It is evident to anyone who has read enough of Christgau's old CG columns that he sometimes changes the grades he gives albums. Albums he has changed the grade of from when he first reviewed it in a column can be identified by the "[Later: (new grade)]" displayed after the old review on the column page. For instance, this column shows that he originally gave Icky Mettle, the Archers of Loaf's debut album, an A- grade, but that he later raised this to an A. So I wondered, how often does he change grades of albums like this? I'll only look at 1990-1997 because I don't feel like looking back earlier, or further, than that.
I'm also not counting when a "dud" grade is changed to a letter grade lower than B+.
1990: 19/367
1991: 14/402
1992: 12/373 (incl. American Music Club's Everclear, which is not marked as changed (NMAC))
1993: 16/445 (incl. J.'s We are the Majority (NMAC))
1994: 15/462 (incl. Ass Ponys' Grim (NMAC))
1995: 19/430
1996: 15/463
1997: 9/450 (incl. Fountains of Wayne's self-titled album (NMAC))
So we see that he doesn't change his grades very often--during the time period, he never changed so much as 5% of his reviews in a given year. The most he changed in one year was in 1990 and in 1995, when he changed 19 reviews in each year. (But he changed a higher % in 1990 because he reviewed fewer albums that year).
"Silent" CC changes: when the grade (Choice cuts) itself doesn't change but the tracks selected as CCs do. Examples:
1. Yo La Tengo's Fakebook originally had "Barnaby, Hardly Waiting" and "Emulsified" as choice cuts. But he later replaced "Barnaby, Hardly Waiting" with "Speeding Motorcycle" and "The Summer".
2. John Forster's Entering Marion originally included "Whole" as a choice cut, but it was later removed.
3. Todd Snider's Songs for the Daily Planet originally included "Alright Guy" as a choice cut, but it was later removed as well.
4. Will Smith's Big Willie Style originally only listed "Gettin' Jiggy With It" as a choice cut, but he later added "Just the Two of Us" and "Miami".
5. Black Sheep's A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing originally only listed "U Mean I'm Not" as a choice cut, but "The Choice is Yours" was later added.
