Album Reviews
…of Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Trashcan
- Captain's Dead
They just put out a odds and sods double record that is made up of b-sides, non album tracks, etc and god damn if it aint better than most bands/artisits real records.
- Clicky Clicky
A brilliant lyricist and a cracking coterie of collaborators and it's easy to see why there's gold at every turn here.
- Bucket Full Of Nails
Much like a good work of fiction, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Trashcan warrants return visits. I’m already picturing dog-eared copies of this album years from now.
- Captain's Dead
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- Music For Robots
They’ve been here the whole time, releasing albums, EPs, singles; growing changing, adapting and never losing the thread that made them great.
- Captain's Dead
One of the best band on the planet and completely hitting their stride.
- Music For Robots
…of No One Knows What Happens Next
- Stereo Typing
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
- Exclaim!
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.
- Prefix
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.
- Weekly Dig
This is thinking outside the box with a lot of moving parts, but sonically, it comes together gorgeously in a start-to-finish listen.
- Prefix
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.
- MTVHive
[“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.
- Stereo Typing
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- Ampeater Review
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?
- Ampeater Review
…of Colonial Drones
- Prefix
…as catchy as each song can be, what grew on me is how they all mesh into a cohesive whole.
- The Boston Phoenix
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.
- The Line Of Best Fit
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.
- The Weekly Dig
It doesn't take long to realize this album is something extra special.
- Erasing Clouds
- Pitchfork
- Blurt Online
- Prefix
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- Tracer
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.
- Pitchfork
- Exclaim!
- The Weekly Dig
- Stereogum
- Tracer
…of Collective Psychosis Begone
- The Boston Globe
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.
- Soundcheck Magazine
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.
- Pitchfork
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.
- Crawdaddy!
- Dusted
- Erasing Clouds
- Paste Magazine
- Exclaim!
- The Boston Globe
Live Reviews
- NYCTaper
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.
- CT Indie
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.
- Prefix
Boston's own Hallelujah the Hills wrapped up a five week tour and were tighter than Glenn Beck's throbbing forehead vein.
- The Boston Phoenix
[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.
- Boston Music Spotlight
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.
- The Boston Globe
- The Boston Phoenix
- I Rock Cleveland