HTH Press

Press

Hallelujah the Hills has established itself as one of the most admired Boston-based rock bands of the 2000s. Fronted by singer, songwriter, guitarist, journalist and author Ryan H. Walsh, the sextet won more or less universal — and international — acclaim for its ambitious 2019 epic, “I’m You”. Last September, Walsh announced that the band would begin work on DECK, which would comprise “52 songs, one for each card. 4 thirteen-song albums, one for each suit.”
The band is the best indie rock act our fair city has produced in 20 years.
A present-day and important subject, proceeds that will be donated to Doctors without Borders, cover art by Robert Coburn from a poster contest run by Avant Garde magazine in 1967, but above all a beautiful, subdued version by Boston’s indie rock band Hallelujah The Hills. Respect.
A staple of the Boston music scene, Hallelujah The Hills have been waving the indie rock flag out of that city for nearly 20 years. With Ryan H. Walsh as the creative nucleus, the band has been heralded for their approach to songwriting and their ability to make the reader feel something.
Is this going to be the official follow-up to I’m You, or something else? We’ll see. Until then, we’ll be playing this new song on repeat.
Musically, we’re a long way since 2007, but 'Superglued to You' is as good as anything from Hallelujah the Hills’ Collective Psychosis Begone.
There is a kind of inner momentum to a HTH’s show (and most of their songs) that builds up over time, and grabs you, and pulls you along. When it was time to play the last song, the crowd wasn’t ready to let them.

QRO, Aug. 3, 2022

As great as their albums are, their live shows are just next level.
I don't think any band is releasing consistently great music quite like Hallelujah the Hills are...The band isn't saying what Superglued to You is a part of yet, but we can't wait for it.
Hallelujah the Hills brings a constant raucousness to their shows, a nonstop thread of energy and exultation that cannot help but filter through all the noise, to break right into the moment and carry an entire audience on their sonic shoulders.
We talk to [Hallelujah The Hills] about their last traditional live appearance before the pandemic hit.
The stop-motion music video for their song "The Memory Tree"…is a genuine joy, with the song acting as a perfect as a swelling score.
Despite being completed during such a short spell, “Popular Anti​-​Depressants of the 21st Century” still authentically bears the burden of 2020’s constant mourning.
Lyrically, the album is a rabbit hole, the words begging to be repeatedly listened to in order to savour them while the band whips up some excellent moments.
This rock thing ain’t so bad, especially if it’s done by one of the finest American rock bands. Such a great record.
I’m You has generated a veritable buzz among both critics and longtime fans… an anthemic collection that is simultaneously outward-looking and introspective.
A deep and encompassing sound that pulls you in by the ears and spins you for a walk through bursts of thoughtful lyrics and enchanting harmonies, all built within the framework of firm rock beats
The new record is less than a month in the books and it's already one of my favorite records of 2019. I highly recommend it.
No solo es el mejor disco hasta la fecha de Hallelujah The Hills, además es uno de los mejores discos de rock americano de los últimos años
It's somehow weirder but more accessible at the same time. You get the feeling that are just going to do whatever they want from here on out. If that's the case, count us in.
I was absolutely astonished. This is a beautiful, visceral document made at the intersection of folk and indie-rock. Some of the most refreshing songs I've heard all year.
I also happened upon stunning new record from Hallelujah Hills, a band I knew little about, but already feel a deep-rooted connection, as if I’ve been listening for years.
If you thought the best of the decade was over you might want to think twice. I'm You is a rich and stunning slice of Americana rock 'n' roll and relatable, earnest storytelling.
In the right circumstance, could let the rest of the world know what those of us in the area already learned.
Somehow every song on “I’m You” has an equal-but-totally-different energy. Ryan Walsh is one of the only rock musicians capable of writing songs about writing songs.
A lot of the reviews, press and interviews for the band center around me, but I wanted to write a little something about how incredible my bandmates are as collaborators and friends.
A conversation with Hallelujah the Hills at their cozy practice space.
A Ginsberg-esque telling of present day America backed by a band with a similar chaotic synchronicity as the band from Ziggy Stardust.
Ryan Walsh has always held an interest in history and folk music. Please enjoy this conversation with one of my favorite humans.
There are two things Boston's Hallelujah the Hills do incredibly well: Catchy roots based rock songs and experimental instrumental noise rock. Their sixth album, Against Electricty, was just released yesterday and it fits squarely in the latter category.
All kinds of interesting textures and atmospheres happening. HTH doesn’t bother really going for a particular Astral Weeks-y vibe and wisely avoids late-60s psych cliches – maybe the most overt “reference” is the (excellent) “Rayrunner” rave-up. I’ll let you guess what that one sounds like!
Hallelujah The Hills is a band that radiates the essence of Boston indie rock

WGBH, Nov. 29, 2018

The band got right back to cooking up the weird, wonderful indie rock we’ve come to love from them for ten years.

A must-listen for fans of classic, cathartic American indie rock. These 11 songs, loaded with gritty determination, dramatic dynamic swells and gang vocal shouts, might just make you believe again in whatever it was you stopped believing in.

Hallelujah the Hills has racked up its share of war stories through more than 10 years of making music on the Boston scene, accruing a body of work that reflects Walsh’s interest in energetic, sometimes-shambolic rock music with a sly sense of humor embedded within.

There’s a lot of postmodern confusion on A Band is Something to Figure Out, but Hallelujah the Hills are post-postmodern, reconstructing the human experience through sheer enthusiasm, using their joyous hooks and choruses as earnest expressions of emotion rather than ironic juxtapositions.

Hallelujah The Hills’ fifth full-length album…brings their flavor of indie rock back to our ears so we can do air guitar in our bedrooms and learn new lyrics to scream live. There’s chipper synth, succinct drums, and Walsh’s rounded tone of voice that never ruffles your feathers the wrong way.

Massachusetts indie rock institution Hallelujah The Hills' [fifth record] is called A Band Is Something To Figure Out, but it could just as easily be called This Is What It Sounds Like When A Rock Band Has It All Figured Out…Rock frameworks that reliably stretch to accommodate subversive, irreverent impulses…The band's best outing to date.

The best of folk punk, alt-rock, and political-style punches somewhere between Titus Andronicus and the Hold Steady.

The kind of punk rock you’d expect on stage at the roadhouse from 'Twin Peaks'

Few do it with the style and imagination of Hallelujah the Hills. [It's] is a blast from start to finish, every minute packed with hooky twists and turns. Mastermind Ryan Walsh can write a hell of a chorus, too, hitting plenty of Pollard-ian, singalong sweet spots over the album’s 12 tunes.

#1 - Popmatters Overlooked Records of the Year
#1 - Captains Dead records of the year
#1 - Pop HeadWound Albums Of The Year
#3 - Beat Surrender's best rock/pop/indie of the year
#6 - One Chord to Another's Top 30 Albums of the year
#12 & #54 Top Songs Of 2014 - The Boston Herald
#4 webzine millefeuille Top Albums 2014
Doom & Gloom from the Tomb - Best Of 2014
Merge Records Staff Lists - Favorites of 2014
Bradley's Almanac - Favorite LPs of the year
Improv4Humans Podcast - Best of Music
Cafe Copa Y Puro - Discos Inmortales del 2014
#3 The Year In Music - NewsReview
Best Songs of the Year - Oceans Never Listen
Upright Citizen's Brigade Founder Matt Besser's Best of 2014

It might just take the enduring strength of their forthcoming full-length Have You Ever Done Something Evil? to bring their long-deserving recognition.

Get your first taste of the album now with an exclusive demo of “Pick Up an Old Phone” and find out what the band is planning for its new release.

Mr. Walsh, the leader of Boston indie rock greats Hallelujah The Hills, is both smarter than your average bear and -- probably by a wider margin -- smarter than your average songwriter, and he writes, among other things, songs about writing songs that are not, you know, really just songs about writing songs.

Hallelujah the Hills have always been one of the great hidden gems of beantown. With their new release, I am ready to proclaim them as one of the most underrated bands in the country

Obviously, the talents of band members Brian Rutledge on horns and David Bentley on cello are a highlight and make a delicate song like “Care to Collapse” or “Hungry Ghost Extraordinaire” among the most memorable and recognizable songs, both from the album and live.

There is more introspection on display than usual, especially in the lyrics, but Hallelujah The Hills have simply grown into the band they always threatened to become. This is a happy ending for all involved.

The clarity of this record is a daring move for a band that has existed so firmly in the gauze, but it pays off at nearly every turn...they've also gone ahead and made their best record.

It's a great introduction to No One Knows What Will Happen Next, and despite the warning in that title, and even if we don't know yet what that album will be, "Hungry Ghost Extraordinaire" is surely a good omen.

[“Get Me In A Room”] builds to the sort of manic rock explosion that the singer describes as “a pep talk to myself,” where confines of a room seems metaphorical at best.

…our expectations were high to hear the yet to be recorded material as well as selections from the bands impressive back catalog and HTH did not disappoint.

There's an epic quality to everything they do, and the set at large benefited from the same careful arc that's found on a smaller scale within each song.

Hallelujah the Hills’s lyrics are full of couplets that are clever and funny and touching and use words that you have probably not recently heard in a rock song, like, say, documentarian or cohorts, without sacrificing any of the rhythm that lyrics have to have to carry a rock song. AND they have loud guitars. What more could you ask for?

Boston's own Hallelujah the Hills wrapped up a five week tour and were tighter than Glenn Beck's throbbing forehead vein.

Colonial Drones has a big sound, upward movement, punchy hooks, singalong choruses and the tightness of a touring band.

Hallelujah the Hills [have] jumped to the accelerated class on their second album, Colonial Drones.

…it's Walsh and his compadres conjuring a rough-hewn classic out of homey materials. Great stuff.

Colonial Drones, as the title aptly suggests, is a work full of fantasy-like explorations, laden with anthemic choruses and lyrics freely open for interpretation.

…as catchy as each song can be, what grew on me is how they all mesh into a cohesive whole.

It’s this open-minded and open-ended approach that has made HTH one of Boston’s most prized pop possessions. We’re not likely to hear a local album that trumps the wonders of Colonial Drones anytime soon.

Accented by cello and brass, HTH delivered a dynamically charged set of literate indie rock that filtered the free-associative wordplay of Guided By Voices through the antediluvian old-time feel of the Decemberists.

[The Silver Jews] followed an energetic set from Hallelujah the Hills — loud and non-showy with six dudes on stage including a trumpeter, a cellist, and a thunderous drummer who pounds with such force he’s regularly launched off his stool.

It's the sound of music without limits, made by a band reveling in its own vast creative potential and the cumulative collision of its early influences.

Read further into interviews with Walsh, and he frequently brings up Davids Lynch, Byrne, and Foster Wallace. Walsh identifies with their work and shares, in a small way, their desire to leave ends unraveled, to create scenes without pushing them toward a conclusion. This is Prepare To Qualify's unifying and best aspect.

There is an element of cacaphony in Prepare to Qualify, but it keeps you guessing. It keeps you captivated all the while wondering, “Why in the hell am I so interested?” Just keep listening - it’ll hit you eventually, and I guarantee you’ll keep coming back to it.

For a few moments during Hallelujah the Hills’ EP release show on Saturday, everything seemed to dissolve into blissful madness. Members of HTH and Ho-Ag crammed simultaneously, almost comically, onto Great Scott’s tiny stage in a collision of bodies, instruments, blaring sounds and styles.

Rarely do entire albums translate successfully as live setlists, but Hallelujah the Hills proved that their debut Collective Psychosis Begone is an exception to the rule Saturday night at the Middle East Upstairs. Breezing through the ebbs and flows of the excellent album like grizzled veterans, Ryan Walsh and his bandmates treated the crowd to a commanding performance.

It's the bookish end of things we're hearing on this stellar, non-album cut from HtH, singer Ryan Walsh delivering a positively Bright Eyed turn on the slow rolling ‘Let It Wave.’

There’s something intimate about this album — it feels as if you’re in a room with these guys, and they laugh at your jokes, and they play a few songs, and you applaud, then you all go out and get drunk together.

A child reading a poem, a throat clearing, a voice altering microphone treatment, all these things are slipped in without much explanation, but also without pretense. The whole record is beautifully odd, more than a little off even when it’s just one person with a guitar…so how could a few real world sounds make it any stranger?

Numbers like ‘Wave Backwards To Massachusetts,’ ‘Hallelujah The Hills,’ and ‘Slow Motion Records Broken at Break Neck Speeds’ showcased their ability to combine joyful, playful, and intelligent all within the same number.

There’s perfect pop melodies hidden in the rock frames of numbers like “Wave Backwards to Massachusetts”, but there’s some strange drifts of folksy surrealism throughout the album as well.

It’s a ramshackle, lo-fi, amateurish indie mess, but Walsh’s off-kilter David Byrne warble and the band’s unerring pop sensibilities combine to forge something that is both accessible and bracing.

The band's ensemble structure (cello, trumpet, and melodica) and learned lyricism echoes the stage-packing sounds of Arcade Fire, Danielson, Bright Eyes, and Decemberists, while its shambolic, maximalist barroom aura recalls Robert Pollard, another songwriter infrequently at a loss for words.

They are a band full of contradictions. With guitar, strings, keyboards and brass all at the band’s disposal, they’ve created some wonderful arrangements that are crowded yet manage to retain a surprising amount of clarity... There’s just so much potential on display here that it is hard not to be excited about Hallelujah The Hills.