Aqua and Gabba review, 1997

I’m so predictable. But aren’t you glad I don’t hate fun? L.A. Weekly, 5 December 1997

Roxette profile, 1991

Similar to when I interviewed the Pet Shop Boys for the same publication four months earlier, in that both involved highly stressful trips from Philly to a New York that was still terrifyingly foreign territory to me, except that Per Gessle was warmer than Neil Tennant and Marie Fredriksson was colder than Chris Lowe. Though…

Baader Meinhof review, 1997

Can’t argue with 100% certainty that he’s a better singer than say the Suede guy or a better songwriter than say the Pulp guy, but as melodicists they don’t come close, and Luke Haines would remain my favorite ’90s Britpop auteur (small praise, but still) even if that wasn’t his primary band’s name. The album…

Celine Dion defense, 1997

Published a full decade before Carl Wilson’s acclaimed 33 1/3 book about Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love. Just saying. Which isn’t to say I was the first critic to put in a good word for the lady — Simon Frith and Frank Kogan may well have preceded me. Should also note that I overstate my…

Monster Records Metal Reissue Licks, 2004

TRUTH AND JANEY, ERUPTS! In April 1976, an unpretentious numskull trio from some Iowa cowtown recorded this ballroom concert (longest endurance tests 9:05, 8:12, 7:21, 6:51), not issued on double vinyl till the early ’90s, and not on CD till now. To read their backstory, you need their 1,000-pressing 1976 studio LP, No Rest for the…

A Tribe Called Quest review, 1990

One of those reviews that periodically gets Twitter jerkwads and other busybodies cackling about how devastatingly “wrong” history has proven me, as if there’s a right or wrong when it comes to reviews, as if winding up on other people’s best-of-all-time lists proves anything. I gave the album three stars out of five; I might…

The Offspring profile, 1995

I dunno, maybe I gave the subjects of my only Spin cover story ever short shrift in my top 150 albums of 1994/’95 list. The singles on Smash are swell. But beyond that, I just get irritated. Maybe I’ll be able to hear pop-punk again after another decade or two, when I’m in my 70s…

Xuxa review, 1994

Other X acts on my LP or CD shelves: X, Xavier, Xavion, X-Ray Spex, XTC, X___X. Only the first of those has more records there than Xuxa. L.A. Weekly, 20 May 1994

Everclear review, 1997

One of my few section-fronting (and therefore longer) lead reviews in Spin. For some reason I don’t get, Generation Xers (or youngers) who write about music do not seem to remember Art Alexakis all that fondly. Perhaps they just weren’t old enough for him at the time. Spin, November 1997

Two reviews of the same 1995 Michael Jackson album

One of the only times this happened: Two entirely different (albeit seeing eye to eye) longer-than-blurb reviews of the same album, contributed to two different publications with minimal shared readership. For deeper investigations of the troubled and troubling superstar in question, one can consult my writings about Dangerous and Blood on the Dancefloor, both collected…