Reviews

Today was an excellent day for reviews. Three buzzed about albums got reviewed by three of the biggest review sites:

Pitchfork

The Hold Steady
Boys and Girls in America
9.4

Wow. Not at all what I had expected. "Chips Ahoy!" (mp3) is awful compated to the rest of what they'd put out, and the reviewer himself can hardly justify why this is .7 points better than Separation Sunday. All that the reviewer does is say about how good of a lyricist Craig Finn is (true), but otherwise does nothing to substantiate this being one of the year's best. The guy has been an excellent lyricist for ages, man. It may be mad good (I'll wait on that judgement), but I guess I just expect better reviews than that from Pitchfork.
At least they directed us towards Danielson's excellent video for "Did I Step on Your Trumpet?" (mp3)

The Hold Steady - Knuckles (from Almost Killed Me)


Stylus

Beck
The Information
B-
The reviewer is impressed by Beck's grooves (I can't say that I am based upon what I've heard thusfar, however), but disappointed by the fact that Beck took a note from Oberst. Why don't these guys hire editors to trim down their works? I know it's tough to do it yourself, I mean no one wants to admit that something they wrote is bad, but have someone else do it. Maybe the guys from Red Hot Chili Peppers. But the review becomes highly excellent when they start ripping into Beck for bringing up his Scientologist beliefs too much. This is the site that gave The Thermals and their constant espousing of their views a positive review. Shut up.

Beck - Cellphone's Dead
The Thermals - No Culture Icons (from More Parts Per Million)


PopMatters

The Killers
Sam's Town
3/10
Do you even want me to talk about this?

The Killers - Indie Rock and Roll (B-Side from Hot Fuss)
The Killers - When You Were Young [Jacque Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Radio Edit]