CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
Ahh, 1979—what a year. In contemplating the earlier years of the decade, I’ve often found myself forced—by word-of-mouth or historical imperative or getting around to it or sheer dumb luck—back to that banner year, a year that saw more “A” records released than any other in the 70’s. Also very few great ones, but never mind.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
by
Robert Christgau
Ahh, 1979—what a year. In contemplating the earlier years of the decade, I’ve often found myself forced—by word-of-mouth or historical imperative or getting around to it or sheer dumb luck—back to that banner year, a year that saw more “A” records released than any other in the 70’s. Also very few great ones, but never mind. Here’s a few I missed—some very good, some pretty good, some disappointing, some as awful as I’d expected all along. To the best of my knowledge, they’re all in print—many were released toward the very end of the year. But step lively—albums disappear fast these days.
ART BEARS: “Winter Songs” (Ralph ’79):: With its tape loops, orchestral percussion, and artsong timbres, this is as far from rock as guitar-based music canbe; it’s also closer to Eno’s hypnotic repetitions than Henry Cow has ever come: This time the lyrics aren’t so much attempted myths as haiku-like apothegms set in some abstract historical space. They’re not great poetry, but they’re not bad poetry either, which combined with the music makes for pretty good poetry. B +