Douglas Wolk said the earliest "Consumer Guide" columns were generally brief and detailed, but "within a few years ... he developed his particular gift for 'power, wit and economy', a phrase he used to describe the Ramones in a dead-on 37-word review of "Leave Home"". In his opinion, the "Consumer Guide" reviews were "an enormous pleasure to read slowly, as writing, even if you have no particular interest in pop music. And if you do happen to have more than a little interest in pop music, they're a treasure." Writing in a two-part feature on music critics for "Rolling Stone" in 1976, Dave Marsh bemoaned that such was the elevation of rock journalism, "Many critics ... superimpos their own, frequently arbitrary, standards upon performers." He cited Christgau as a "classic, sad example" of this phenomenon and added: