Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau contributes regular music reviews to All Things Considered.
Christgau began writing rock criticism for Esquire in 1967 and became a columnist at New York's Village Voice in 1969. He moved to °µºÚ±¬ÁÏday in 1972, but in 1974 returned to the Voice, where he was the music editor for the next 10 years. From 1985 to 2006, he was a senior editor at the weekly as well as its chief music critic. He is best known for the Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll, for over 30 years the nation's most respected survey of rock-critical opinion, and his Consumer Guide column, where he began to publish letter-graded capsule album reviews in 1969. The Consumer Guide is now published by MSN Networks. Christgau is also a senior critic at Blender.
Christgau has taught at several colleges and universities, most extensively NYU, where after stints with the English and journalism departments, he now teaches music history in the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music. In 1987, he won a Guggenheim fellowship to study the history of popular music. In 2002, he was a senior fellow at the National Arts Journalism Program, where he is now a member of the national board. He was the keynote speaker at the first EMP Pop Conference in 2002, and a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University in 2007.
Christgau has published five books: the collections Any Old Way You Choose It (1973) and Grown Up All Wrong (1998), and three record guides based on his Consumer Guide columns. He has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The London Times, Playboy, The New Yorker, Video Review, Blender, Spin, The Nation, Salon, Believer, numerous alt-weeklies and many other publications. Most of his writing can be read on his website, robertchristgau.com. His capsule reviews are also part of the editorial content at the online music service Rhapsody.
Christgau was born in 1942. He attended New York City public schools and got his B.A. from Dartmouth in 1962. He married Carola Dibbell in 1974. In 1985, they became parents of a daughter, Nina.
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Based first in Kansas, then in California, now in Connecticut, the members of Mates of State have been making music for 15 years. Still, their ebullient new album is a sonic surprise. -
The Chicago rapper continues to embody troubled, dysfunctional characters of his own creation on the new Family and Friends. -
The Stockholm production trio gleefully morphs from style to style on Devil's Music. -
Those Darlins hooked up at the Southern Girls Rock 'n' Roll Camp, which bassist Kelley Darlin founded in 2003. Critic Robert Christgau is glad to see the band finally playing rock, as well. -
Spending her early career in the British punk band X-Ray Spex, Poly Styrene is no stranger to making musical statements of principle on her own idiosyncratic terms. Her new album is Generation Indigo. -
The supergroup, which includes members of R.E.M. and The Dream Syndicate, takes fandom seriously on its second disc of songs about the national pastime. -
The art-punk duo touches on its speedy skater roots on a thrilling new album. If the propulsive riffs on Everything in Between drive a few softies from the room, the songs have served their purpose.
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The Toronto band Tokyo Police Club features a group of young, self-taught musicians. Over the years, their energetic sound has evolved from crude beginnings, and music critic Robert Christgau says their new Champ feels more deliberate and thoughtful -- part of a healthy growing process for a constantly evolving band.
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On her fifth studio album, the neo-soul diva sings often-ambiguous lyrics that move back and forth from her "honey boo" to her career. It's a concept that critic Robert Christgau says is trickier than it appears. While The Sellout might not be a full-scale commercial comeback, it's a spiritual one -- complete with Gray's unforgettable voice, a bit less kink and a whole lot of cheese.
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The New Jersey band's sophomore album, The Monitor, runs fast guitar music through its leader's obsession with military history. Reviewer Robert Christgau says he's impressed by the ambition of Patrick Stickles and company.
