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Mar 25, 2014Finn has slowed what rolls off his tongue, just as The Hold Steady as a whole has at last jelled into a rock band--nothing more, nothing less, and nothing held back.
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Mar 25, 2014Teeth Dreams is the first time since Boys & Girls in America that The Hold Steady toes that perfect line between adolescent, backseat make-out sessions and stoned, intellectual discourse on the human condition.
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Kerrang!Apr 30, 2014With Teeth Dreams' measured and sometimes elongated songs, ideas both lyrical and musical are given room to breathe and to reach their fullest potential. [12 Apr 2014, p.53]
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Q MagazineApr 23, 2014Teeth offers more upbeat songs about downwardly mobile characters, complete with Springsteen-scale musical drama and clever lyrics about dive bars. [May 2014, p.111]
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Apr 11, 2014This is the Hold Steady's guitar album, in a discography full of guitar albums. Crank it.
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Apr 2, 2014Teeth Dreams fits squarely in the band’s wheelhouse, generating the same sundrenched feel as their past records while simultaneously cultivating a sound and direction that is new for the band.
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Mar 25, 2014The rock quintet wastes no time reestablishing its high-energy bona fides on Teeth Dreams.
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Mar 25, 2014It’s a more intricate embrace of the 1970s guitar rock that the Hold Steady has always prized, but it’s also a leap forward.
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Mar 24, 2014Reconstituted with a brawny two-guitar attack, The Hold Steady return with another portfolio of dirty-realist tableaux in Teeth Dreams.
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Mar 24, 2014They sound confident enough to provide space for Finn’s lyrics of high nights and soul-harrowed hangovers
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Mar 24, 2014This new direction is one that suits the band well, and although it may seem like they've put their bar rock days in their rear view mirror, it's seems pretty clear that the band is heading toward a big, arena rock future.
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Mar 24, 2014The Hold Steady’s earned a well-deserved respite to round out Teeth Dreams, an album about staring down and not running away from a past that haunts the present and future.
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Mar 24, 2014This album takes anxiety as a theme, but it sounds materially less neurotic than their previous records, for good and ill.
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Mar 21, 2014Teeth Dreams arrives to colossal expectations, but weathers them fine and showcases a band returning to form.
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Mar 20, 2014A big rock album that feels richer, more expansive, with every listen.
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Mar 20, 2014The Hold Steady need not ever deviate from such a potent product.
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Alternative PressMar 17, 2014Their best album since BAGIA, possibly longer. [Apr 2014, p.92]
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UncutMar 17, 2014Teeth Dreams is The Hold Steady's least fussy, least mannered, least arch album. Not coincidentally, it's possibility their best. [Apr 2014, p.63]
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Mar 24, 2014Overall, hits outweigh the misses in what adds up as one of the band's darkest albums.
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Apr 28, 2014The results sees The Hold Steady with an in-your-face, rapid fire record that’s arena-ready and their most ambitious to date.
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Apr 7, 2014Beneath the arena-friendly sonics and the streamlined storytelling of Teeth Dreams lies the same old band that kicked off their very first number with a little bit of Mott The Hoople self-mythology, that fist-pumping Hold! Steady! chant within "Positive Jam."
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Mar 25, 2014The addition of a second guitarist makes for a big sound that gives Finn more room for detail and nuance.
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Mar 24, 2014On their sixth album, however, they advance on their trademark blokeishness to embrace a beefier and slicker kind of guitar-led groove.
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Mar 28, 2014There are triumphs here, but they're modest; there is, after all, little fanfare to be found in just getting up and on with it day in and day out. Consequently, Teeth Dreams--even more than the flavorless Heaven Is Whenever--occasionally feels like the first Hold Steady record that's just going through the motions.
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Mar 24, 2014Whilst Teeth Dreams isn't a bad album, it feels pedestrian and ordinary compared to what The Hold Steady are capable of.
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Mar 24, 2014Teeth Dreams is the New Yorkers’ burliest record to date, less feel-good and chorus-driven than previous efforts, but there’s still much to love
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Under The RadarMar 17, 2014Teeth Dreams isn't a failure. But it's an album that doesn't play to its creators' strengths. [Feb/Mar 2014, p.72]
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Mar 17, 2014The more reflective moments on the album are some of the best.
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Apr 4, 2014Teeth Dreams is nowhere near the best Hold Steady album, but it shows the band aging in a direction that fills us with… hope? Perhaps that’s all we can ask for.
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Apr 24, 2014It doesn’t help that the production is full of weird echoes and indistinctness.... And yet, there are some genuinely good songs here.
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Mar 27, 2014Teeth Dreams on its own sounds like a transitional record, compelling in spots but nevertheless unfulfilling.
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MojoApr 23, 2014What used to work well just doesn't any more, even though Finn still conjures street stories with a rank, raw conversational truth. [May 2014, p.87]
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Mar 21, 2014From the sloppy production and uninspired arrangements to the fact that Tad Kubler hasn’t written a memorable guitar lead since 2008, Teeth Dreams sounds like the characters in its songs: past its prime and just trying to get by, but with the past creeping back in and not letting anyone forget it.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 8
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Mixed: 2 out of 8
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Negative: 0 out of 8
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Mar 30, 2014
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Apr 23, 2014
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Mar 30, 2014