New Christgau Consumer Guide From MSN Music

i mean he didn't even bother saying like "bootleg" or something

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).

I'm slightly astonished that we shared a taste in Singles.

Did Ya Rollin' Doo Doo make the 1991 Dean's List?

Bill Magill--I get the impression that your definition of a lame list is one that is not oh, 60% metal (with 'A' reviews)

I do not have the most rounded tastes, which is not good.

Bill Stanton

lol on Lucinda Williams, a permanent member of his Unimpeachable Canon.

Fer chrissakes, he even gave Essence, her only obvious clunker, a freakin' A-minus.

New CG up.

It's untrue that 15 years ago we would've called Untrue trip-hop. M. Burial speeds up and spaces out too much for true trip.

I never knew illbient well enough to attach to anyone. DJ Spooky? Mutamassik? The Wordsound label?

KJBozo u are rong

"It's untrue that 15 years ago we would've called Untrue trip-hop. M. Burial's music would have been called dubstep."

MORE DUDS

Various Artists
"After Dark" (Italians Do It Better)

This guy's popularity mystifies me.

I never liked trip-hop or illbient much (and I don't like Burial much), so I'm not the one to ask.

Strangely, though, I am a little more interested in hearing those Go! Team, No Age, and Manu Chao albums now. But who knows if I'll ever get around to it.

Untrue is totally dubstep gone trip-hop. I thought that was obvious. And I love the album for it.

(Actually, I've otherwise had pretty much no use for dubstep, but tip-hop is a-ok by me.)

*trip-hop, although Q-Tip and T.I.P. are good by me, too

So, I should probably ask Bob this myself, but does anybody understand why he would think "Feminists don't have a sense of humor" is such a hilarious line? (Is it just that, like, Nellie McKay is a feminist, and she clearly has a sense of humor, so it's ironic? Cute, I guess, but it's hard to see why it would leave anybody rolling on the floor. Though no doubt it's funnier in the context of the song, at least for people who like Nellie.) (I don't hate her, though I also haven't paid that much attention.)

Keyshia Cole
"Just Like You" (Geffen)
Well, maybe not exactly like you ("Let It Go," "Just Like You").

The hell is this supposed to mean?

Amerie
"Work That"
("Because I Love It" [Sony/BMG])

The choice cut on the Amerie album is from the MJB album?

http://music.msn.com/music/consumerguide/dudofthemonth
Have to say, I kind of agree with him regarding Stars of the Lid.

Yeah, don't know the record but I liked that opening line: One of those records -- they abound in "post-rock" -- that get nothing but raves because only believers bother to listen.

The-Dream haters? Go suck an egg!

Love,
Matlock

I am going to be soooo bummed when the CG eventually ends.

Chuck, he's just saying that (allegedly) some netcrits didn't even get it was a joke while the friends he plays it for "giggle." Giggle is not rolling on the floor.

This is gonna make me revisit No Age (whose lyrical and emotional content really passed me by) and Burial (though "not quite Maxinquaye" equals "not quite I barely care when my co-workers throw this on every few months").

I love how the CG comes out on the first of the month even if the first is a sunday.

Maybe he's just lazy -- it's not like he's a work ethic guy.

haha

He's got his little traps and his foibles and his insular references (most good guitar rock bands wanna be the Voidoids you know) and any artist that has ever personally criticized him is honored with As to A-s for life, but he's a sixtysomething who says sharp, insightful, atypical stuff about music by twentysomethings. That's outstanding.

i hate how the CG comes out on the first of the month, rather than the 31st or the 30th or the 29th or...

are you busy depositing checks or something?

You know something, anthony is right.
(xpost)

Cute, I guess, but it's hard to see why it would leave anybody rolling on the floor.

True, but Xgau never said it would leave anybody rolling on the floor - he said it made the people he played it for giggle - which sounds about right to me.

And it is funnier with the music.

Nellie McKay is funny!

She is - though her sense of humor is pretty far down the list of things I would cite as her best qualities though - somewhere below her sense of melody, knack for an unsual arrangement, wide-open ears, formal playfulness, lovely voice, etc.

xgau is obviously less of a woman-hater than i am, but i think he's missing that those netcrits look at her funny because the line signifies as 'nellie mckay don't have no sense of humor'. she's the girl who thinks she's put upon because she's a girl, not because she's a nerd. randy newman had less self-regard and a smaller stuffed-animal collection.

oh i missed this part

I agree -- she's scattered, unfinished, self-indulgent. But she's also ebullient, funny and political.

maybe I should seek out more of the latter, but the former put me off doing so

I have nothing against her or her stuffed animals, and Anthony and O. Nate are right -- xgau said giggle, not rofl. I guess the line doesn't even make me giggle, at least not on paper. Though right: with music attached, it well might. (On the other hand, maybe the netcrits -- who I haven't read -- just didn't think the joke was even worth giggling about.)

[One of those records -- they abound in "post-rock" -- that get nothing but raves because only believers bother to listen.

And yeah, this is great -- The metacritic fallacy in a nutshell. (Assuming Stars on the Lid scored high there.)

randy newman had less self-regard and a smaller stuffed-animal collection

And a much squeakier voice.

yup, haha -- 88% "universal acclaim" (xpost)

Assuming Stars on the Lid scored high there.
They did — #4 in 2007, behind Burial, The Field and Radiohead.

And a much squeakier voice

kinda like the yelp of fellow jew ezra koenig. i haven't studied carefully the loveliness of her voice, but someone who's really looking for that sort of quality might prefer, say, kelli o'hara, at least in her more tasteful operatic mode. i realize that xgau's writing in the contexts of a) rock and b) subbacultcha, but i'm not gonna give him too much ground there if he's puzzled at why a generation of kids for whom 1985 rather than 1955 is retro haven't rushed to crown her their queen.

she's likely smarter and more interesting and probably more tuneful than fiona apple, but the latter simply deploys her talent rather than saying 'look at me, i'm so talented' at every turn.

oh, the voice comment was you, not xgau, i see

I'm not surprised that the youth generation hasn't rushed to crown her either. And I agree that her sensibility is more 1950s than it is 1980s or 2000s or whatever. I actually don't care too much whether she garners mainstream success, and judging by the fact that her albums are getting weirder, I don't think she does either.

yeah, i noticed the getting weirder part too, which i think was part of what put me off her

i'm kinda disappointed xgau didn't uncharacteristically laud technical skill - i was all set with my petitions on behalf of mariah carey and the indigo girls and hair metal

any artist that has ever personally criticized him is honored with As to A-s for life

Who else beside Lou Reed? He also likes artists who are married. But yeah, he is one of the greats.

Whoops, make believe those are italics, not a hot link.