Christgau's Record Guide -- The '80s

[ed@wente.llnl.gov (Ed Suranyi)]

Quite a while ago Robert Christgau's new record guide was published.
(For all non-Americans:  Christgau is one of the most prominent
American rock critics, and his writing appears frequently in the
Village Voice, Playboy, and other places.)  I'm sure many of you
have already seen this book, but as far as I know it has not
been mentioned in this forum.

The book is called _Christgau's Record Guide:  The '80s_, and
was published by Pantheon.

One should bear in mind that Christgau's views are quite mainstream:
He gave _Born in the USA_ an A+.  However, for what it's worth, here
are the reviews of the four Kate albums in his book:

_The Dreaming_:  The most impressive Fripp/Gabriel-style art-rock
album of the postpunk refulgence makes lines like "I love life" and
"Some say knowledge is something that you never have" say something.
Part of the reason is that Bush is flaky enough to seek a higher plane
in "a hired plane," although as you might expect the resulting analysis
often crumbles under scrutiny.  It also helps that the emotional range of
her singing often approaches its physical range, although when it doesn't
you'd better duck.  But the revelation is the dense, demanding music,
which gets the folk exoticism of art-rock fashion out of mandolins and
uillean pipes and didgeridoos rather than clumsy polyrhythms, and goes
for pop outreach with hooks rather than clumsy polyrhythms.   B+

_Hounds of Love_:  Just as her music says she hopes everyone does, I
respect and like this woman.  Thought it's tempting to slot her with Laura
Nyro, you never get the sense she's a fool -- she's more circa-_Hejira_
Joni Mitchell.  Her best songs can't match their best, but sonically
she's magnificent, outstripping her art-rock mentors, and it would be
churlish to deny her to audiophiles and/or young women seeking independent
role models.  Nevertheless, to be a Romantic with a capital R in 1986
is to be a Victorian like Tennyson, who provides Bush her epigraph.  It
is deliberately to cultivate a sensibility whose time you know perfectly
well has passed.      B

_The Whole Story_:  This extravagantly brainy spiritual sexpot was made
for the Fairlight synthesizer, and her beautifully crafted best-of
proves it.  Even the best of the old U.K. hits she strews among the
tokens of her American breakthrough, 1980's "Army Dreamers,"  lives and
dies with its lyric.  But as she learns to manipulate her electronic
orchestra, which took a while (cf. 1980's "Breathing"), the songs turn
into compositions, so that if the unfettered emotionalism of "Hounds
of Love," say, isn't your cup of tea, you're still rooting for her as she
takes off her shoes and throws them in the lake.  And then there's
"Running Up That Hill," a woman's orgasm in 4:58.     A-

[In what sense could "Army Dreamers" possibly be considered her
American breakthrough?  Has anybody in America ever heard that
song played on the radio?  I haven't.  -- Ed]

_The Sensual World_:  The longing for contact and obliteration are 
themes grand enough to support a little grandiosity, and because she's
smarter than the average art-rocker, she brings something worth telling
to them -- even something worth "expressing."  She knows herself better,
too; typical that her roots move is Trio Bulgarka rather than some
Afro-source having nothing to do with who she is.  Just wish she convinced
me that the Trio Bulgarka had more to do with who I am.  The title song
could give Henry James a boner.  The one where her beloved turns into
Hitler is art-rock.    B

(This is Ed speaking again.)  I'm not going to argue with the validity
of Christgau's opinions.  But I'm confused -- what ARE his opinions?
I THINK he likes her, but I'm not sure.  In each case the grade he
gives is less than I would have expected from the review.  Here's what
Christgau himself says about his grading policy, in the introduction:

In school, B+ is a good grade--almost any student will settle for the
near-excellence it implies.  It's a compliment in the Consumer Guide too.
No record gets a B+ unless half its tracks provide notable satisfaction;
few get a B+ unless at some point I want to hear the thing when it's
not on and I'm still enjoying it after five or so plays.  B+ is my
cutoff point -- it's what I listen for.  Any B+ record I find I write about.
. . . [Talking about what records he chooses to play himself:]  Forget
B+'s.  I've replayed a lot of B+'s over the past year, just to make sure
I hadn't overrated them, and most of them sounded fine.  But unless
duty calls or a visitor makes a request, chances are I'll never find the
opportunity to listen to them again.  And even if we climb up to the A
level, the bulk is overwhelming.  An A- is a record with at least one
intensely enjoyable or rewarding side, plus extra goodies when you turn
it over.

(Ed again.)  I don't know about you, but this makes me even MORE
confused!  From the reviews by themselves, it sounds as if he likes
the albums at least somewhat.  But from the grades (an A-, a B+, and
two Bs), it seems that he didn't like them all that much.  Well,
whatever.

Ed
ed@wente.llnl.gov