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8.5
35947
8.5 |
BBC
As fine as the music on offer here happens to be – and often it’s very fine indeed – it is Finn’s sense of humanity in lyrical form that really sets this album apart
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8.3
36432
8.3 |
A.V. Club
A new world of characters and songs that’s rich enough on its own, and worth someday revisiting
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8.0
36347
8.0 |
The Digital Fix
An album that maintains his status as storyteller par excellence
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8.0
35949
8.0 |
Uncut
A low-key triumph, containing some of the most emotionally satisfying work Finn has yet produced
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8.0
36315
8.0 |
The Guardian
Beautiful slide guitars and gentler country rockers frame a more narrative style
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8.0
36428
8.0 |
The Scotsman
Musical conversations with painfully precise punch lines
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8.0
36606
8.0 |
The Skinny
As ever, Finn takes his muse from the timeworn fields of love and loss, parties and hangovers, religion and sin, each handled with the swagger and precocity we’ve come to expect
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8.0
37208
8.0 |
The Quietus
The arrangements are simple, often pretty... mostly they serve to support the delivery of some of Finn's most evocative and well observed lyrics
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8.0
37295
8.0 |
State
Finn has admirably fulfilled the remit he set himself about ‘making it new’ when he set out from Brooklyn to Austin. Still and all, quite a few of these numbers sound like they could still be Hold Steady songs
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7.0
36291
7.0 |
Prefix
The instrumentation is dialed-down and mellowed out a bit. These songs aren’t urgent; they’re reflective - and appropriately, the arrangements tend towards the pensive and slow
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7.0
36438
7.0 |
No Ripcord
These tracks aren’t meant to be taken entirely seriously, but that doesn’t make them any more exciting after a few listens
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7.0
36469
7.0 |
Rolling Stone
Full of bleakly funny noir tales
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7.0
36476
7.0 |
Blurt
Once confident and angry, now doubtful and fearful (but not self-pitying), Finn's become a rock and roll adult
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7.0
36479
7.0 |
Beats Per Minute
With much of the flash stripped aways from him, Craig Finn proves that he is a formidable songwriter first and foremost
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6.4
36527
6.4 |
Paste Magazine
A flexible and rewarding use of isolation
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6.0
37378
6.0 |
Q
A welcome change of pace. Print edition only
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6.0
36524
6.0 |
Under The Radar
You may find that you’ve underestimated the importance of The Hold Steady’s bravado, and how those cannon-blasted guitars make him better, but like Darnielle, or Springsteen, or Dylan, he’s perfectly fine left to his own devices
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6.0
36326
6.0 |
Drowned In Sound
A human record; brave and honest
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6.0
36332
6.0 |
PopMatters
A compelling and rewarding turn for Finn
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6.0
36366
6.0 |
The Observer
Finn's gift survives even the more uneven experiments
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6.0
36377
6.0 |
Pitchfork
Just good enough to keep us listening
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6.0
36311
6.0 |
The Independent
Finn has a nice line in sardonic, declamatory assessments ... but there's little comparable imagination to the arrangements
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6.0
35948
6.0 |
Mojo
It's good to hear him outfront, vivid, quirky and unconfined. Print edition only
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6.0
36095
6.0 |
Bowlegs
Finn does have a few genuinely good songs here – just not enough to make it a vital release
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6.0
36203
6.0 |
NME
Finn certanly takes a paddle - if not quite a dive - into fresh sonic waters
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5.0
36231
5.0 |
AU Review
An album that keeps things moving, but is never memorable enough to stop you in your tracks
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5.0
36389
5.0 |
Pretty Much Amazing
You know how every Hold Steady song begins with frontman Craig Finn telling a story over slowly building guitar riffs, with Finn not even singing but preaching, teasing you in before the band explodes into an epic, upbeat, sing-along hook? Now imagine those songs minus the epic explosion. That’s Finn’s solo album, Clear Heart Full Eyes in a nutshell
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5.0
36481
5.0 |
Consequence Of Sound
The album sounds atypically half-hearted
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2.0
36516
2.0 |
God Is In The TV
Not a fan of The Hold Steady, then avoid this, and even if you are, approach with extreme caution
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