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Hold Time
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 17 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Merge
Release Date: 17 February 2009
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative, Singer-Songwriter
Summary
The singer-songwriter releases his latest solo album featuring guests such as The Decemberists' Rachel Blumberg, Lucinda Williams, DeVotchKa's Tom Hagerman, and Zooey Deschanel.
Also By This Artist: Post-War Transfiguration Of Vincent Transistor Radio
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly
Hold Time does, in fact, feel timeless, a musical wanderer's dusty, train-hopping tour through folk, blues, and country.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
Hold Time exists not simply as a vehicle for the rehash of rock 'n' roll blueprints, but as the highway on which to drive home his acute pop-rock songwriting. Mar 2009, p.107]
Drowned In Sound
M. Ward turns in a star-studded set that feels at once a logical progression from 2006’s "Post-War" and a step closer to that all-out classic his preceding suggests; an assimilation and appropriation of American blues, gospel, country and folk as lovingly, winningly relayed as we’ve come to expect from the Portland-based troubadour.
Read Full Review >Filter
Hold Time marks Ward's third, and best chance to skip the three-peat pattern for sneaking under the radar with his name near the top. [Winter 2009, p.92]
Q Magazine
Hold Time cements his status as one of America's best roots songwriters. [Mar 2009, p.105]
New York Magazine
His latest album, Hold Time, is as finely wrought and thoroughly affecting an indie effort as 2009 is likely to see.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Bringing out the too-often buried pop nuances of his stylish songs and new inventions from his under-rated guitar work, it's a stylistic cloth that Ward seems very comfortable wearring. [Mar 2009, p.111]
No Ripcord
Hold Time is a wonderful, wistful collection of songs from an artist who has really started to hit his stride.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
His music makes you think slowly, all the better to ponder the ample fruits of this profound album. [Winter 2009, p.76]
Boston Globe
The indie troubadour spins out his trademark blend of vintage country-folk that begs to be played on an old turntable and heard through the screen door. Fortunately, great music transcends its medium.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
Another feather in his crowded cap, Hold Time is further proof that Ward provides a powerful jolt to what might otherwise be a tired genre.
Read Full Review >Uncut
The album's leitmotif is a lush, dreamy string sections, which bring a gorgeous poignancy not only to the metaphysical songs, but also his radical reworkings of a pair of '50s rockers. [Mar 2009, p.81]
PopMatters
This is music that can reach anyone from a performer that could be, amazingly enough, just hitting his stride.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Hold Time will do little to entice listeners for whom Matt Ward's sepia-tone charm holds no sway, but for fans who have enjoyed the ride thus far, this looks like the sunniest stretch of road yet.
Read Full Review >Billboard
The album could serve as an excellent point of entry for a new crop of fans.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
Enter deal-breaking title-track ‘Hold Time’, which is (and let’s not understate things here) a career-defining ballad even on its own, masterfully striking “You were beyond comprehension tonight/But I understood...”
Read Full Review >Dot Music
While its thoughtfulness prevents it from getting carried away with itself--he's not exactly doing the can-can here--there is a definite sense of optimism and personal brightness radiating from all four corners of this record. It will be a difficult one to top.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
The details sometimes outshine the songs: Lyrics about love come off as worn, and lyrics about God seem lifted from Sunday school.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
Ultimately, Hold Time could have undoubtedly benefitted from some more stringent self-editing, not-so top-heavy sequencing and greater deliberations over the guest list, to make it stand-up as tall as its more meticulously-framed predecessors. Nevertheless, this is still another reliably robust M Ward record with much to recommend itself, especially to the previously-converted.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
The music here speaks for itself, whatever else Ward might be trying to say through it.
Read Full Review >Spin
It takes a minute for the standouts here to stand out, but it's an enjoyable wait.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Behind the flourishes, Ward sounds as moony as ever, singing beautifully sad songs about mortality and feeling lonesome.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Hold Time is an enjoyable, well-constructed album, and as good a place as any for newcomers to start--it just doesn't hold many surprises.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
Too many of Hold Time’s tracks fail to leave an impression, blending into one another.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
Yet for all the vintage analog atmosphere, the Portland, Ore., songwriter's sixth album continues to expand his Americana template with more of the classic AM pop sensibilities shown on 2006's "Post-War" and flooding last year's Zooey Deschanel collaboration, "She & Him."
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
These new songs have lofty melodic ambitions but aren’t dedicated to the kind of journeying Ward’s lyrics imply.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
But far from ruffled or startling, Hold Time simply fills the quota Ward’s assigned himself and, (im)properly slaked, poofs off, contrails the last reminder that, yes, Jason Lytle’s still alive.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Hold Time, Ward’s latest batch of songs, seems slighter, happier and louder than those on 2006’s "Post-War," but also distinctly complacent.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
Hold Time goes one step further by drowning the whole caboodle in a bizarre new sound that incorporates cheesy synthetic-sounding strings, a hint of Phil Spector as well as that resolutely unpretty croak.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jessco W gave it a6:
You know, I found this album to be really bland, and I thought maybe I'm just not a big M. Ward fan. But then I listened to Transfiguration of Vincent, which was amazing, and I realized that Hold Time just kind of sucks.
Michael H gave it a10:
Rave On is one of M. Ward's most cherrished works, the beautiful soul-toned singer mixed with the backing vocals of Zooey Deschannel creates this airy, summery album with songs of sweet moving melodies and beautiful instrumentation with numerous tracks envoking something beyond breathtaking in the listener. Almost sounding like the album built specifically for lovers, there's nothing flirtatious about the album that keeps you listening from start to finish, waiting for the next summer adventure M. Ward has in store.
Jon G gave it a9:
An amazing album-anyone who thinks the strings are fake needs to check him out live. This is the real deal.
Bob P gave it a10:
A funky Buddy Holly - awesome!
Chad S gave it a10:
No track on "Hold Time" will make you hold your breath like "Poison Cup" and "Chinese Translation" did, but overall, this lovely follow-up to "Post-War" might be a stronger overall album. For starters, Buddy Holly fans will go ape**** over Ward's reworking of "Rave On". "Jailbird" nicks New Order's "Love Vigilantes" with wit. "For Beginners" contains a rhythm guitar that uncannily recalls the slack-key stylings of regional artist Gabby Pahinui(made known to the world through Ry Cooder), but that might be a coincidence. "To Save Me" is a miraculous hybrid of rhythm and blues, and Ward's own personal aesthetics of musical autism. Nobody mixes the old with the new quite like Ward. His sincerity is winning, and never cloying. He's a vital artist. "Hold Time" holds steady with grace, but it lacks a classic original song. You'll just have to do with a classic cover: a languid reworking of Don Gibson's "Oh, Lonesome Me", which suggests Ward had studied the duets that Stuart Staples(of Tindersticks) recorded with actress Isabella Rosselini("A Marriage Made in Heaven") and Carla Torgeson("Travelling Light").
JP C gave it a10:
Great great record. Don't be fooled by the title, in this one the man has moved (for)ward.
David S. gave it a10:
M. Ward simply exudes excellence. He obviously puts his heart and soul into everything he does. Hold Time is no exception.
