Hold Steady - Chips Ahoy !

  by Geraint Jones

published: 4 / 12 / 2006

Label: Vagrant
Format: CDS

intro

Instantly classic debut UK single from the Minneapolis-formed, now Brooklyn-based Hold Steady, which proves to be a rambunctious hybrid of early Springsteen, the Replacements and Rocket From The Crypt

Hotly tipped following major plaudits in the US for their latest album ‘Boys And Girls In America’, the Hold Steady will no doubt be hailed as the next big thing and an overnight success in some quarters when the album finally gets its UK release in January. That’ll be deserved as they’re undeniably a very exciting outfit, but they’ve actually been slogging around the US circuit for several years and ‘Chips Ahoy!’ is an upfront snapshot from what is in fact the band’s third album. Album’s one and two – ‘The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me’ and ‘Separation Sunday’’ respectively are no slouches either, should anyone be keen to jump the gun and make up their own minds in advance of some hacks likely proclamations to have just discovered the latest saviours of rock n roll. So to ‘Chips Ahoy!’, a tune most likely to be many's first taste of the Minneapolis-formed, now Brooklyn-based band. In brief …it’s a stormer! A tawdry tale of drugs, gambling and dysfunctionality, it’s a riff-driven juggernaut, peppered with swirling organ and pounding piano, front-man Craig Finn’s distinctively weathered vocals wholly appropriate for the Hold Steady’s rambunctious hybrid of early Springsteen, the Replacements and Rocket From The Crypt. Classic rock, classic punk, just plain classic, hold steady…here come the Hold Steady!

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