Craig Finn
Clear Heart/Full Eyes
Vagrant (2012)
Clear Heart Full Eyes starts off curiously. Sure, “Apollo Bay” establishes that Finn’s solo debut is a separate project compared with The Hold Steady, but it’s also a minimal and boring song—among the worst and most forgettable on the record. He speaksings over a wandering guitar with some occasional slide that ultimately gets repetitive: something I won’t say about the rest of the record. I think it’s supposed to give an air of roving through a wasteland, but mostly it just makes me tune out for five minutes.The intro track, though, is misleading. While built around Texas session musicians and a humid, lonely streak befitting of that geography, the rest of the album successfully mixes up sounds and characters (Finn’s strength), while alternately branching out from his popular main band. The start is slow, but it picks up with the somber yet up-tempo “No Future” and really gets moving on “New Friend Jesus,” a bluegrass-styled song that’s a bit repetitive and heavy-handed, but the tempo change really defines the rest of the album. It leads into “Jackson,” which is a highlight with its storytelling narration. The music starts out minimal but builds, twists, and rises along with the narration, peaking … Read more
Sick of it All
Self Titled
Revelation (1987)
Sick Of It All are easily the longest consistently active New York Hardcore band in existence today (both the Cro-Mags … Read more
Texas Is The Reason
Do You Know Who You Are?
Revelation (1996)
Do You Know Who You Are? is one of the best selling albums that Revelation ever released, and Texas Is … Read more
Drowningman
Rock 'N' Roll Killing Machine
Revelation (2000)
You know that there was never a genre of music that was named something along the lines of sarcastic bastard … Read more
