This is a great album. If you are a fan of Brendan Kelly's vocals, this is a good choice because he sings in every song. The songs have a good pace, are quite catchy and the lyrics are awesome. If you are just getting in to the Lawrence Arms, this album is an alright place to start, but I'd go with something after Ghost Stories and come back to it later.

Awesome cd. Not as good as Oh! Calcutta! or Greatest Story, but still pretty amazing. Chris barely sings on this one but watever, still good. If you liked all their other ones get this, if this is your first time hearing them its not a bad start either.... so either way get it its good!

It was a little bit dissapointing at first, but thats because i had bought and fellin love with Oh! Calcutta and The Greatest Story Ever Told. But this goes back to when they first started out. After awile it does grow on you. the songs sorta sound the same, but you still cant help but sing along and nod your head to it. Id say get this first, so then you can be amazed by oh! calcutta(my personal favorite)

Not their best, but still a real strong album. The lyrics remind me more of the Broadways than The Lawrence Arms, but thats not a bad thing. The lyrics make more of a vast political statement than being about personal feelings. My favorite song is probably "Guided tour of Chicago" because I know all the places Brendan talks about, and I've seen those people up in the city, so it's really relatable. Not an essential album to buy, but if enjoy these guys you'll like this album.

This Is Early Larrys arms, the recording is not quite up to fat wreck standards but the the songs are great, if your just getting into these guys id pick, up...cocktails and dreams, apathy and exhaustion and the greatest story ever told. anyone is good, but if your a fan like i am, you'd like this in your collection

one of my favorite albums!!! I want bren kelly's body!!! This cd is much better than newer stuff. It's all good, but this cd really captures sexyness!

I don't know why most people say they like Ghost Stories better than this. This cd is way better in my opinion. Brendan sings just about every song on this cd and you know what that means, every song is fast. Apathy and Exhaustion is the masterpiece, but this cd is actually almost as good as "Greatest Story Ever Told" if you ask me.

Been after this for ages and finally got it. I thought I prefered "Ghost Stories" over this, but this is now firmly planted in my current selection of 'listen to every day' records. It's gritty, and it's pretty much all Bren, which may or may not be a good thing (his songs on "Greatest Story.." rocked me up like hell, but Chris' songs were needed cram that record more full of goodness).

"The Northside, The L&L...." is one of my favourite songs of all time, full of lyrical splendor, like most of the other songs on this album. You need this CD.

This CD is not bad. But I would say get their releases from Fat records first. Asian Man records is a great label, I just think the Lawrence Arms music really came full circle on "Apathy."

The first release by the Lawrence Arms is not their best, but because it's the Lawrence Arms, it still deserves 6 stars. Brendan does almost all the vocals here, but when Chris sings with him in "Northside", the result is the best song on the album. Other standout tracks include "Take One Down and Pass It Around", "An Evening of Extraordinary Circumstance", and "One Day We're All Gonna Weigh 400 Lbs". This album though, sport some of their weakest songs, in my opinion, but a weak Lawrence Arms song is still miles from anything else. If you're just getting into them, I'd recommend Apathy and Exhaustion.