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Album Details

• Artist: The Hold Steady
• Album: The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me
• Label: French Kiss
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2005-08-22

This New York band rose from the ashes of the critically acclaimed Lifter Puller including vocalist Craig Finn. Almost Killed Me is a blast of lyrics that keep flying at you before you can really process but the thing is, Craig can pull it off for some reason. Almost Killed Me is definitely not an immediate listen (for me anyway), it does take some warming up to Finn's name throwing. Along with all the familiar names he keeps throwing out, Craig tends to be critical about almost everything that means nothing. The album opener, "Positive Jam", is all about how their band is all ready to rock but the party happens to be over and about how the 80s almost killed him. The album really starts to rock with "The Swish", a killer guitar riff leads the way right before the vocals kick in. "Barfruit Blues" is just the opposite, Craig leads in before a sweet bluesy guitar joins in. Can Craig sing? Not if his life depended on it but his matter of fact, Rollins rants just leave you clambering for more. I think "Knuckles" is the most entertaining of the batch - "I've been trying to get people to call me Freddy Knuckles / People keep calling me Right Said Fred". The Hold Steady may prove to be a very interesting rock band with the unique sounds that they pull off. I would guess that a Hold Steady live gig would be a sight to see.

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