Yes, I confess that celebrated rock critic, Robert Christgau, has provided me with countless hours of reading, whilst I would sit, and think. Wordplay stolen from my late, great mother's "Ode To A Privy". But to the point, Christgau put out 500 page "record guides" for the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Why he didn't continue into the 2000s? Perhaps it would have ended his marriage. Christgau pointed me in the direction of a lot of great bands though our Venn diagrams didn't always overlap. Here's an album where it did!

In 1986 he gave an A- to a debut album titled Boomtown. Here's the review:

The upscale mixes and faux-soul exaggerations of generic AOR are such a turnoff that I wouldn't have played this twice if it hadn't been produced by Davitt Sigerson, who's made a career of justifying such mannerisms as critic and artist. Turns out it's got the goods technically-songs, hooks, subtle little touches. And notably do these two studio rats know the follies of their chosen profession, they don't romanticize them much-or else they romanticize them effectively, which is even rarer. Put it all together and maybe you end up with another piece of beautiful-loser mythology. But somehow this fallacy is acceptable in two guys you've actually never heard of, especially two guys with the guts (and interest) to apply their craft to at least one revolutionary fantasy. Sometimes winners are beautiful, too.

Peter T.