Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Harsh Critic

How I first met The Beatles.

One of the many (all right, few) ways that I browse the Robert Christgau site is to look up albums generally considered the Greatest Of All Time Ever. You might (or might not) be surprised that Robert Christgau doesn't always agree with the consensus.

I'm sure that if I asked 100 people (or, in a more realistic way that reflects the number of people who would actually indulge my request, six people) to guess an album that must be on the A+ list, more than half would pick Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a no-brainer masterpiece boasting the broad popular and critical cachet in the way that a movie like Citizen Kane does for serious film fans.

Never mind that some folks would argue that Revolver or The Beatles (aka The White Album) are better. We're talking about consensus, which is why if you want to win an Oscar pool you pick Dances With Wolves and not Goodfellas.

But Robert Christgau is not a consensus-follower, dammit, therefore...