The Dean's List: Christgau's Best of 2011

Robert Christgau's annual rundown of the year's best in pop music.

Read more...

Dad-Rock Makes a Stand

Looking ahead sometimes means looking back.

Read more...

Dark Night of the Quants

Can a wordsmith read his way to comprehension of the global financial mess?

Read more...

Pioneer Days

Two of rock's greatest critics, and why they moved on.

Read more...

Brag Like That

Arrogance—and mastery—in the rhymes of Jay-Z and Kanye West.

Read more...

Not Fade Away

Mining the past for musical pleasures that offer more than than nostalgia.

Read more...

Making Out Like Gangsters

Four new books explore the nexus of business, crime, and the making of popular music.

Read more...

Monster Anthems

Behind Lady Gaga's postmodern spectacle, a voice of surprising power.

Read more...

Sister Oh Sister

A new reissue of early recordings reveals a heartbreaking work of sibling genius.

Read more...

The Righteous Path

The Southern songcraft of the Drive-By Truckers keeps a steady hand on the wheel. Robert Christgau listens to Go-Go Boots.

Read more...

Dancing on Her Own

Robert Christgau gets moved by Swedish pop star Robyn's infectious beats and pugnacious lyrics.

Read more...

Live Albums

The year in pop music: not momentous, so it happens, but still expanding.

Read more...

The Dean's List: Christgau's Best of 2010

A critic's rundown of a year in pop music.

Read more...

Discovering Teranga

A visit to Dakar in pursuit of Senegal's musical treasures.

Read more...

Estudando Tom Zé

Why the world needs to know about Brazil's mad musical genius, Tom Zé.

Read more...

Ain't That a Shame

Four biographies of rock'n'roll greats try to place music legend in the world of documentable fact.

Read more...

Maturity for Modern Kids

The grown-up anthems of Arcade Fire. Read more...

Illygirl Steppin Up

The boundary-eroding music of M.I.A. mashes the personal and the political with toughness, wit, and beats. Read more...

Who Knows It Feels It

Before Bob Marley was a visionary and culture hero, he was a musician.

Read more...

Pops as Pop

Robert Christgau on the enduring power of Louis Armstrong's horn -- and voice.

Read more...

The Triumph of the Id

Why Lil Wayne resides in a musical universe all his own. Read more...

Smart and Smarter

Vampire Weekend’s second outing is no sophomore slump. Read more...

Resuscitations and Business Plans: The Best Albums of 2009

After twelve months of listening, the songs that beg to be heard again. Read more...

The Dean's List: The Best Albums of 2009

Fourscore (plus three) records worth remembering from a year's devoted listening. Read more...

Not So Misterioso

Robin D.G. Kelley's new biography of Thelonious Monk inspires a reflection on a musician and composer whose gifts keep on giving.

Read more...

Paisley's Progress

A country star finds his voice. Read more...

A Classic Illustrated

The creator of Mr. Natural and Fritz the Cat takes on...the Creation.

Read more...

Constructed Social Scenes

The indie-rock bohemias of Toronto, New York, and Chapel Hill -- chronicled by the participants. Read more...

Unbeautiful Winner: Leonard Cohen

Considering Leonard Cohen's place in the Tower of Song. Read more...

Forty Years of History, Thirty Seconds of Joy

Politics and transcendence in the art of the Congolese soukous. Read more...

About the Columnist
Robert Christgau is a critic at All Things Considered, writes for the National Arts Journalism Program's ARTicles blog, teaches in NYU's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, and has published five books. His highly searchable website is robertchristgau.com.

February 10: The Dreadnought Hoax, a practical joke at the British Navy's expense, occurred on this day in 1910. Among the young Bloomsbury conspirators was Virginia Woolf (then Virginia Stephen) and, though she played only a minor…

Once held close to the chest and protected by well-understood laws, the valuable information about our lives that we blithely disclose with our every keystroke has the potential…

Books CDs, DVDs to know about now
Alice James

"The moral and philosophical questions that Henry wrote up as fiction and William as science," Jean Strouse writes of her subject's more famous brothers, "Alice simply lived." It took a biographer of sensitivity and brilliance to give that "simply" the profundity it deserves, and the resulting book, now reissued in the peerless NYRB Classics series, is one of the richest life stories you'll ever read.

Midnight in Austenland

The world of Jane Austen's fiction has long been an imaginative playground for writers and readers of a certain stripe. Shannon Hale's Austenland wittily took the next step, setting comic romance in a faux-Pemberly resort for the Darcy-smitten. Her latest returns for more Regency fun, but with a twist: does murder stalk Pembrook Park?

Humble Homes, Simple Shacks...

Childlike retreat? Arts and crafts challenge? Frugal and eco-friendly living option? The notion of the "tiny house" has the surprising potential to fire the imagination. In this exuberant volume of sketches, plans, and commentary, the artist Derek Diedricksen shares his infectious enthusiasm for the idea of the micro-mansion.