HOLD YOU LIKE A LOVER

Theodore channels a haunting sound that is honest as hell. It is one that many bands try to evoke, but few manage to accomplish. Only a small, unfeigned lot have ever realized music so eerie, yet so comforting; so riddled with lies, yet so true; so desperate, yet so triumphant.?Hold You Like A Lover is not some trite country?novelty album about whiskey and train tracks, but rather a genuine collection of country-tinged songs that bear well-versed redemption.?The St. Louis quartet of Justin Kinkel-Schuster, Jason Torbitzy, J.J. Hamon, and Andy Lashier have only been together since 2006, but one would never know. In this short amount of time they've been named the?Best of St. Louis by the city's main rag?The Riverfront Times (with frontman?Kinkel-Schuster also receiving Best Male Vocalist). In addition, the band has procured a spot in the reputable Undertow Collective (Pedro the Lion, Centro-matic, etc.), played jaw-dropping sets at SXSW, and supported some of the biggest names in the independent music world. One listen reveals why such great accolades have been bestowed upon this group. Simply put, they are undeniable.?Hold You Like A Lover further validates the outright?significance of Theodore. This is a record to make one at ease with feeling down in the mouth; about doing wrong to those whom one ought to do right, if only for the knowledge that one shares this condition with so many others who wake every single day with the hope, misguided as it may be, that today might be the day things turn around. It's a record about longing for a past and a home that did not, do not, cannot, exist. It's about the joy of one's sweetheart and the perverse relief in being caught in a complex lie. But mostly, it's about the transcendent feeling that things might be all right, if only for a brief spell, while this music is sounding.