Killers & Stars

Patterson Hood | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 4, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: New West Records
• ASIN: B00020HAO2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,445 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Low-Fi Masterpiece, April 12, 2005

By 

Ouija (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Killers & Stars (Audio CD)

Every once in awhile a singer or a band releases a diamond in the rough. That's the case with Patterson Hood's Killers & Stars. You might know Hood as the venerable leader of the very cool Drive By Truckers, one of the best bands out there today.

Hood recorded Killers in 2001 at his dining room table during a low point in his life personally and professionally. The band was in limbo and he was in the process of a divorce. The result is a CD that's low fi and dark, but brilliant nonetheless.

With the songs consisting just of Hood's voice and acoustic guitar, there's a certain rawness here. And that's a good thing, because Killer's songs are just that - raw. Hardship, uncertainty, frustration, melancholy and resignation are all in evidence.

The songs are all great, but I especially like Pay No Attention to Alice, a cover of a song written by country great Tom T. Hall about a friend of his whose wife was an alcoholic. And Frances Farmer is another great song. Farmer, of course, is the tragic actress that went off the deep end in the '40s. Back then they called it manic-depressive psychosis. Today the neat term for it is bipolar. Maybe Hood understood how Farmer must have felt when she was carted away to a nut house against her will and given shock treatment. Anyhow, that's a glammed up Farmer you see on the cover.

Enough about that. Buy this CD right now.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars patterson hood's raw brilliance, May 10, 2004

By 

scott neal (newton, nj usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killers & Stars (Audio CD)

this album is absolutely insanely beautiful. what a release like this could do for patterson's career and popularity is amazing...if it were to be heard by the masses.
these are the songs neil young wishes he wrote. the lo-fi sound and atmosphere is brilliant and i don't think that a slickly-produced version of this album would be nearly as captivating. this is a must buy for anyone who thinks he knows what real, heart-felt music is.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm happy he released it, April 19, 2005

By 

the heckler (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killers & Stars (Audio CD)

First of all, I admit that I don't own a single Drive By Truckers CD--something I plan on taking care of. I bought this CD on a whim after listening to clips of "Uncle Disney" and "Rising Son" and being very impressed. When I was able to listen to the complete CD, I immediatly fell in love.

This CD could have easily been cleaned up but, thankfully, it remains beautifully lo-fi and raw. From creaking chairs to string noise to the occasional off-key lyric, KILLERS AND STARS is a brutally honest recording even if you choose to ignore the intelligent songwriting. Hood's voice embodies each song like a backporch storyteller revealing more character with each note.

This is a real folk album done right. I wouldn't change a thing.