As I hope you already know, there's a new Springsteen song called "Streets of Minneapolis." I'm going on my fifth listen myself. If it's your first, you may well be saddened but you won't be sorry. youtu.be/wWKSoxG1K7w?...

As the kids say, some news: www.thelastcriticfilm.com

A rave review not about an album praises the Langone emergency room at 30th Street, which beset by 80-something urinary difficulties I dared visit on a mobbed Saturday night, where many cordial, gifted, efficient MDs spent hours fixing me up. Home around 230, slept well all night. Thanks so much.

FKA Twigs vs. Madonna, Phish as feh, hail to Joe Boyd, editing classical, and wanking is better than nothing in the Xmas 2025 Xgau Sez robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-d...

FKA Twigs vs. Madonna, Phish as feh, hail to Joe Boyd, editing classical, and wanking is better than nothing in the Xmas 2025 Xgau Sez robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-d...

I admit it—the big kahuna in the Xmas 2025 edition of the Consumer Guide came out circa 1990. So don't put off a quick read. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

Several readers have written wondering how they might perhaps obtain the new Moby Grape album I just Consumer Guided with the band's Facebook page I recommended insufficient. I hope Alice Langdon, who suggested this path, won't mind if I provide her email address: [email protected]

I admit it—the big kahuna in the Xmas 2025 edition of the Consumer Guide came out circa 1990. So don't put off a quick read. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

A curious Christgau, a futile cassette dig, live versus recorded, tuneful versus melodic, remembering Pulnoc, and the lineaments of delight are all addressed in the Thanksgiving edition of Xgau Sez at my irrepressible Substack And It Don't Stop. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-n...

A curious Christgau, a futile cassette dig, live versus recorded, tuneful versus melodic, remembering Pulnoc, and the lineaments of delight are all addressed in the Thanksgiving edition of Xgau Sez at my irrepressible Substack And It Don't Stop. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-n...

The outpouring of mourning for the great and hilarious "alt-country" genius Todd Snider seemed an excellent reason to devote this month's Big Lookback to a Barnes & Noble Review appreciation I wrote about Snider more than a decade ago. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/the-big-lo...

The outpouring of mourning for the great and hilarious "alt-country" genius Todd Snider seemed an excellent reason to devote this month's Big Lookback to a Barnes & Noble Review appreciation I wrote about Snider more than a decade ago. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/the-big-lo...

Have felt, since I read this piece in its moment that Christgau shares below, that he was the critic who really understood Todd Snider. (Or maybe it was just that I felt the same ways... )

A major writer of enduring consequence. I read last week that he was too sick to be on the road and too broke to be off it. Awful people indulge themselves in despicable rationalizations about life choices and lost highways, but it's murder most foul. I don't think I can take this business anymore.

Christgau captured the magic of Todd Snider well. RIP, Todd.

A great read on the late (I still can't believe it) Todd Snider.

I'm very sorry to report that the great alt-country singer-songwriter Todd Snider has died at 59 of undiagnosed walking pneumonia. I stick by what I wrote about him in 2012. www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bn/2012-0... Here's Rolling Stone's coverage. www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

The November Consumer Guide now up on my Substack addresses this despondent political moment directly only once but I may cheer you up in otherways robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

The November Consumer Guide now up on my Substack addresses this despondent political moment directly only once but I may cheer you up in otherways robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

A well-timed way for someone of my religious beliefs to celebrate Mahmdani Day was provided by my sister Georgia, who devoted a UK sojourn to a portrait of Pete Seeger's younger sister Peggy in a nation where socialism is at least respectable. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/at-home-wi...

Union man Tom Smucker, my friend for 57 years and upstairs neighbor for pushing 50, read a lot of books about the 2024 election and then wrote 4000 words about them. A politically savvy overview you shouldn't skip. And he melded some music in there too. www.firstofthemonth.org/author/tom-s...

Good piece, part 1 about politics books I've not read and part 2 about music films I have.

Union man Tom Smucker, my friend for 57 years and upstairs neighbor for pushing 50, read a lot of books about the 2024 election and then wrote 4000 words about them. A politically savvy overview you shouldn't skip. And he melded some music in there too. www.firstofthemonth.org/author/tom-s...

Paging through the Times as I downed some coffee, I glanced casually at Penelope Green's obit of Marlene Dietrich's daughter Maria Riva, who just died at 100. Couldn't stop reading. Researched mostly in secondary sources, it proved an absolutely devastating reflection on the perversions of fame.

A well-timed way for someone of my religious beliefs to celebrate Mahmdani Day was provided by my sister Georgia, who devoted a UK sojourn to a portrait of Pete Seeger's younger sister Peggy in a nation where socialism is at least respectable. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/at-home-wi...

Having chosen to watch a documentary to help my wife and I go to sleep a week or so ago, I ended up so moved and impressed that I felt compelled to spread the news about the late anthropologist Jane Goodall's "famous last words." robertchristgau.substack.com/p/a-compelli...

Even scarier (I hope) than Trump's third-term dreams, ProPublica (via TPM) outlines how the North Carolina Supreme Court has been rejiggered to turn it sharply right, with special attention to those uppity nonwhite voters. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/biblica...

I'm not webwise enough to follow or fully comprehend the ins and outs of online election trolling. But this Marcy Wheeler piece on rightwing information distortion posted by Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo is recommended to those capable of fully grasping it talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/witho...

🚨Officer Michael Fanone keeping it short and sweet. ✊🏼

I watch Lawrence O'Donnell a lot, but his first 20 minutes tonight was breathtaking: an out-and-out attack not just on Trump but on the media he manipulates INCLUDING NOT JUST CNN BUT MSNBC ITSELF. Carola's under the weather and I'm a tech doofus. But if anybody's taped it let me know.

Having chosen to watch a documentary to help my wife and I go to sleep a week or so ago, I ended up so moved and impressed that I felt compelled to spread the news about the late anthropologist Jane Goodall's "famous last words." robertchristgau.substack.com/p/a-compelli...

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo asked his readers to send him No Kings Day photos. Lighten your spirits for a few minutes by checking them out. However temporarily, we do still have a sense of humor. talkingpointsmemo.com/gallery/phot...

Sixty years of great music, the statistically decisive rise of the CD, francais vs. anglais, grading A-to-E, Gratitude, and Geese inspire me to fill out the October 2025 edition of Xgau Sez in my Substack whosawhatsis And It Don't Stop robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-o...

Sixty years of great music, the statistically decisive rise of the CD, francais vs. anglais, grading A-to-E, Gratitude, and Geese inspire me to fill out the October 2025 edition of Xgau Sez in my Substack whosawhatsis And It Don't Stop robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-o...

The October Consumer Guide is more about love than about the onslaught of fascism, which I wish I could tell you bodes well for a loving future. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

The October Consumer Guide is more about love than about the onslaught of fascism, which I wish I could tell you bodes well for a loving future. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

This month's And It Don't Stop hands the ball to my wife Carola Dibbell, who as a transplanted Londoner way back in 1968 was knocked out of her socks by this American singer she'd never heard of named Janis Joplin. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/the-big-lo...

This month's And It Don't Stop hands the ball to my wife Carola Dibbell, who as a transplanted Londoner way back in 1968 was knocked out of her socks by this American singer she'd never heard of named Janis Joplin. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/the-big-lo...

Chagrined to report that the new Xgau Sez is marred by an oversight — failed to name the greatest Samuel R. Delany novel: Dhalgren. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-s...

Chagrined to report that the new Xgau Sez is marred by an oversight — failed to name the greatest Samuel R. Delany novel: Dhalgren. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-s...

This month's edition of Christgau's Consumer Guide features a link to Peter Stampfel's 23 pages of notes to "Song Shards," his highly recommended single-disc assembly of 66 jingles, some of which also count as hymns. I strongly suggest you check it out. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

This month's edition of Christgau's Consumer Guide features a link to Peter Stampfel's 23 pages of notes to "Song Shards," his highly recommended single-disc assembly of 66 jingles, some of which also count as hymns. I strongly suggest you check it out. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

I just wrote at some length about the highly recommended Ed Sullivan doc Sunday Best. Awkward occasionally, but it holds up. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/a-really-g...

I just wrote at some length about the highly recommended Ed Sullivan doc Sunday Best. Awkward occasionally, but it holds up. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/a-really-g...

Looking forward to what that immaterial motherfucker AI has to say about the August 2025 edition of Xgau Sez robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-a...

Kentucky troubadour explores the world, New Zealand ingenue explores Canal Street, and Greenwich Villagers can't stop won't stop in the August '25 edition of the unstoppable Consumer Guide robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

Kentucky troubadour explores the world, New Zealand ingenue explores Canal Street, and Greenwich Villagers can't stop won't stop in the August '25 edition of the unstoppable Consumer Guide robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

Dug out some early not actually hyperbolic contextualization of the insufficiently legendary Mekons for this week's Big Lookback at my Substack newspiece And It Don't Stop. open.substack.com/pub/robertch...