CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE

After succumbing to the highly communicable Melancholia Goldstein Manus, known to we vulgar as the rock critic blues, for most of the latter part of 1972, I had felt that things were looking up. All those good black singles uplift the spirit, but imagine my dismay when I looked down Consumer Guide 34 or whatever it is and discovered two A records, which isn't bad — only to count the B plusses — also two, a new record, I'm sure, and maybe I'll start keeping them.