balance, perspective, and blowing off a little steam. I don't care much for the Turkeys, but I suppose it's good to know that Christgau actually thought about the likes of Michael Bolton, MC Ren, and the Verve Pipe before sloughing them off. But once you sort through the data, what's left is the broadest and most erudite survey of popular music in our time. Christgau eschews categories since he transcends them: his picks range from Al Jolson to Spring Heel Jack, Sleater-Kinney to Mzwakhe Mbuli, Ruby Braff to Prince Paul, Freedy Johnston to Liliput, Tricky to Garth Brooks. The writing is denser than in previous Consumer Guides: partly the accumulated weight of his experience, partly a bias for the analytical over the informative, and possibly a reaction to the bloat in the music he critiques. This can be difficult, and can send you scurrying off to other guides for background. And by limiting the scope to an arbitrary decade, it lacks context. But these days almost all record guides are tepid committee works, usually locked into a single limiting genre. By contrast, this book offers us a single, coherent critical viewpoint, often brilliant, applied to an impressively broad musical spectrum. This book is unique, and we're fortunate to have it.

Muddled, But Still Worthwhile

Yes, this version of Christgau's Record Guide is a bit more chaotic, but at least the author admits so in his introduction. The new grading system, although different, doesn't take long to get used to. I found myself whizzing right along after reading Christgau's introduction.Yes, this book is shorter and less comprehensive than his two previous guides. Is this a fault? Yes and no. If you're already familiar with Christgau's work (I check the Village Voice online once a month to read his Consumer Guide) you'll probably thank him since he's cut away most of the fat and left only lean meat (i.e. the artists truly worth checking out). If, however, you're distraught that some of the bigger artists have been left out, you might want to check out a safer, broader (and, thus, more tepid) record guide such as the one published by Rolling Stone.Christgau is opinionated (he IS a critic, after all), but I strongly suggest thumbing through this guide at your local bookstore. Look up some of your favorite artists, and if the reviews of those artists are unfavorable or, worse, if you can't even FIND reviews, well, then this book probably isn't for you. However, if your tastes already lean towards Sonic Youth, Lucinda Williams, Sleater-Kinney, and Randy Newman (my fave!) you'll more than likely turn to the Christgau Record Guide as you would your Bible.

The man has my ears

Christgau's writing is occasionally diffuse and esoteric, but if you complain about his judgements you'll get little support from me. I knew he had my ears when I opened his 80s guide and found that this middle-aged veterin awarded Public Enemy's greatest an A+, was into Prince, loved Daydream Nation. I'm confident that any A he recommends in the new book I can buy with safety, something I've treasured in a critic ever since I was sold a secession of "masterpieces" by U2, the Smithereens and the Cure by Rolling Stone, all of which turned out to have little gas in the can, making me feel cheated. If it wasn't for Christgau's review of Sonic Youth's A Thousand Leaves in 1998, reprinted in full here, I may never have gotten back into a group I'd lost interest in in the early 90s. Now I get such a buzz out of all of their 90s albums, that the least I felt I could do was pay him back with a royalty.The less streamlined grading system is a reflection of nothing more than the impossible task of keeping up with as much as one individual can - few other critics listen to enough to get such context for their judgements. I think he needn't have added turkeys to graded records, and the dud looks more like a bomb than a dud. And after having occasionally experienced frustration with Christgau's language, I finally realised that his words actually operate like rock lyrics, most of which need to be experienced multiple times before you have full appreciation of their meaning. So the book, for me, stands a lot of re-reading.My theory of how to negotiate all the rock criticism out there is that you are lucky if you find one that has your tastes. If you do find such a person, stick with them because they will save you a lot of time and money. I mean, who else are you gonna trust - the marketing? Some local critic whose descriptions don't match the object? Trust your man (or woman). I do.