So (film critic) Rex Reed just died, two-three years my senior. Before we get bent out of shape in sorrow, let the record show that Reed once opined in re Aretha Franklin: "Probably the worst ballad singer I've ever heard."

Belatedly, I know—I just turned 84, did some hospital time, give me a break—the 2025 Dean's List is finally up at my Substack. If you can honestly say you knew what my #1 would be I will donate to the charity of your choice. I sure didn't until I put my ears to it open.substack.com/pub/robertch...

Always worth a read. My favorite thing Bob writes each year.

Belatedly, I know—I just turned 84, did some hospital time, give me a break—the 2025 Dean's List is finally up at my Substack. If you can honestly say you knew what my #1 would be I will donate to the charity of your choice. I sure didn't until I put my ears to it open.substack.com/pub/robertch...

A link courtesy of my daughter Nina alerted me to David Byrne's all too timely and relevant Coachella version of "Life During Wartime." www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

Willie Nelson singing Merle Haggard as good as Merle himself. Robyn's experimental glow-up at 46. De La Soul honoring Trugoy the Dove. And a Kansan who'll "work for food and beg for sex.” All this and more in the new Consumer Guide on Substack. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

Willie Nelson singing Merle Haggard as good as Merle himself. Robyn's experimental glow-up at 46. De La Soul honoring Trugoy the Dove. And a Kansan who'll "work for food and beg for sex.” All this and more in the new Consumer Guide on Substack. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

Belatedly, I know--I'm pleading hospitalization for the delay--there's a new Consumer Guide up at my And It Don't Stop Substack. open.substack.com/pub/robertch...

just saw this movie. one of the cutest couples i’ve ever seen. xgau is truly a legend.

Just spent an enjoyable half a week in Austin at SXSW, where the big attraction for moi was for the first time ever moi: that is, a documentary film called The Last Critic starring me and my favorite person in the world, initials CD. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/film-comment

Yay. Can't wait to see this!

Carola and I at SXSW, where the music & socializing were great but the main attraction was The Last Critic, a feature-length doc directed by Matty Wishnow whose subject was none other than rock critic Robert Christgau—with serious minutes for his longtime advisor Carola Dibbell. Fun, fun, fun.

Carola and I at SXSW, where the music & socializing were great but the main attraction was The Last Critic, a feature-length doc directed by Matty Wishnow whose subject was none other than rock critic Robert Christgau—with serious minutes for his longtime advisor Carola Dibbell. Fun, fun, fun.

In this month’s Xgau Sez on Substack: Growing up pop, band dreams vs. critical practice, The Only Ones on record and in print, Yankee Hotel Mea Culpa, the Tallahatchie Bridge not taken, and sixteen live ones. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-m...

In case you missed it it's my self-promoting privilege to note the new Xgau Sez out there. And while I'm at the mic, let me also announce that Carola and I will be appearing IN PERSON at SXSW, where the Xgau biopic The Last Critic will also be featured. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-m...

In this month’s Xgau Sez on Substack: Growing up pop, band dreams vs. critical practice, The Only Ones on record and in print, Yankee Hotel Mea Culpa, the Tallahatchie Bridge not taken, and sixteen live ones. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-m...

The latest Consumer Guide at And It Don't Stop on Substack, with reviews of Aesop Rock, Buck 65, Masaka Kids Africana, The Paranoid Style, The Cucumbers, Gogol Bordello, Madonna, Charli XCX, Abdallah Oumbadougou's desert blues, and more. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

When I began writing songs, it was outside the limits of my imagination that I'd ever get an A grade from Robert Christgau for any of my records. Today's Consumer Guide marks five full A's in a row for the Paranoid Style. Sharp as ever. I couldn't be more grateful. open.substack.com/pub/robertch...

The latest Consumer Guide at And It Don't Stop on Substack, with reviews of Aesop Rock, Buck 65, Masaka Kids Africana, The Paranoid Style, The Cucumbers, Gogol Bordello, Madonna, Charli XCX, Abdallah Oumbadougou's desert blues, and more. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

Bird lives, the Dead come alive, and Xgau Sez is back—all this and more at And It Don't Stop. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-f...

Bird lives, the Dead come alive, and Xgau Sez is back—all this and more at And It Don't Stop. robertchristgau.substack.com/p/xgau-sez-f...

Thomas Anderson, Armand Hammer, Zach Bryan, Dry Cleaning, Al Green, Husker Du, Nandipha808, Grant Peeples, and Tommy Womack all get the full treatment at the latest Consumer Guide at my And It Don't Stop Substack robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

Thomas Anderson, Armand Hammer, Zach Bryan, Dry Cleaning, Al Green, Husker Du, Nandipha808, Grant Peeples, and Tommy Womack all get the full treatment at the latest Consumer Guide at my And It Don't Stop Substack robertchristgau.substack.com/p/consumer-g...

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...