As music critics we struggle to separate ourselves from the social media cavalcade, hurried by deadlines, aggrandizing our own curation and tastes. Christgau is blissfully unconcerned with any of that.

These states cluster around the paradox of dance floor dissociation: that feeling of being vacant and yet amenable to epiphanic thought. 

But what’s most gratifying about the book is its articulation and understanding of those ambiguous feelings one may have about over-caring about basketball later in one’s life. The time it takes to get your body right. The effort to stay on the court. The sweaty laundry.