Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
Entertainment Weekly	A
Los Angeles Times
Mojo
NME	7/10
Pitchfork Media	8.3/10
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Select	4/5

Hollywood Town Hall is the third studio album by American rock band The Jayhawks. It peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and number 192 on the Billboard 200. The cover art for the album was shot in Hollywood Township, Carver County, Minnesota.

David Browne of Entertainment Weekly wrote that despite noticeable musical influences from The Everly Brothers, The Rolling Stones, and Neil Young on the album, "there's nothing nostalgic about the passion and desperation in every syllable of singer-songwriter Mark Olson's voice — or in the band’s effortless mix of sawdust harmonies and craggy electric guitars." Steve Hochman of the Los Angeles Times stated that Olson and Gary Louris "achieve a yearning ache that would have done top Burrito Gram Parsons proud".Rolling Stone's Chris Mundy hailed Hollywood Town Hall as the band's "definitive statement" and praised Olson and Louris' vocal harmonies. Music critic Robert Christgau was less positive and gave the album a "neither" rating, indicating an album that "may impress once or twice with consistent craft or an arresting track or two. Then it won't."

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, critic Ned Raggett called Hollywood Town Hall "one of the more unlikely major label releases of 1992" and described the album as "accessible enough for should-have-been success but bowing to no trends", concluding that it "sounds more like something made for the group's own satisfaction that connects beyond it as well." Stephen Deusner of Pitchfork Media cited the album as "the Jayhawks' greatest statement."

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Wikipedia