THE CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Aerosmith: “Get Your Wings” (Columbia). Musicianly (all things are relative) inheritors of the Grand Funk principle: If a hard rock band is going to be dumb, it might as well be American dumb. B. Blue Oyster Cult: “Secret Treaties” (Columbia).
THE CHRISTGOU COMSUMER GUIDE
by Robert Christgou
Aerosmith: “Get Your Wings” (Columbia). Musicianly (all things are relative) inheritors of the Grand Funk principle: If a hard rock band is going to be dumb, it might as well be American dumb. B.
Blue Oyster Cult: “Secret Treaties” (Columbia). Sometime over the past year, while I wasn’t listening to any of their albums, I realized that a cross between Uriah Heep and the Velvet Underground was not my idea of a good time. Free Buck Dharma! B minus.
Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band: “Unconditionally Guaranteed” (Mercury). I always suspected that underneath the naive surrealism the Captain might be a dumbbell, and now that he’s singing Andy DiMartino’s lyrics he’s proving it. C.
Deep Purple: “Bum” (Warner Bros.) The hot shit news is that the Purps have a new lead singer who can actually write songs. The dry turd of reality is that the music sounds the same, as ominous and Yurrupean as a vampire movie, only not as campy. Their best. C plus.