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Summary: where it all began
Comment: I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this CD. It is far more unpolished and raw than their newer stuff, and Craig Finn is even more croaky and obnoxious than expected; but to me this just adds to the authenticity.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not Very Good
Comment: I found out about The Hold Steady from a blurb in G Q.They sounded like the type of band I like,so I bought this CD.Oh,my god,does this stuff suck.The songs are all overwrought cliches and while the musicianship is quite good,the lead talker,(no,he couldn't carry a tune in a bucket) is less than worthless.All I can say is that I won't waste any more of my money on this band.
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Summary: Certain Songs Get So Scratched Into Our Souls - But These Ones Won't
Comment: "[T]he one-dimensional repetitive lyrics...do begin to irritate after a while, particularly when vocalist Conor Deasy constantly name-checks American cities."
If Morgane Lhote of All Music feels this way about the debut by the Irish band The Thrills, then I hope for her own mental and physical health that she never hears Almost Killed Me, the debut by The Hold Steady.
The constant name-checking of American cities and states (I count a total of about seventeen such instances, including three to Ybor City, plus seven references to the "Middle West" and "Midwestern States") is neither the only nor the most irritating aspect of Craig Finn's songwriting. He also name-checks real people (including Charlemagne four times), fictional characters, or product names 33 times by my count, and even makes six mentions of his band's name. Finn uses a variation of "people call me" in fifteen different lyrics, "my name is" in five lyrics, and - perhaps most annoyingly - says that one person looks like another person at least a dozen times. (To his credit, one of these times he is saying that someone *doesn't* look like another person, and two other times he is describing what something looks like due his being so high.)
Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad if he weren't trying so hard to be clever and failing so miserably. I hate to quote specific instances of this because I don't want to be reminded of them. However, I do think that those who might spend money on this CD deserve to know what they are in for.
"I've been trying to get people to call me Freddy Knuckles. People keep calling me Right Said Fred."
"I've been trying to get people to call me Freddy Mercury. People keep calling me Drop Dead Fred."
"I've been trying to get people to call me Sunny D cause I've got the good stuff kids go for. People keep calling me Five Alive."
Those lyrics are all from the same song, "Knuckles". And how about this brisk witticism?: "He said hey my name is Corey. I'm really into hardcore. People call me Hard Corey." Interestingly, this lyric is from "Hostile, Mass", which is probably the best song on the album. It is Springsteen to the core, including Clarence Clemmons-esque sax breaks and excellent guitar solos. "Barfruit Blues" isn't too bad either, if for no other reason than the fact that Finn avoids name-checking everything except for the song title "Born To Run." The Springsteen influence is laid on pretty thickly, but the band is at its best when they sound most like The Boss.
Maybe the aforementioned lyrics don't seem so bad on paper. I hate to harp on Finn's voice, which defenders will say is too easy of a target. Granted, it isn't always terrible, but he often sounds too much like that guy next to you in a bar who is talking more loudly and obnoxiously than usual because he has had too much to drink. The cumulative effect is suffocating. The one instance when he does achieve a bit of nuance - a word that was obviously not in his vocabulary at the time - is "Certain Songs," which is nothing more than a lame attempt to sound thoughtful and reflective.
I got Almost Killed Me online with free downloads, and I must say that it was worth it to be able to listen to the fascinatingly terrible album anytime that I want to. To call it overrated would be to praise it too highly. Fortunately, the band had nowhere to go but up, and up is where they have gone. Separation Sunday, the follow-up, was a major improvement. Their third album, Boys & Girls In America, is undeniably very good. Unfortunately, this greater success makes it impossible for Almost Killed Me to simply go away unnoticed by those who have have high hopes for it based on the latter two albums.
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Summary: Great first album by one of the world's greatest rock bands
Comment: There are overhyped bands and then there are underhyped bands, bands that receive scads of unfair and inaccurate criticism. The Hold Steady definitely falls into the latter category. I find it astonishing that a number of people are willing to dismiss them. Rock critics, who are far more finely attuned to chicanery than average, everyday fans (as the dean of American rock critics, Robert Christgau, has pointed out, if you spend almost every one of your waking hours listening to music, you are going to be better at it than someone who spends only a few hours each week), do not detect the villainous flaws that the band's detractors do. In fact, their most recent album, BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICA, was voted by the 494 participating critics (definitely a who's who of writers about music) the Village Voice's 2006 Pazz and Jop Poll the #4 album of the year. Getting 494 top critics to agree about something is a pretty impressive feat.
So, it is utterly safe to ignore the people who dismiss The Hold Steady. The fact isn't that they "got" the band and dismissed it, but that they still haven't a clue. I will allow that some people just have trouble with Craig Finn's voice and perhaps his appearance. He looks today like in ten years he will have the archetypal appearance of a used car dealer. He absolutely does not look like the headliner of a great rock band. Furthermore, while it is hard to deny his amazing gifts as a lyricist, he doesn't sing. Instead, he declaims the lyrics of the song. Few people manage a completely unique "singing" style, but Finn definitely has. Myself, I absolutely love the guy. No, he doesn't sing, but his vocal style perfectly suits the band's aesthetic. And I love the way his lyrics combine equally cynicism, humor, weariness, and more than a little self-deprecation.
So much attention attaches itself to Craig Finn that sometimes the rest of the band escapes notice. But this truly is a fantastic band from top to bottom. Finn might be the most dominating frontman in America today, but Tad Kubler is one of America's greatest guitarists. Indeed, he may have been born outside his time. He is one of the few guitarists around capable of foisting a song onto his back and dominating it for long stretches of time. He would be a legend had he lived in the seventies instead of today, had he lived when long, eight-minute guitar solos were not only acceptable but in demand. Anyone doubting his ability should listen to the second have of "Everyone's a DJ." The ghosts of Leslie West, Alvin Lee, and Ted Nugent haunt every measure. If Craig Finn gives the band most of its identity, Kubler gives it its musical backbone. Though they sound almost nothing like one another, a Finn-Kubler comparison to Jagger-Richards isn't misleading.
Although BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICA is The Hold Steady's break out album, I honestly think ALMOST KILLED ME remains their best album. But I say that with the caveat that all three of their albums fall into the "must own" category. No band on planet earth has produced three such perfect albums in the past three years.
Other reviewers have praised "The Swish," which truly is one of the great rock songs of recent years. I actually like "Everyone's a DJ" even more, mainly because of Kubler's long guitar solo. But for brilliant, funny, clever lyrics it is hard to beat "Knuckles." Every single song, however, is infused with great lyrical content, Finn's passionate declamation of the words, and one of the tightest bands in the world pounding out great music. If you love music, you need this album. They do remind you of some of the great bands of the past, though interestingly of bands that normally you do not think of at the same time. What other band sounds like Bruce Springsteen, Thin Lizzy, and the Replacements all at the same time, while also sounding completely unlike them all?
While all three of the Hold Steady's albums should be in the musical library of any music fan, I also encourage more serious collectors to go in search of two albums by the Minneapolis band Lifter Puller, FIESTAS AND FIASCOS and the compilation album SOFT ROCK, which includes virtually everything else Lifter Puller recorded. The reason this is relevant is that the frontman for that band was Craig Finn and the lead guitarist was Tad Kubler. The sound is different from the Hold Steady, but the music is of the same high quality.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best rock albums of 2004.
Comment: If you like power chords and clever, intelligent lyrics, this CD is for you. "The Swish" is in the running for rock song of the decade, and the rest of the album is solid. It manages to be completely original, and at the same time heartily celebrates its influences. Frontman Craig Finn doesn't sing as much as he rants, and in this way his delivery is somewhat similar to that of Joe Strummer.
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