• MUSIC

Richard Hell: The Thrill-Seeking Years

In I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp, a punk icon issues a wailing rock memoir.

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  • MUSIC

The Geek Who Came in from the Cold

David Byrne looks back on a life turning questions into ecstacy -- and Jonathan Lethem unpacks the Talking Heads' signature work of nervous transport.

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  • MUSIC

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

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

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  • music

Maturity for Modern Kids

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

  • music

Illygirl Steppin Up

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

  • music

Pops as Pop

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

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  • music

The Triumph of the Id

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

  • music

Smart and Smarter

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

  • music

Resuscitations and Business Plans: The Best Albums of 2009

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

  • music

The Dean's List: The Best Albums of 2009

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

May 25: On this day in 1938 Raymond Carver was born. Carver's poem "Luck," about a nine-year-old who wakes to an empty house and the leftovers of his parents' party, is all too autobiographical: "What luck, I thought. / Years later,…

Angry robots! Aren't they all? Well, not the line of fine science fiction and fantasy books that comes to readers under the rubric Angry Robot. In fact, their offerings…

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Books, CDs, DVDs to know about now
Happy Money

“Money can’t buy happiness” is one of the oldest clichés around, but what if it’s all about how you use it? Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton give compelling advice on how to get the most pleasure out of your piggy bank.

The Philadelphia Chromosome

Expounding the well-known link between genetics and cancer, this scientific history recounts the initial discovery of a gene mutation that eventually led to enormous breakthroughs in the fight against leukemia. 

She Left Me the Gun

Emma Brockes' mother Paula escaped from South Africa with a smuggled pistol and a dark secret.  A daughter unravels her family's covert past -- and a suspenseful legal drama -- in this hard-boiled memoir of survival.