There are many who bemoan the virtual disappearance of the rock-crit intelligencia from our cultural landscape. After all, newspapers are in decline and writing for the still proliferating web is often seen as too disperse - too everyman.
Hence, we look forward every year to the arrival of the latest edition of The Best Music Writing series from Da Capo Press. Each year, for the last decade, editors (in this case the return of Daphne Carr and the addition of L.A. Times music scribe, Ann Powers) scourer the music press landscape to assemble a disparate concoction of the best of a wide berth of music press. Articles from blogs to the standard bearers are considered for their variety of both format and subject and this year is no different.
The 2010 version is filled with works, long and short, covering a range of topics from pop (a Michael Jackson retrospect, the return of 50 Cent, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind" as a single's review, and `Lady Gaga in Hell') to the more obscure (trekking to Burma with L.A.'s Ozomatli, a post-Katrina touch-base with cajun masters BeauSoleil, a look at Phil Ochs' Greatest Hits and a literary jam compliments of the Disco Biscuits). But the best moments are reserved for three articles in particular: Chris Willman's New York magazine piece on Dylan's Christmas album ("Going electric was one thing, but going Andy Williams?'), Too Much Joy's Tim Quirk's much circulated rant about his Warner Bros. Records royalty statement, and what reveals itself as the centerpiece of the book, Jason Fine's excellent extended opus from Rolling Stone, "The Fighter: The Life & Times of Merle Haggard."
(As an aside, if we are ever going to find a fringe piece as brilliant as the 1969 Rolling Stone review of the Masked Marauders 'super-group' album, this would be the series to run it. Perhaps next year, they will reprint Mick Jagger's must-read, imaginary rant just published by Slate.)
The only new writing here, of course, is the introduction, where this year, Ann Powers is at a distinct disadvantage in having to follow the brilliant interpreter Greil Marcus from last year's volume. In her notes, Powers appropriately bemoans the transfer of rock scribing from the broadsheets to the web and both the power and dilution that spawns from that. (Most notably, that the "dean" of rock critics, Robt. Christgau is now writing for the Barnes & Noble website after being unceremoniously dumped after a lifetime at the Village Voice.) Powers also touches all the bases, giving name checks to the pantheon of rock-crits - Lester Bangs, Cameron Crowe and the aforementioned Marcus and Christgau (hey, where's Landau?). It's also nice to see sources like hip-hop bible XXL, Pitchfork and the 140 Twitter Conference alongside stalwarts like The Atlantic, The New Yorker and the grey lady herself.
The only complaint here falls to Powers herself. Normally a strong writer, (her recent Elton John/Leon Russell L.A. concert review slayed many readers) her introduction here, at times, slips into self-pity; spending too much time on self to rise above it and stick to the subject at hand - the writing about the music. It seems in mid-life, the writer is just plain woeful on too many levels regarding her chosen field (complaints about pay and respect being the glaring examples - presumably exacerbated by still being the chief pop critic at the L.A. Times, despite residing in Alabama.) This unexpected self-indulgence, lightly dampens what is otherwise a necessary and great read.
