- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Jayne and company do manage to pull off a few tracks that capture the old fire and brimstone of classic LAL, but the shiny textures and generic songwriting are too much to overcome, rendering Holy a disappointing addition to the band's previously strong catalog.
-
While the middle tracks tend to get lost in the shuffle, fans of Brock's Modest Mouse will be drawn to the horn-inflected swagger of "Bonnie and Clyde" and the stretched-out jam of album highlight "Konny and Jim."
-
The crisp production by onetime Clash engineer Joe Blaney brilliantly showcases Jayne's writing, which has never been more tightly skilled or confidently ambitious.
-
FilterLike Brock and even Andrew Bird, Sam Jayne can slipstream between genres without missing a heartbeat. [Spring 2008, p.96]
-
What made Laughter’s Fifth great and this one better than it might otherwise be is his commitment to just plugging in and playing, which gives the music a spontaneity sorely lacking in much of today’s post-digital landscape.
-
Jayne’s music is at once disorienting and familiar.
-
Early highlights aside (particularly the bone-rattling 'Paul Revere'), much of the album could be written off as cruise-controlled and that feel definitely resonates.
-
Singer-songwriter Sam Jayne has an affection for classic rock and a great sense of whimsy about it.
-
Indistinct lyrics and plodding dynamics confine most of the songs to "just okay" status, but a few arresting tracks seem destined for a yet-to-be-built rock Valhalla.
-
Holy is another reliable blast of Jayne's ostensibly lazy, bread-and-butter indie-rock.
-
Who knows if I’ll still be listening to Holy when the leaves turn, but it’ll certainly get some heavy rotation this summer.
-
Under The RadarAt least half the time, Holy gets it right. Maybe more importantly for an album like this, it's never boring,. [Aug 2008, p.83]