Xgau Sez: October, 2025

Let us praise first-rate collections of first-rate songs but let us skip the twenty-four albums awarded some variation of the E grade. Also: albums vs. songs, Mary J. Blige, Geese, and chansons.

From A+ to E

I’ve noticed that in the ‘90s you reviewed a lot of compilations of ‘50s and ‘60s artists. What’s more, many of these garnered exceptionally favourable reviews—James Brown, the Coasters, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions, the Shirelles, and Howlin’ Wolf all garnered A pluses, whilst Johnny Cash, the Chantels, Ray Charles, Lee Dorsey, the Drifters, the Everly Brothers, Slim Harpo, Buddy Holly, Little Willie John, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, the Marvelettes, Wilson Pickett, Huey “Piano” Smith, the Temptations, Gene Vincent, Muddy Waters and Jackie Wilson were all awarded full A’s. My theory as to why this might be the case is that most if not all of these artists were included in your ‘50s and ‘60s Basic Record Library in your ‘70s and ‘80s Consumer Guides, and by the ‘90s you had moved on to CDs and many of your long-beloved comps by these (mostly singles) artists were vinyl-only if not out of print all together. — Jamie Dangerous, Sunderland, UK

Right. The ‘90s were a boom time for the music industry, driven in part by the arrival of almost everything old in a new format: CDs. Consumer Guide is at heart exactly that, a guide, and when a first-rate collection of first-rate songs arrived in the mail, consumer guidance often followed. With a few exceptions, most of the artists you list above recorded a lot of first-rate songs but didn’t conceive their output in terms of albums, which at their best tend to be structured so they flow, to include tracks that may not be irresistible on their own but intrarelate (note: the previous word is not “interrelate,” although that can happen with successions of songs as well). Greatest hits records hit home differently, track by track by track. Unsurprisingly, they suit artists who rode through their careers on the strength of memorable songs–some hits, some evocative of similar hits, others strung together by the artist in question’s unique style and vocal identity.

I have a dumb question that has bothered me since I bought my first copy of Rock Albums of the ‘70s back in college: why E rather than F? For years I thought it must be a joke you didn’t bother spelling out (E for “Existentially Awful?”), then thought perhaps it’s a New York City public school thing. So please, for a lifelong fan who owes you for introducing me to hundreds of great records and many of my favorite bands, why doesn’t a terrible record get an F? — Gary Mairs, Los Angeles

Remembering with certainty why I made that call half a century ago is pretty much impossible, but I can certainly see a logic there. A, B, C, and D don’t stand for anything. They’re the first four letters of the alphabet, just as 1, 2, 3, 4 are the first four numbers. To resort to F, which clearly stands for “Fail,” would be to abandon that logic. E gives us five grades, with E the lowest and “Plus” and “Minus” available for further detail work. But did I ever actually resort to E Plus or E Minus? I dimly recall doings, and by checking my site—Tom Hull is unstoppable—have determined that there are seven E+’s, fifteen E’s, and two E-’s (Aorta, Kim Fowley).

I find myself recently listening more to individual songs than full length albums. Do you think you may be missing something by focusing on albums, including great songs by one-hit wonders or artists without any A albums? Aren’t albums for the most part made up of songs? When listening to albums I do tend to break the album into songs I love, songs I like and songs I don’t like. — David S, Arlington, Virginia

Sure I’m missing something by not searching out singles. I’m also missing something by never visiting New Zealand. But do I hear enough great music in the course of my life? Damn right—few humans hear more, and focusing on albums as I have for 60 years has proven an enriching way to do that.

Hi, Seems to have gone unnoticed by many critics, but any thoughts on the last Mary J. Blige album? — James, Liverpool

I assume you mean 2024’s Gratitude, of which I wasn’t aware until I got this question, which says something about how “unnoticed” it’s been. Streaming it first listen on Spotify as I write and would say solid, as she generally has been. But only time will tell—suitable breakfast music will enable me to check it out with my secret weapon the Carola Test. Would observe for the nonce that that’s what Blige has always been: solid. Would observe that at 54 she’s still an unmistakable pro. Would also observe that pros generally need something a little more scintillating than solid to break into the A list and that I’d handicap this as what I call an Honorable Mention.

The 23 Sept 2025 GQ article about the band Geese, authored by Grayson Haver Carvin, led me to listen to some of their music and the solo album titled Heavy Metal released by band member Cameron Winter. I was surprised and delighted to be moved by some of those tracks in ways reminiscent of first hearing Marquee Moon, Horses, or More Songs About Buildings and Food, i.e. something crafty, good, and new. Given Geese are young and the influences of today’s world on all young artists can be boggling to discern, I would like to know any thoughts you may have about their music.Thank you! — Mike McMann, North Bend, Washington

My suspicion after one play of Geese’s Getting Killed is that your Television/Patti/Talking Heads comparison is a bit hyper. But I’ll certainly play it again and at a guess would allow as how it might be some kind of A.

One of my favorite of your CG reviews is the one for Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man—analogizing what he did to chanson not only opened his work up for me (even more), it also opened up chanson itself—albeit, after a LONG period of threading my way around my own rock & roll grain—or African-American-informed-music grain—just to tolerate it. You gave a Serge Gainsbourg comp a shrug, and I’m not surprised (I like him, but oh that bullshit meter). Yet I’m wondering if there have been any actual chansonnier(s) that might go on a theoretical “Sujets de recherche plus approfondie” list? Not your beat, I realize, but I’m curious. — Mark Bradford, Brooklyn

I may be forgetting something, but I don’t recall a single chansonnier (is there female variant of that term?) who’s rung my chimes. I miss the African-American groove too much is one problem. But a while back I gave an A minus to a 2010 album called Bad Reputation: Pierre de Gaillande Sings Georges Brassens, in which de Gaillande translates and sings a bunch of Brassens’s chansons. I ranked it 31st in that year’s Dean’s List. So I found it in my shelves and gave it a spin, which sounded damn good, funny and occasionally filthy (it’s on Spotify). I read French moderately well, but I barely speak it unless I’m ordering food. Carola’s French is quite good and when we’ve vacationed there she’s run the show and saved our asses. Similarly, both she and Nina have run the show when we’ve visited Italy, where Nina’s studied the language a little, although I do the driving, which in Italy is something to brag about.