Rating: 
Summary: Save your money, and simply visit Christgau's Web site
Review: If you scroll through the 30-some-odd reviews for Christgau's Albums of the 90's, you'll find my original four-star review. I'm sticking to the four stars (I really think Christgau is one of the top reviewers out there), but I thought that consumers would want to know that ALL of Christgau's reviews (including the reviews published in this book) are available free on the Web site. In fact, I give the Web site five stars (ten stars) because all of his 70's and 80's reviews are also catalogued there. I made the mistake of purchasing Robert's book, but don't you do the same. Just click on over to the Web site.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money, and simply visit Christgau's Web site
Review: If you scroll through the 30-some-odd reviews for Christgau's Albums of the 90's, you'll find my original four-star review. I'm sticking to the four stars (I really think Christgau is one of the top reviewers out there), but I thought that consumers would want to know that ALL of Christgau's reviews (including the reviews published in this book) are available free on the Web site. In fact, I give the Web site five stars (ten stars) because all of his 70's and 80's reviews are also catalogued there. I made the mistake of purchasing Robert's book, but don't you do the same. Just click on over to the Web site.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time.
Review: It's comforting to know, that before art and pop culture are gone, Christgau will be gone. His intelli-prole tone of authority
rings throughout this book, giving it no useful heft at all.
If you read this to aid in your music consumption endeavors, very little hope lies ahead. If you read it for entertainment/stimulation...you can't be saved anyway.
F minus
Rating:
Summary: No Carbuerator Dung, but pretty good!
Review: It's verse is choppy as suey; it's opinion, biased as all hell, mean-spirited and stubborn. In short, I like it. It's what makes a music critic useful to me - he's a fan. He's not afraid to be wrong, which makes him right most of the time.
Rating: 
Summary: Love Him, Hate Him, but Read Him
Review: Nobody writes more thoroughly about the varieties of music now available at your local CD store than Christgau. However, if you want a cheering section for your favorite artist/group (as a number of the folks who have reviewed this book seem to think C. should be about), then this may not be your best way to spend twenty bucks or so. He'll like some of them, sure, and it's a little high I suppose to have your own faves blessed by Bellwether Bob. Personally, I think he's dead wrong in many cases (Syd Straw and Nick Cave for two), but reading Christgau take a figurative meat cleaver to overrated critic faves is always a pleasure -- even if you disagree with his views. Also, I like the way -- unlike the standard Rolling Stone or Spin critic -- Christgau doesn't write in hushed awe at the Temple of Rock and Rap. Music around the world (and Christgau is VERY around the world here, lots of groups/singers you've never heard of) is supposed to be entertainment, after all, not a monument for the ages, and Christgau approaches his work as a avid listener. That, combined with the man's way with words makes him your best guide available if you are looking to move your musical tastes in some directions you haven't tried before.
Rating:
Summary: Smug, Nasty & Beyond Redemption..
Review: Quite possibly the worst CD\record guide ever published. So smug and high-handed are Christgau's mean-spirited review's, that the self-proclaimed "dean of rock critics" has finally out-smarted himself. Christgau gets his jollies touting the "genius" of Notorious B.I.G (Christgau, ..., affectionately quotes B.I.G's lyrics about "Beatin up M***** F****'s"), while flippantly dismissing the likes of Blur, Oasis and Radiohead. For instance Blur's "Parklife" named by Mojo Magazine as the Best of the Decade doesn't warrant a single word in Christagau's book. Amazing, that a so-called informed "journalist", is clueless to a highly-regarded piece of work. Of course, he raves on in typical "hipper-than-thou" fashion about the likes of P.J Harvey, Alanis, and the Backstreet Boys while dismissing The Beatles Anthology Two with a Bomb! Yeah, right on Bob, outtakes from "Revolver" and "Sgt.Pepper" somehow pale in comparison with the Backstreeters and P.J. (can anyone recall ANY of her tuneless songs?). If this guide were written by an uninformed teen or twenty-something, the lack of knowledge presented here would almost be excusable. But, for a guy who gloats about possessing the most knowledgeable set of ears on this planet, this is beyond comprehension. Of course, opinions are all subjective and none of us will ever agree all the time. However, what ultimately destroys this book and it's author, is the overall condescending, know-it-all tone. In effect, Christgau has become a characature who appears desperate to show the world how hip he's become post mid-life crisis. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Bleeker Bob Still Rating the Records
Review: Robert Christgau has been my favorite music critic since I first encountered him in the early 1970s in the Village Voice and he still dug Lesley Gore. In fact, I met him once and we discussed Gore's merits one afternoon in 1975 when I was in Manhattan. Over the years I have tried to never miss an installment of the Consumer Guide, and I still love his writing. His taste in music has moved further and further away from my own as the sheer number of CD releases has exploded, and I often either disagree with his reviews or simply have never heard of the artists he champions. Regardless of that, he is still the Dean of Rock Critics with his terse, succinct, one-paragraph-or-less reviews. I got the most pleasure from this book when he reviewed artists whose work I am familiar with, and rates several of their CDs with comments. Never less than enjoyable reading, I wish there was more discussion of the mainstream r&b, hip hop and pop I enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty useless, the nadir of music writing
Review: Robert Christgau has been reviewing records forever, and it's starting to show. From what I understand, he listens to thousands of records a year, and he determines his rating after one, maybe two spins. How can anyone determine the worth of music after that many plays? Then there's his indecipherable rating system, in which records are given star ratings, or letter grades, or icons to determine their worth. This would be more palatable if he were a decent writer, but he's not. Christgau is more concerned with tossing off cranky one-liners and implicitly calling attention to his own cleverness, and less concerned with telling readers why he liked an album. And even if he is telling you why he liked it, try to get through his unreadable blather. Or try to glean insight from some of his 4-5 word reviews of albums. This guide isn't really a guide as much as it is something to look over and have a few laughs about, you're not going to learn anything new. And another important point: this guy is old. Most of the music he reviews is not made for his ears. This guy is not out there as a part of any musical scene, he's sitting in an office listening to music, unable to understand the context in which it is made, not part of the living, breathing musical life that people half his age are a part of. The 'professor' nickname is right, since he tackles music as a cultural study, as one might study a civilization. His writing reflects that, because it doesn't convey any passion for music, nor anything as soul-baring as love or respect for the artists he admires. He's dry, boring, and analytical. And much like one shouldn't trust a tenured professor to tell you all about a sub-Saharan culture when he's never left the States, one shouldn't trust Robert Christgau to tell you which new CDs to acquire. He's 65 or something, for God's sake.
Rating:
Summary: The Only Critic Who Matters
Review: Robert Christgau has been writing rock criticism for over 35 years. He has graded over 12,000 albums. That's TWELVE THOUSAND. He's almost certainly heard more albums than anyone in history. When I read any other critic (not to mention outspoken laymen), my response is "Is that your opinion based on the 6 albums you've heard?" This book is the definitive work on the music of the 1990's. Oh no. Did he give OK Computer a B-? And What's The Story Morning Glory only got an honorable mention? And Anthology 2 got a dud? Yes. Have you heard Iris Dement: My Life? D J Shadow: Entroducing... D J Shadow? Freedy Johnston: Can You Fly? The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs? Have you heard The Rolling Stones: Exile On Main Street? Every critic panned it when it came out except one.
Rating:
Summary: Looking Back on the 90's
Review: Robert Christgau's book on the 70's album is a great read and invaluable tool. His book on the 90's is not quite up to that level, but is still an invaluable information source. Unlike his book on the 70's, Mr. Christgau does not provide a written review of every album that an artist released. Only the albums that he actually reviewed in the Village Voice appear in the longer review form. He also doesn't give letter grades to all releases, but gives varying degrees of stars to honorable mention releases, bombs and turkeys to some losers, a ham for choice cuts (singles) and even gives a grade of neither for releases that do not elicit a favorable or unfavorable reaction. Mr. Christgau's introduction to the book details his reviewing process and it is quite revealing.
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