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Post by mhetrick14 on Jan 13, 2009 10:18:12 GMT -5
well, if you guys are being wimps then i'm just going to have to come out and say it myself, aren't i? the first two albums are better. well i definitely think they're better but i could see why craig's vocal style could be off-putting compared to all the "whoaaaah-ohhhhs".
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Post by 212margarita on Jan 13, 2009 10:37:44 GMT -5
I love all four albums, but AKM is the album that got me into the band in the first place and therefore will always have a special place in my heart. Seperation Sunday may be the best in my opinion but AKM will always be my favorite.
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Post by hard corey on Jan 13, 2009 10:52:41 GMT -5
this record owns. no other way to put it. everything that was wonderful about lifter puller with the newfound riffage of the hold steady. doesnt get much better than that.
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Post by 212margarita on Jan 13, 2009 11:03:30 GMT -5
this record owns. no other way to put it. everything that was wonderful about lifter puller with the newfound riffage of the hold steady. doesnt get much better than that. couldnt have put it better myself. even though i tried.
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Post by missalabamanobody on Jan 13, 2009 13:36:13 GMT -5
well, if you guys are being wimps then i'm just going to have to come out and say it myself, aren't i? the first two albums are better. well i definitely think they're better but i could see why craig's vocal style could be off-putting compared to all the "whoaaaah-ohhhhs". The whoaaaaaah-ohhhs are off-putting to me, but they're a minor point in the brilliance of the songs overall. I know there are more slightly traditional arrangements on the later albums, but it would be a big stretch to say they're completely that way, and even the ones with choruses (by the way, Knuckles) don't run for the most part in a traditional manner. So many start one place and entirely end up another. The amazing part is that it all hangs together. And, as I said, it's one big long story to me...Sophie's Choice, indeed.
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Post by Jersey on Jan 13, 2009 16:31:58 GMT -5
The only thing that possibly could have made AKM better would be the inclusion of You Gotta Dance.
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Post by stephanie on Jan 13, 2009 17:18:32 GMT -5
The only thing that possibly could have made AKM better would be the inclusion of You Gotta Dance. Or Milkcrate Mosh. I was completely crushed when they left it off the record and stuck it on a limited-run 7-inch.
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Post by clarence5ybr on Jan 13, 2009 23:42:31 GMT -5
The only thing that possibly could have made AKM better would be the inclusion of You Gotta Dance. The only possible thing? Uh, Curves & Nerves, Hot Fries,...........
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toastie
Sniffling Indie Kid
Posts: 159
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Post by toastie on Jan 14, 2009 6:15:08 GMT -5
The album is growing on me slowly.
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Post by lilhan on Jan 14, 2009 6:41:11 GMT -5
i think if any of extras had been included, i'd probably have died first time i heard it. then the hold steady WOULD'VE killed me. it wouldn't be 'almost'...
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Sunny D
Midnight Hauler
"We've gotta try a little harder..."
Posts: 1,900
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Post by Sunny D on Jan 14, 2009 7:52:03 GMT -5
I got into THS after hearing BAGIA, then I went and bought SS. I listened to AKM third, and halfway through, I knew it was a masterpiece. Instant love.
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Post by sketchymetal on Jan 14, 2009 14:30:02 GMT -5
i hate that Sketchy Metal doesnt get the love it deserves Thank you, I didn't know you cared so much!
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Post by kim on Jan 14, 2009 14:36:00 GMT -5
I was looking at the lyrics in the CD insert for AKM the other day. I always forget how damn clever and smart of an album it is.
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Evan
Sniffling Indie Kid
Posts: 151
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Post by Evan on Jan 14, 2009 21:55:56 GMT -5
AKM was a big, "YES! That's it!!" for me. Definitely their most unpolished but also so much more honest and real than anything else out there at the time. (or - excluding of the rest of THS archive - anything out there now) To me this band has always been about the no bullshit heart of the truth put to some of the most aggressive guitar tone and interesting chord changes I've ever heard. The kind of truth Hemingway and Kerouac and Joyce wrote about. With Lifter Puller you could sort of hear that they were trying to hit something. With THS and Almost Killed Me it was like pulling focus and suddenly the target is sharp and clear and every album since then has been, if not a direct bull's eye, at least a confirmed kill. This album will always amaze me. Yes. Exactly. Brilliantly said. Listening back through the Lifter Puller stuff, that band got better with every album, more focused and more listenable. Then AKM came along, and it was kind of back to square one (definitely less focused than later albums) but Craig and Tad were clearly using the lessons they'd learned in Lifter Puller. I love this album.
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Post by lindakaylund on Jan 14, 2009 22:44:47 GMT -5
I don't get people who like this band and don't think this record is amazing. Wow. I was going to say this "I almost forgot why this new boards sucks cock. Then I noticed the cum dribbling from your chin." Then I thought better of it. Hey EVERYBODY!
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Post by lindakaylund on Jan 14, 2009 22:45:51 GMT -5
PS I love this band and this album!
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Post by oldestfan on Jan 15, 2009 4:03:34 GMT -5
The first time I dropped a needle on a record was in 1957. "Teen Age Crush" by Tommy Sands, one of my sister's 45s. Since then, I've done it on thousands of records. Probably tens of thousands. Wonderful music; rock'n'roll, folk,soul, psychedelic, rock, country, heavy, rockabilly, MC5, all genres. It didn't matter. If it was good, I enjoyed it. However, I'm getting old and with age comes discretion. So I'm particular now. I don't have to accept your taste and I don't have to listen to it. With that, I'll say that for the last four years. I've always played The Hold Steady when I drop the needle at my shop. My rotation mostly revolves around Spirit, the Blasters, Ry Cooder and The Hold Steady. But foremost, it's The Hold Steady. I haven't listened to music that moves me like THS since the Blasters. This band, however, is different. They have garnered an element that fuses the band with their fans. When people hear their songs, they are compelled to listen and find a relation that is unique to the message of the music. A story. A verbal story. A sonic story that is like a living book. A story that one can either relate to or imagine. An escape to a world in which they hope a home for them or the participants could be found. A union of song and listener.
Artists have strived for this to make their message in all the arts. Except these guys do it. People get the message and they get it delivered with wise words and wiseass words and a compliment of background musicianship that is precision. With apologies to parock, these guys have Pro Bowl offense and defense.
I haven't found a song in any of my Hold Steady records that I would put above another, although I can't imagine my post-funeral celebration starting off with any song other than "The Swish" at this point. (Subject to change, of course,...age factor, right?) But when I'm entertaining myself at my shop or suffering the company of my friends, rest assured that when I put on The Hold Steady, it doesn't matter which song I play, it will be the best song. But AKM is first fresh. US6950
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Post by mike on Jan 15, 2009 9:08:56 GMT -5
I don't get people who like this band and don't think this record is amazing. Wow. I was going to say this "I almost forgot why this new boards sucks cock. Then I noticed the cum dribbling from your chin." Then I thought better of it. Hey EVERYBODY! hey! <3
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stevedave
True Scene Leader
Makin' meals out of marzipan
Posts: 747
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Post by stevedave on Jan 15, 2009 13:42:59 GMT -5
Almost Killed Me is the most honest street level non-scene full on real record I can name. It's as genuine as records by shit hot bands can get before they become something like a movement or an act. The Hold Steady aren't acting on Almost Killed Me. That is how they sound. In their heads, in their gigs, in my ears.
It's a perfect gnat of Rock and Roll energy trapped in the amber of two brief demo sessions and a rushed CD release (without expectations) that is so beautiful I have opened a keg of Heineken even though I'm on my own just because I need to listen to this record and exude some.
Went down with like fourteen bucks, woke up with like sixteen grand
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Post by semihollow on Jan 15, 2009 19:58:35 GMT -5
so many people have said exactly how i feel, but im gonna say it again, to me AKM is the definitive Hold Steady record, its raw, and its fucking dirty, its INSANELY clever and smart, its rushed, so much in fact that in Knuckles you can hear the cut in the vocal track when craigs telling us how hes been tryin to get people to call him sunny d, this record is all the things that define the band, to me there is no record that captures what the band is about. AKM has just surpassed SS as my favorite record solely because of the amount ive been thinking/talking about the last few days
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figs
Cityscape Skin
Posts: 17
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Post by figs on Jan 17, 2009 22:04:15 GMT -5
I'm glad this thread was started; it had been FAR too long since I gave AKM a serious listen, and this encouraged me to do that. I figured I would always love it for the nostaliga alone if nothing else, but listening to it now makes it feel really fresh and amazing all over again, like hearing it for the first time.
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Post by beeftronique on Jan 19, 2009 16:35:48 GMT -5
fav ths record. as a predominantly hardcore fan, i prefer a raw-er sound.
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brady
Clever Kid
Posts: 105
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Post by brady on Jan 20, 2009 18:59:06 GMT -5
You know what the best song on this record is?
"Knuckles".
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Post by gushingblood on Jan 20, 2009 19:04:24 GMT -5
1000 other kids will be gushing blood tonight...
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Post by dot info on Jan 21, 2009 4:45:28 GMT -5
OK. Decision is finally made. The swing comes from the bonus tracks. The five good ones on AKM beat the one great one and 2 disappointing ones on Stay Positive.
AKM is my favourite THS album.
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