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Title: Great classic rock music, tiring and creepy lyrics
Review: I know a schtick when I see one, and Craig Finn's is creepy, pathetic, and tired. Not that he's lazy--he's clearly put a lot of thought and energy into his lyrics, but life is just a lot bigger than the world his songs inhabit. It doesn't help that Finn isn't all that good at portraying the carefree exhuberance of teens getting wasted, which is pretty much all that he writes about. Rather than the escapism of kids looking to get away, he trades more in the nihilism of twentysomethings who've realized there's nowhere else to go. How else can you explain how exquisitely *boring* Finn makes getting oblitterated sound?To be fair, a number of the tunes succeed, (the opening track is monstrous, "Same Kooks" absolutely shreds, "The First night" is an instant classic), mostly in the top half, but the hit:miss ratio falls off simply because, in my opinion, Finn's central thematic obsession only has enough steam to carry so many songs per record.
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