Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau has been called the "Dean of American Rock Critics". He wrote for The Villiage Voice in New York for over 30 years, and is the master of the one-paragraph album review.

Now these are all online at his website: http://www.robertchristgau.com/cg.php

Here's an example review, for Europe '72 by Grateful Dead.

Europe '72 [Warner Bros., 1972]
This live triple is where everybody except certified Grateful Dead freaks gets off the bus, but I've still got my card and it ain't a joker. Sure they're beginning to sound very complacent--the whole "Morning Dew" side could be scratched, and the long version of "Truckin'" proves conclusively that the song doesn't truck much. But the best stuff here--the ensemble playing on "Sugar Magnolia," the movement of "China Cat Sunflower," Garcia's It Hurts Me Too" solo, the lyric to "Ramble On Rose"--is a lot more than laid-back good. It's laid-back brilliant. Most of the rest, patchy though it may be, is laid-back good. Also, I like the way they sing. (And write.) B+