The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me
One of those albums you can to listen to from the first to last track without interruption or just great background music. Definitely my favorite album from Craig Finn. Timeless.
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In the don't quite get 'em camp
...perhaps because it demands too much of my attention trying to "get" the lyrics.
Killer Album
One of the few albums I actually listen to from the first to the last track. Favorite song off this album is: Killer Parties.
RE: Track 4
@42 Jimmy: "Most People Are DJs" is actually supposed to cut off in the middle--the MP3 wasn't defective. I think it's the band poking fun at their own classic rock stylings, dropping out in the middle of the guitar solo as if to say "OK, enough of that." One of the interesting side effects of the digital age, I guess ... unexpected sonic effects on a song can be misinterpreted as corruptions of the sound file. Great album, BTW.
Missing track
I complained about this track in April last year because it cuts off before the actual end. After about three months and a number of emails they removed it from download availability. I just sent another mail asking what's happening, my first since July. Hopefully they can sort it out soon. Hey Guys!!! You reading this? How hard can it be?
missing track
Not sure why track #4 is missing (licensing issue? whatever it is, it's annoying)... If you go to www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=963 you can download that missing track free and legal.
missing song!
can we get that missing track already? I want to get this, but I want the whole thing.
First Class
I'll keep this short and simple. It's even better than "Separation Sunday". Enough said
Excellent
It is on this record where we are introduced to the characters that are more fully fleshed out on Separation Sunday. While tracks like The Swish will immediatly stand out, it is important to listen to the album in its entirety. The character sketches which are set against some kind of strange amalgamation of AC/DC / Bruce Springsteen are pretty amazing. I reommend picking this up and then getting everything else in the Lifter Puller and Hold Steady catalog. These guys are doing some of the most amazing work out there today.
The Swish!
The Hold Steady is not my usual cup of tea, but the few tracks that I've downloaded from e-music have more than piqued my interest. Since my practice is to download indiviual tracks rather than the full record, I highly recommend grabbing "The Swish" from this CD. The hard rocking backing track contains some addictive riffing, with some nice tempo changes, bringing to mind classic AC/DC. Craig Finn's distinctive vocals and lyrics intrigue and amuse. Simply put, "The Swish" immediately makes an impression and begs for repeated listening. Start here and proceed both forward, to their 2005 release, "Separation Sunday"; as well as backward, to Craig Finn's previous band, Lifter Puller, especially the acclaimed "Fiestas + Fiascos".
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eMusic Yearbook: 2004
By Douglas Wolk, eMusic Contributor
James Joyce wrote that his weapons as an artist would be "silence, exile and cunning." Silence isn't generally useful for musicians, and cunning comes with the territory for anyone who wants to play the pop-music game of one-upmanship. In 2004, though, a lot of the best indie records latched onto exile as a weapon, or as a metaphor, or even as their central subject. The international political landscape had collapsed into a mess of lies,… more »