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Feb 1, 2012All the things that give an album its personality--the sound of a band finding its feet, the little tempo fluctuations, the requisite "are we rolling, Bob?" fits and starts--are here in spades.
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Feb 7, 2012He nails three [songs] flat-out....The rest tend more, how to say it, evocative.
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Jan 24, 2012As a solo artist, Finn has created a new world of characters and songs that's rich enough on its own, and worth someday revisiting.
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Kerrang!Feb 6, 2012This is an album that feels as much like a series of compelling stories as it does a collection of fine songs. [21 Jan 2012, p.53]
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Jan 24, 2012Anyone expecting the bar rock bravado of the Hold Steady is probably going to be disappointed by Clear Heart Full Eyes' subdued vibe, but anyone looking for more of Craig Finn's sprawling tales will feel right at home.
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Jan 23, 2012Instead of howling about misspent youth against huge, churning guitar riffs, he ruminates on the wages of adulthood, musically enveloped in a cosmic, plaintive version of Americana.
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UncutJan 9, 2012Clear Heart Full Eyes is a low-key triumph, containing some of the most emotionally satisfying work Finn has yet produced. [Feb 2012, p.82]
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Jan 9, 2012Clear Heart Full Eyes [is] a work of understated beauty.
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Jan 9, 2012This record is the result of Finn turning his hand to songwriting for the very first time and, yes, he's nailed it.
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Feb 8, 2012With Clear Heart Full Eyes he's established himself, tentatively, as a man apart from his band.
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Entertainment WeeklyJan 20, 2012These windy beach narratives tend to lie back in the hammock when they should be shooting the curl. [27 Jan 2012, p.71]
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Feb 10, 2012The arrangements are simple, often pretty ... but mostly they serve to support the delivery of some of Finn's most evocative and well observed lyrics.
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Jan 25, 2012With much of the flash stripped aways from him, Craig Finn proves that he is a formidable songwriter first and foremost, and here we find him sitting on a stool and playing songs at his most comfortable.
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Jan 24, 2012The Hold Steady this ain't, but as far as new directions go, Craig Finn could have done much worse.
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Jan 24, 2012Finn's compelling without the usual bluster that provides him momentum--his voice never approaches its old roar but his nice melodic sense comes out here more.
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Jan 24, 2012Cut with a country-rock pickup band, his first solo album is full of bleakly funny noir tales.
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Jan 19, 2012Clear Heart Full Eyes is entirely at ease with itself, rarely forcing the issue beyond the gently affecting, but affecting is definitely the right word.
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Jan 19, 2012Finn's best songs are the ones when he's fully in the present, in tune with every emotion and every detail his protagonists might experience during a particular moment.
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Jan 25, 2012With his first solo release, Finn hasn't gone too far away from his core aesthetic, but the move is enough to justify his own album.
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Feb 14, 2012The mood ... is decidedly bleak- populated by disillusioned lovers and working class escapists, the lyrics splitting at the seams with dark religious imagery.
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Jan 20, 2012The Hold Steady is all about bombast and getting bombed. Clear Heart Full Eyes is about the morning after, and everything's a blur.
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Q MagazineFeb 21, 2012Swapping The Hold Steady's white-knuckled intensity for skeletal drums and echoing guitar gives Finn's voice more room to manoeuvre. A welcome change of pace. [Mar 2012, p. 100]
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MojoJan 31, 2012It's good to hear him outfront, vivid, quirky, and unconfined. [Feb 2012, p.95]
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Jan 24, 2012Finn certainly takes a paddle – if not quite a dive – into fresh sonic waters.
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Jan 24, 2012Clear Heart is just good enough to keep us listening.
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Jan 23, 2012Despite its flaws this first solo offering is a human record; brave and honest, both in content and purpose.
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Jan 23, 2012Finn's gift survives even the more uneven experiments.
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Jan 23, 2012There are some growing pains on Clear Heart Full Eyes, but mostly this is a compelling and rewarding turn for Finn.
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Jan 20, 2012Finn has a nice line in sardonic, declamatory assessments – "Certain things get hard to do when you're living in a rented room"; "I'm alive, except for the inside" – but there's little comparable imagination to the arrangements, which lean towards ironic country-rock and dispirited blues-rock.
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Under The RadarJan 19, 2012Finn puts aside his usual shouty tales of druggy teenaged vagabonds to subtly engage with the quieter topics of God and love. [#39, p.68]
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Jan 30, 2012The earnest but tepid Clear Heart Full Eyes, which as a solo album makes an excellent argument for sticking with your apostles.
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Jan 24, 2012On Clear Heart Full Eyes, Finn brings the stories (he always brings the stories), but as a whole, the album sounds atypically half-hearted.
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Mar 1, 2012The unfamiliarity between Finn and his backing group is palpable.
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Alternative PressJan 9, 2012What's left are halfhearted Hold steady wannabes and dull stabs at poignancy.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 1 out of 4
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Mixed: 3 out of 4
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Negative: 0 out of 4
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Mar 23, 2013
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Mar 20, 2012
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Mar 5, 2012