Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide column - his hugely influential monthly collection of brief-but-dense and frequently brilliant capsule reviews - found a comfortable home at MSN.com about 3 1/2 years ago after he was unceremoniously laid off by the Village Voice. All good things must come to an end, however; Christgau has decided to retire the Consumer Guide after 41 years, and the new July CG at MSN will be his last.

This is one of those times when you can truly say that it's the end of an era. Fortunately, every single Consumer Guide review is available at robertchristgau.com, where you can marvel at the fact that even the earliest capsules haven't dated one bit. Love Christgau or hate him, you can't deny the consistency of style and point of view; the page of Bob Dylan reviews reads like it was all written at once, recently, rather than compiled over a 40-year period.

reading his often-witty and sharp commentary. I know he has some album ratings from the last handful of years that have yet to be added to this site.

Things are changing in all kinds of areas in the music industry, not only in how people listen to and purchase music, but also criticism.

I respect Christgau as a critic, but don't get why he rates gangster rap so high. Sometimes if you read his reviews it feels like he's rating the controversy caused by the album instead of the actual album.