You definitely piqued my interest with Broadcast. So two duds and zero words, I see. Ouch!
Was about to say that I'm not sure I've ever cared what he thought about non-American acts but then remembered that he's definitely 'got' the likes of the Pet Shop Boys, Go-Betweens and Saint Etienne over decades. (Though, amusingly, on rechecking I see he basically alternated 'dud' and A-, with almost nothing in between, for Saint Etienne. Haha. Madness.)
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Tuesday, 29 September 2020 08:19 (three years ago) link
he got me into Pet Shop Boys and Go-Betweens for example (Saint Etienne too but I don't love them as much)
― g simmel, Tuesday, 29 September 2020 08:33 (three years ago) link
Christgau uses emoticons to indicate, "I put in time listening to this, but have nothing to say about it". I agree that it's useless from a reader's standpoint.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 29 September 2020 12:11 (three years ago) link
Critic and historian Robert Palmer actually reviewed the second edition of the Rolling Stone Guide and Trouser Press back in the day (January 4, 1984):
''The New Rolling Stone Record Guide'' is a partially successful attempt to redress the critical imbalance and poor fact-checking that made the original guide such a mixed blessing. The new volume has some value as a source of information on currently available rock, pop, soul, country, blues, folk, gospel and reggae albums. The new guide is much easier to use. But its rating system, one to five stars as in the jazz magazine ''Downbeat,'' and the prejudices of its editors make its critical evaluations impossible to trust.
The guide is heavily weighted in favor of rock's mainstream traditionalists - artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger and Tom Petty, who are portrayed as ''working- and middle-class Middle Americans struggling against their emotional circumstances, not always winning but never ceasing to fight.'' Even second- string Springsteen and Seger imitators like the Iron City Houserockers get ratings for excellence, while artists who have been far more innovative and influential - the Doors, David Bowie, and most punk and new-wave bands - are rated mediocre-to-good. Mr. Bowie is faulted for something called ''lack of faith in rock''; Mr. Springsteen is praised for making ''no concessions to nonrock.'' These are empty sophistries, characteristic of the book's rear-guard action against new ideas, redolent of a fan-club mentality that penalizes originals for daring to be different while taking the cynical posturings of arena-rock ''populism'' at face value.
''The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records'' makes up for at least some of the Rolling Stone guide's willful distortions. It provides carefully even-handed evaluations of disks by newer artists and bands, and of important recorded work by new-wave predecessors such as David Bowie and the Velvet Underground. There are no ratings; the more impressive disks are simply ''highly'' or ''very highly recommended.''
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 6 October 2020 16:15 (three years ago) link
Yes to writer Robert Palmer ( except for the Doors defense)
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 6 October 2020 21:03 (three years ago) link
I love that, never read it before but it speaks to me deeply as someone who found that RS guide very bewildering when I was 15 and was finally able to get the big picture a few years later with the Trouser Press Guide.
― sleeve, Tuesday, 6 October 2020 21:07 (three years ago) link
Feel like the original was still the greatest, critical imbalance and poor fact-checking aside. Nothing can replace the magic of the randomized five star album cover placement, for one thing.
― Erdős-szám 69 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 October 2020 21:07 (three years ago) link
Trouser Press guide came a little too late for me. I was still missing the magazine but it didn’t fill the void.
― Erdős-szám 69 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 October 2020 21:09 (three years ago) link
Mr. Bowie is faulted for something called ''lack of faith in rock''; Mr. Springsteen is praised for making ''no concessions to nonrock.''
can't stop laughing at this
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 6 October 2020 21:19 (three years ago) link
It’s pretty funny
― Erdős-szám 69 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 October 2020 21:22 (three years ago) link
What I love about Palmer was that rock, for him, was just a beloved bend in the river of American musical forms.
― Julius Caesar Memento Hoodie (bendy), Thursday, 8 October 2020 02:34 (three years ago) link
Mr. Bowie is faulted for something called ''lack of faith in rock''
This about the guy who sang "Rock and Roll With Me"!
― o. nate, Friday, 9 October 2020 20:54 (three years ago) link
oh man Iron City House rockers I spent money on some comp once
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 9 October 2020 20:57 (three years ago) link
“Crazy Little Thing Called Lack Of Faith In Rock”
― Regard the timeless piano balladeeress! (breastcrawl), Friday, 9 October 2020 20:57 (three years ago) link
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Friday, 9 October 2020 21:13 (three years ago) link
Dave Marsh loves his second-string Springsteen imitators. He wrote an article where he asserts that because John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band had a hit single, "no-one is comparing them to Bruce anymore". Of course, now they're only remembered as the Boss's most shameless copyists.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 10 October 2020 17:41 (three years ago) link