Almost Killed Me

About

Released in 2004, The Hold Steady’s <i>Almost Killed Me</i> was more than just a tremendous debut album. It was also a manifesto of sorts for the group’s fans, whose devotion to The Hold Steady—and to its warm and wild live shows—would only grow more impassioned in the decades ahead. Craig Finn and Tad Kubler had spent much of the 1990s in the raucous Minnesota band Lifter Puller; after that group broke up, the two moved to Brooklyn, New York, where they quickly started playing music together again, this time as The Hold Steady. It was, in many ways, an inevitable turn of events. As Finn would declare on <i>Almost Killed Me</i>’s opening track, “Positive Jam”: “I got bored when I didn’t have a band/And so I started a band, man.” Throughout the album, Finn’s half-sung/half-growled vocals are accompanied by a tight, thumping ensemble that bestows powerful drumbeats (and even stronger guitar riffs) on listeners who, back in the early 2000s, were <i>desperate</i> for some solid rock ’n’ roll. Yet at the core of The Hold Steady is Finn’s propulsive, character-driven songwriting, which is populated by dangerous people—or, at least, people who are <i>trying</i> to be dangerous. That includes scenesters, ravers, a fictional Twin Cities gang called the “Cityscape Skins,” and young kids in way over their heads but still looking to score. Finn’s lyrics are an extension of the anthems he was writing for Lifter Puller, full of stories that are richly detailed but often bruisingly funny; he’s part bard, part bartender. It all made for a killer first album, one that some fans today refer to, semi-jokingly, as <i>The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me</i>. And the group was just getting started.

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →