The Albums That Matter: Almost Killed Me

Joe runs through every album on his iPod, in alphabetical order, and offers some brief thoughts.

Almost Killed Me

The Hold Steady

2004

When thinking on how to write about the great debut album from the Hold Steady, I kept coming back to what I wrote a couple weeks ago about Titus Andronicus' debut album, about how good of a job the band did creating this opening statement. The Hold Steady completes the same feat here. Almost Killed Me is not the Hold Steady at their finest (too high a bar to clear), but right from the beginning, Craig Finn let's you know what this band is going to be all about.

And in many ways, that statement is the opposite of Titus'. Whereas that band is nihilism in party form, this band is just straight party. The Hold Steady preaches togetherness in a way that teenagers can instantly relate to. The band defines this feeling as a "unified scene." It's the perfect way to describe that feeling you get when you and countless strangers bond over something so beautiful as music.

I'm not saying that the album is all sunshine and hand-holding. There's a lot of dirt and grime in the stories Finn weaves in his lyrics. The characters remain the same; we have junkie Holly, Charlemagne the pimp, a white supremacist gang called the Cityscape Skins. There's danger around the corner in the Hold Steady's MN towns. I'm not saying that Almost Killed Me glorifies crime, I'm saying that there was an excitement when you were younger, when nights had endless possibilities, great parties and also parties that almost kill you. The Hold Steady is able to tap into those feelings, and presents them all with classic rock panache.

Come for the storytelling. Stay for the bar band singalongs. That's the Hold Steady's m.o. They are one of my favorite bands of all time, maybe even my favorite, full stop. Almost Killed Me is a great place to start if you're trying to dig into this band. Consider it the prologue to the Great American Indie Rock Novel.

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If this album sounds interesting, try this song: "Barfruit Blues"

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Stray Observations

• The Hold Steady have a fucking wiki all to themselves because of the consistency of the characters and all the overlapping stories in their songs. Certain lyrics on one album turn into songs on other albums. Events are elaborated albums later. It's pretty cool if you're into that kind of shit.
• There are endless nicknames given to characters, and other characters constantly get compared to certain celebrities, on this album, to the point where it kind of becomes a running joke. "People call me 'Circuit City,' / because I'm so well-connected." And: "I've been trying to get people to call me 'Sunny D' / Cause I got the good stuff the kids go for." It's all terrible, it's all funny.
• FRONT COVER: Looks like a bunch of photos of the band members, possibly on tour, with black bars over their eyes to signify anonymity. A lot of the photos look like the people in them are having a good time, and the fact that the eyes are blocked out seem to say: This could be anyone. THIS COULD BE YOU.
• This isn't the worst Hold Steady Album, because Heaven Is Whenever exists (though that album, too, is criminally underrated). It's tough being a really good album in a discography full of really great albums.

Next Time: AM by Arctic Monkeys