Knee Jerking: The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls In America
Posted on October 3, 2006 by Tito
Anxiously picked up the new Hold Steady at my new local music shop – The Green Apple store in the Richmond. After a quick rip, Y’all are now privvy to my unthought out thoughts on listen numero uno. gratis.
Stuck Between Stations
Guitar … then Piano … then Drums…
sounds a little “cleaner” than other Hold Steady records. maybe less spastic? (note – i like spastic)
“he was drunk and he was exhausted and he was critically acclaimed” …
i like the thought of stations as being both radio and train/bus types. Let’s see if this goes anywhere a band at a cross roads? I hope this record isn’t about The Hold Steady, in a band coming to grips with success kind of way. I don’t think this song will be high on my THS list, but all their album openers tend to be scene-setters, rather than the payload
ipod stars: 2
chips ahoy
a little more instrumentation than i’d have liked. a little less organ, and a little leaner guitar. background vocals? they worked on “little hoodrat friend”, but for now it seems a little overproduced.
3 stars
hot soft light
promising simple, confident bar-band intro.
lyrics surprisingly heavy-handed for finn about recreatiation drug use going to far? i expect better. Where’s the fun non-sequiters / punnery that I dig a la “i grew up in denial and went to school in massachusettes”? don’t get me wrong i’m not all for cleverness at the expense at something heartfelt. But dagammit give me something!
2 stars
same kooks
STRONG MUSIC. LYRICS CONTINUE TO DISAPPOINT. Very strong music.
2 stars
First Night
Slowing it down with piano and accoustic guiar. we get the old record characters back: Gideon, Charlemagne and Holly.Not their best ballad .. but the lyrics I find better … a little less obscure, but not too specific and some nice wordplay for good measure … this is Good Finn:
don’t bother talking to the guys with the hot soft eyes
you know they’re already taken
don’t even speak to all those sequencer and beats (beach??) boys
when they kiss they spit white noise (…)
this one sounds like a keeper
4 stars
Party Pit
Good enough. Doesn’t really stand out. I like the guitar. Piano not so much. I guess I don’t believe the lyrics, which isn’t really a fair or rational criticism, but this is the one complaint recurring so far… earlier records sounded like Finn was preaching/ranting from some sort of barband scripture… a modern day moses coming down with tablets cribbed from a bathroom stall….these songs don’t seem to carry that weight (foolhearty as it may be)
2 stars
You can Make Him Like You
Have I overly-built up the hold steady’s lyrics in the past? This time they just reallllly disappoint. And the phonetics of the delivery don’t seem to live up to past offerings … I hardly know anything about poetry/verse but how bout the alliteration and rhyme schemes we used to get?
instead of lines like this that were a dime a dozen on earlier records:
i saw him at the riverbank
he was breaking bread and giving thanks
with crosses made of pipes and planks,
leaned up against the nitrous tanks.
we get…
there’s always other boys
there’s always other boyfriends
sigh
2 stars
Massive Nights
this song sound promising. I like:
the dancefloors were crowded the bathrooms were worse
we kissed in the car
and drank from your purse
though a departure from their other styles muically, this one floats my boat, even if it drifts toward the emo
she had the gun in her mouth
she was shooting up at her dream
– then again, deep down, I think i’m just an emo kind of guy.
4 stars
Citrus
accoustic lament. starts slow. finishes with a strong refrain repreated
lost in fog and love
and faithless fear
i’ve had kisses that made
judas seem sincere
3 stars
Chillout Tent
A guy and girl recovering together in the “chillout tent” at a concert after partying too hardy.
Fnn narrates and a gal and guy guest vocalize as the principles in the tent. I like the
he’s tennyson in denim and sheepskin
he looked a lot like izzy stradlin
which on second glance isn’t even that great. I demain more than mediocrity!@
3 stars
Southtown Girls
boring. i guess it’s a minneapolis thing. I like the Thin Lizzyish guitars coming in here. Where were they before? lose the harmonica.
2 stars.
Overall a disspointing listening on the first pass, Then again, Separation Sunday took a couple listens for me, and now it’s a pantheon album for me. So let’s see. I’ll be seeing these guys when the come to the Great American Music Hall. Please let this album grow on me. In the meantime, I hope they live up to (or even come close) to the time I saw them in San Diego. Which reminds me… I still contend Anchorman SMOKES Old School. good night, America.
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[...] I haven’t listened to the new album, but my colleague Tito Perez has, finding it “disappointing listening on the first pass.” Now I’m even more curious and will give it a few listens over the weekend. [...]
[...] Black Market Kidneys, however, is less impressed on first listen. He gives song-by-song reviews and comes to this conclusion: [...]
[...] a bit underwhelmed by the new Hold Steady [...]