The Hold Steady makes a loose, welcome return to Thrashing Thru The Passion
Music Reviews music review
At some point in the past 15 years, The Hold Steady was the best rock band in America. It won the title by synthesizing the rawness and subject matter of punk rock with the shamelessly pleasurable riffing of classic rock, taken high as hell by the literary voice of frontman Craig Finn. It’s hard to say exactly when the band lost this status, because it didn’t suffer through a notable decline—at least not in quality (even if plenty of listeners prefer its first three records above the rest). After a breakneck first six years and a period of inactivity following 2014’s Teeth Dreams, it felt like maybe The Hold Steady—ever self-aware about the dynamics and optics of making rock ’n’ roll for a living—was abdicating its title. How long can anyone stay the greatest, anyway?
But The Hold Steady never formally left the scene, maybe because the demise-to-reunion progression has accelerated enough to skip breakups entirely. A little while after Teeth Dreams, the Brooklyn group brought back keyboardist Franz Nicolay (who had left during the making of 2010’s Heaven Is Whenever), retained new bonus guitarist Steve Selvidge, and booked a series of multi-night, sometimes anniversary-related shows in lieu of a grueling tour schedule. It then began releasing songs intermittently online, freed from the usual promotional cycles. But as distinctive as The Hold Steady’s classic-punk hybridization might be, Finn and company are traditionalists at heart, unlikely to let an album’s worth of songs sit around on streaming services.
Hence Thrashing Thru The Passion, the first new Hold Steady album in over five years and, in its casual and on-brand way, the band’s biggest stylistic departure yet. That’s not to say it represents a wholesale reimagining of the Hold Steady’s sound. (One of its major competitors in the category of “best recent American rock band,” Sleater-Kinney, is putting out a new record on the very same day, and one with significantly more sonic experimentation.) It’s more like a carefully negotiated reorganization, making sure there are enough guitar lines, keyboard melodies, singalong backing vocals, and Finn witticisms to bring each song to proper six-piece equilibrium.
Even with an expanded lineup, this new configuration is a looser and less-anthemic iteration of the band, reducing the fist-pumping and giving the songs more room to breathe. “Denver Haircut” kicks off the record with some mid-tempo storytelling about an encounter at an airport (a scene-setting detail later echoed in the “tequila takeoff, Tacate landing” of “Entitlement Crew”), an indication that the album’s characters will be a little less youthful than the scenesters of Separation Sunday or Boys And Girls In America. As usual, Finn’s lyrics put it best: “You’re kind of catching me at a transitional time.”
From this early moment, Thrashing feels liberated from some of the band’s usual album architecture. Beyond the lack of big mosh-pit revivals, it also avoids the lush ballads that typically arrive halfway through a Hold Steady record. The closest Thrashing gets is “Blackout Sam,” a sparer production than the likes of “First Night” or “The Ambassador,” with an unadorned group chant in place of borderline power-balladry. At the back of the record, “Confusion In The Marketplace” is the group’s punchiest, most concise closing track in, well, ever.
It’s a productive scaling-down—the sound of a great rock band getting back to work. The Hold Steady achieves its classic-punk alchemy by balancing the powerful rock ’n’ roll mythmaking of guitarist Tad Kubler’s riffs with the conversational myth-puncturing of Finn’s lyrics, and that balance threatens to topple over if the songs venture into more grandiose or self-referential territory. On Thrashing Thru The Passion, the guys seem rightfully skittish about becoming the kind of middle-aged band that writes lots of songs about being in a band and going on tour.
There are still lines that can be read as self-deprecating references: “Hold Steady at the Comfort Inn / Mick Jagger’s at the Mandarin,” Finn sings on “Star 18,” possibly following up the “Ask Her For Adderall” line about name-dropping the Stones. But a prickly crime story like “The Stove & The Toaster” is pretty far from even an ironic evocation of rock-star glamour, and multiple songs go further into workaday life by recalling the office-worker ennui of the Stay Positive bonus track “Two Handed Handshake,” right down to the album’s horn-heavy arrangements. “Traditional Village” marks the glorious return of wailing sax to the band’s repertoire, which in this particular combination with zinging piano flourishes brings an unexpected touch of Billy Joel to its E Street stylings. “Village” and the keyboard-heavy “Entitlement Crew” offer additional proof that classic Hold Steady songs don’t necessarily need blood, sweat, and/or crosses to quickly work their way into fans’ hearts.
For hardcore fans, the record’s second half, beginning with “Entitlement,” may present a strange listening experience. Those who have followed the band’s single releases over the past two years will essentially be hearing an all-new side A fused to a previously released side B. As such, despite the reaffirmation of The Hold Steady’s album bona fides, it’s hard to avoid hearing Thrashing as a dribs-and-drabs record; keep in mind that the “transitional time” line back in the opener is as much a warning as an explanation. Similarly, “Entitlement Crew” has a self-effacing mantra: “Thanks for listening, thanks for understanding.”
But remember when, circa All That You Can’t Leave Behind, U2 claimed that it was reapplying for the job of best band in the world? The Hold Steady of Thrashing Thru The Passion isn’t making any such grand statement. It’s just quietly filling out the application. And “Denver Haircut” features another potentially meta observation: “It doesn’t have to be pure. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just sort of has to be worth it.” No Finn-ish qualifiers needed here. It’s worth it.
96 Comments
Hyped for this one.
I always thought Nicolay’s keys were what made The Hold Steady fully cohesive. Teeth Dreams was enjoyable but lacked that certain oomph. But after hearing all the stuff they’ve been putting out with him back in the mix, it certainly feels like they’re back back musically. Very happy they didn’t go full-in and have all their two-offs be the album.
I’m of two minds, because I tend not to think that most great bands can made or broken by a single element like that—and Nicolay only played a little on Almost Killed Me, which I absolutely love. And I like a lot of those Teeth Dreams tunes. But yeah, it’s nice to have him back, and he’s even more key to their live shows.
I caught them at Penn State when they were touring Boys & Girls in America – a dry show, ironically – and while Craig Finn is a livewire, Franz really pushed their sound over the top. I remember some of his piano flourishes better than I remember guitar solos from that album.
Interesting about ensemble players making or breaking a band. I thought of Petra Haden playing with the Decemberists almost immediately; certainly, The Decemberists can play Decemberists songs without her, but have any of their successive albums matched Picaresque or The Crane Wife? And on a separate note, what about Bob Nastanovich?
I’ve seen THS several times, both with Franz and without. From a live show perspective, Franz’s absence was palpable. He and Craig are the dual centerpiece for the band on stage. So glad he’s back in the fold.Also, a DRY THS show?! I can’t even wrap my mind around that.
Title of this review could easily have been “Hold Steady holds steady”. It would be accurate.
I am a giant fan, and I would suggest that the band dropped (slightly) when Franz Nicolay left for a bit. So glad they brought him back. Nicolay feels a bit like Clarence Clemons to the Hold Steady – this ineffable element that really raises their game. Is it necessary? Not exactly. But I think Boys and Girls in America is almost built on his keyboard work, even if he’s not on all of the tracks (missing from some of the best ones actually).
When I think of Boys & Girls in America, I think of the ruthless keys on “Stuck Between Stations” and “You Can Make Him Like You,” which are my two favorite tracks on the album. As tightly written and performed the whole thing is, every track is better for Nicolay.
Yes! Though I’d add the absurdly great fills in “Chill Out Tent”. They make a decent track a fantastic one.
While not the Hold Steady, I’ve also enjoyed Finn’s solo albums, each on more than the last one. We All Want the Same Things is a great album.
It’s obviously supposed to be Thrashin’, not Thrashing, the latter of which is not a rhyme, is hard to say, and I hate it. Thrashing Through The Passing, about fighting back from a near-death experience, would also be acceptable. So would Gnashin’ Through The Passion (Fruit).
I loved Almost Killed Me and Separation Sunday but never really took to their other albums. Sounds like this might get me back on board. And Finn’s new solo album is pretty goddamn good too.
Unrelated to the review, but listening to the 2 tracks above reminded me that I’d love to hear Weird Al do a Hold Steady pastiche.
Boy it’s always weird to see them called a Brooklyn band when their lyrics, history, etc., make them, to me, as Minnesotan as The Replacements or Husker Du.The release schedule has made this album feel weird, as the review notes. But alongside Finn’s solo albums, it feels like a natural evolution (aging? maturing?) more than the jump cut that Teeth Dreams felt like.
Ugh, that is New York trying to take credit for whatever it can. Craig and Tad did Lifter Puller for six years in their home state of Minnesota before Craig moved to New York, where they started The Hold Steady a couple years later.
Hard to blame New York when the band itself plays Brooklyn on every tour, has special events/anniversaries exclusively in Brooklyn, and refers to themselves as a Brooklyn band.
My issue isn’t with them being called a Brooklyn band. Just that their songs are so full of references that it feels weird that they aren’t a Minneapolis band.
Think of them as a “band from Minneapolis who absolutely wanted to be known as a Brooklyn band” and let your rage against them SIMMER *rubs hands together evil-like*
I mean, Brooklyn’s cool and all. But it’s like Springsteen having his library of Jersey-based songs and them claiming he’s from Berlin or something.
Shouldn’t The Drive-By Truckers be mentioned somewhere in that story?
I’m confused about your appraisal of Confusion in the Marketplace as a closer. Is it meant to be more plainly descriptive or are you suggesting that it ranks up there with Slapped Actress, How a Resurrection Really Feels or Killer Parties? This is a band that knows how to kick you straight in the feelings-dick to close out an album, really leave a lingering impression, and though I’ve yet to hear this album (sad!) I’ve heard Marketplace and I can’t wrap my head around it being a very satisfying closer.
I’m just saying it’s uncharacteristic of their closers—it is, I believe, their shortest album-closer ever, and has a very different feel than the increasingly drawn-out album-cappers of the past. It’s an excellent song; it’s probably not as purely satisfying as a closer as most of their others, but I’m more likely to listen to it on its own, and I think it’s kinda neat that after trending in a particular direction with “A Slight Discomfort” and “Oaks” (great album tracks that I wouldn’t put on a THS best-of list), they really went in another direction this time.
Thanks for the answer!
I have a hard time with The Hold Steady. Because I like most of their albums, but I love, love, love Boys & Girls in America, which towers so thoroughly above everything else of theirs that it’s hard to get into anything else. Seriously. It’s a top-ten album for me. But I’ve been really digging Finn’s solo work—particularly We All Want the Same Things, several songs off of which are still in heavy rotation. So, I’m excited to give this a shot.
The new THS record is different from Finn’s solo stuff but at the same time, it’s a little closer to that vibe than the other Hold Steady records, so you might dig it more. (Though for me their top-ten-of-all-time entry is Separation Sunday.)
You should revisit Separation Sunday. Boys and Girls mostly feels like a more kitschy version of that one, which for my money is their single undisputed triumph.
I’ve revisited Separation Sunday recently, and I like the rawness of it a lot. It’s one that has grown on me over time. But the songwriting on B&GiA is what does it for me. Plus, it feels a little more dynamic, which I appreciate. Other than “Same Kooks,” I’m in love with every track, and each for different reasons.
For some reason THS are virtually unknown here in Australia, but Entitlement Crew has been getting play on alternative radio here. It got my attention so I’m interested in checking out more. Reading the comments it sounds like Boys & Girls is the place to start?
It’s probably their most accessible. Also, it rules real hard.
Any of the first 3 albums (Separation Sunday, Boys and Girls in America, Stay Positive) have a good chance of getting their hooks into you. Each one is a concept album. As they progress, the concepts get weaker and the production gets stronger.
Psst their first record is Almost Killed Me and it’s great
Good point. I always forget about that one.
Sseparation Sunday.
I love franz and everything that he has done, will ever do, and is currently doing
extremely very excited to have him back in the bandnow he should rejoin World/Inferno
“At some point in the past 15 years, The Hold Steady was the best rock band in America.”[multiple citations desperately needed]
[cites every damn show they’ve ever played in the last 15 years, and a classic 4 album run]
Their “problem” is that part of their peak overlapped with part of The Drive By Truckers’ peak. And DBTs peak was better.
They were only ever “the best rock band in America” if you don’t need your rock bands to have singers that can sing. The mystery of their ‘decline’ isn’t much of a mystery – they’re a one trick pony and the trick doesn’t include melody; over time, it’s grating.
Singing is not particularly a value I associate with rock and roll.
I appreciate your honesty (and always like your writing Jesse) but good gravy if you can’t tell the difference between good rock singing that is ‘bad’ and Craig Finn (which is not ‘bad’ so much as just not singing at all, primarily talking – books on tape over subpar E-street band/replacements), don’t write music reviews.
His singing on the later albums is a lot more melodic than the early stuff—though if you can’t stand it on the early stuff, I doubt you’d be won over by the later albums. Say that I agree with you and think that’s just talking, even though I don’t, and find plenty of musicality in his voice even when it’s on the barkier side. Is talk-singing really… not allowed? Maybe if they didn’t have strong guitarists, melodic keyboard lines, and a fuckton of energy, I’d notice it more. But as someone mentions below, it fits the songs. Melodies don’t have to be confined to vocal melodies.
Jesse, please just follow the rules that have been mandated by Mr. rrnate.
I mean, sure, anything is allowed, but calling a band “the best rock band in America” when their singer can’t sing is NOT allowed. As mentioned below, please do follow this rule, we’re trying to have a society here.
OK, I’ll bite: What bands were in contention for the title during the Hold Steady’s active years?
Off the top of my head, I’d list:
Spoon – in the midst of a very great runRilo Kiley – winding down but at the topWilco – winding down from their peak but 2005/6 still def in the convoWhite Stripes – doing weird stuff while being very famousOf Montreal – in the midst of their best run before they became exasperatingAgainst Me! (whom I don’t like but would totally see as arguably in the mix)Even dumb ol’ Green Day would be a better pick than HS IMO. This is obviously a dumb and subjective list but I don’t think it’s subjective to say the Hold Steady don’t belong in the conversation as “the last great rock band” or “at one point the best” or even near the best or in a ‘best’ conversation.
I didn’t say last! Some of these are great picks. The White Stripes and Rilo Kiley would be in the mix for me, for sure. My personal timeline is that Sleater-Kinney had it from 2002-2005 (though maybe Rilo or White Stripes snuck in there for a little bit); The Hold Steady took it over for 2005-2006, when Separation Sunday and Boys & Girls came out; maybe the White Stripes had it again for a bit before they broke up at the end of the decade. Then the “American” part gets tricky because Japandroids and Los Campesinos! are so much better.But yeah, it absolutely is subjective to say that THS doesn’t belong in the conversation at all. In favor of Wilco?!?! I think I should at least be able to stay awake while listening to a rock band. 😉
Sorry, didn’t mean to imply you were saying ‘last’, but I always felt that was part of their narrative – “we’re the last important rock band, gimme a beer and here is a long story”.I think partially what kills me about people talking them being the best at some point is that I’d lump them with Guided By Voices (who I love, unlike Hold Steady); part of the fun is the underdog hyperbole. It’s like when Obama’s press secretary made the proclamation that GBV where America’s best band – no one actually thinks that but their cult loves that shit and the “we are the best”-losers thing is part of the magic. I guess it kills me that a band as great as GBV has the same kind of thing going for them that Hold Steady does, probably a very stupid thing to bother me (almost as stupid as arguing a fairly pedantic point made almost as an aside in a review with a critic I like but hey, the internet is HERE to connect us). Another argument, though I don’t care for ‘em much, in terms of ‘best band’ is probably Arcade Fire, who probably did more to influence where bands went (mostly for worse) in this era. Heck, the Boss walked out to ‘em! But of course, they’re mostly North American, not American.
Fair enough about the underdog thing (cue Spoon horns). I think part of why I’m willing to just say they were the best American rock band, at least for a couple of years, is that so, so many reviews referred to them being the “world’s greatest bar band” and I always sort of resented the implied limitation. Like, what [I’d say to myself as if addressing the writer, with way too much irritation], the Hold Steady is just great for a bar band, and not TRUE ARTISTS like… Wilco or some shit? (Coming down hard on Wilco, who I like fine; I just don’t think they kick the requisite amount of ass.) Sort of like when a great genre movie gets left off All-Time Best lists (which is to say, ultimately silly to get worked up about).
And yeah, Arcade Fire for sure belongs in the broader-than-U.S. conversation. Maybe they even count, since Win was raised largely in Texas, right?
I think if you limit it to just 2006, you could make a very serious argument for the Hold Steady having the best American rock record. The only ones that might come close is Jay Reatard’s Blood Visions (my darkhorse pick), Return to Cookie Mountain which people love but I do not, and weirdly, Brand New’s the devil and god are raging inside me.And I personally love Built To Spill’s You In Reverse though it’s not rated highly in their catalogue.
Heh, I hadn’t seen the ‘best bar band’ thing but it’s absolutely a ding on ‘em that also sort of works in short hand for the ‘worlds greatest underdogs’ tag. I also like Wilco but also agree their rep was a touch overblown.
I’d go with Deerhunter from 2008 (when Microcastle came out) to 2012 (when Lotus Plaza’s Spooky Action at a Distance came out)
Can you imagine someone seriously arguing at any point in history that Of Montreal or Rilo Kiley were the best rock bands on the planet? Or that they’re even… rock bands? The Hold Steady, meat and potatoes as they were, absolutely outshone every actual rock band you listed for a few years (so basically Spoon and the White Stripes, though Spoon is clearly the stronger case if we’re talking a full career retrospective).The stupid and obvious but true answer is Radiohead though. The 2000s were their victory lap; they were headline news every time they put out a record, they critically worshipped, and every album they released during those ten years debuted at #1. But you could also say the same for Coldplay, more or less, so who knows.If you wanted to get a more fun with it, Sleater-Kinney had a whirlwind first half of the decade. For a minute, so did the Strokes. The Bad Seeds put out some of their absolute best (and worst) work during the 2000s and started playing arenas. Boris has a few absolutely monumental and truly “rock” records during this period. I think the Wrens put out the best guitar record of 2000-2005. But again, the obvious and painfully boring answer is Radiohead.
I’d absolutely see the logic behind Sleater-Kinney being called the best working rock band in America and I could get behind it! My list is pretty top of mind, though, I completely stand by my assertion that Rilo Kiley and Of Montreal were rock bands during this era and it could totally be argued that “meat and potatoes rock” at this point in time (mid 00’s, basically a few years past height of Strokes-Will-Save-Us) was pretty besides the point, which, you naming Radiohead kind of gets to the same point. BUT, Radiohead aren’t and never have been American so get ‘em outta here.I have nothing against the Bad Seeds or the Wrens but one isn’t American and neither is anywhere close to the top of a ‘best of’ list, good as they are. Agree to disagree on the White Stripes, who were both rocking harder and writing more original music than Hold Steady ever did.
Joes Stummer and The Clash say you’re talking complete bollocks mate.
Really? That is ironic, because Strummer and Jones both could carry melodies.
You’re statement:
“calling a band “the best rock band in America” when their singer can’t sing is NOT allowed”Stummer maybe one of the best front men of all time – in the best band in the world in their day- but no one ever claimed the bloke could sing.Besides Finn handled melody quite nicely on much of previous three albums -so once again: bollocks.
People are doing an awful lot of listening to David Berman/Silver J/Purple mountains at this moment. He wasn’t much of a singer, but the words and emotion trumped that skill.
And all of his favourite singers couldn’t sing.
It’s funny, I’ll play “Hoodrat Friend” on my acoustic guitar and really sing it with a proper melody and it it becomes an amazing song. I mean, it’s already amazing, but I see your point.
Craig Finn’s lyrics (which are, like, 60 percent of why the Hold Steady is so great) would sound really weird delivered by a traditional melodic singing voice. I don’t think it would work.
If Lou Reed could figure it out (at least until about 1980), one would thing Finn could. As-is, it’s like a TED talk with overly loud background music played to a bunch of teary middle-aged pint glass clutchers.
I don’t recall hearing a lot of people covering their songs, I should look into that actually…I hear there’s this thing called BING
I mean, covering a Hold Steady song is a shit job; you gotta come up with a melody or just recite the lyrics sans melody like Finn.
This is a strange stance to take and makes me think you’re not a fan of all the punk and post-hardcore that forms the backbone of the Hold Steady. Craig’s singing “improving” is actually one of the reasons the band has lost their magic over the years, honestly.
The backbone of the hold steady is certainly not post-punk, how dare you. They’re squarely shooting for E-street/Replacements/god help us J. Geils but lack any kind of singer who can do it. (If you were talking about Lifter Puller I’d not argue, but, Hold Steady is certainly shooting for classic rock not PIL or something.)
I actually was talking about Lifter Puller, as that’s where Craig developed his entire schtick as a frontman. Musically Hold Steady pulls way more from heartland and bar rock but Craig’s delivery is still that same gutteral song-speak that’s clearly indebted to all the punk he still writes constantly about.
Totally agree that the ‘improvement’ is a reason people are less interested; the guy can’t sing, and, his more-forced attempts to don’t improve this already dire situation.
Finn’s voice bugged me for years until it finally clicked and they became one of my favourite bands. Honestly, given the “classic” era of the Hold Steady was centred upon telling an out-of-order story piecemeal, his role is more that of a narrator than a singer anyway; his delivery totally works for that.Live, they are easily one of the best rock bands in the world.
counterpoint: your opinion is hot garbage
No, the hot garbage is the Hold Steady, which you’re welcome to.
I think maybe it is because Heaven is Whenever was very underwhelming, and then Teeth Dreams, while excellent, was introspective (and had a pretty bad name, really…certainly not justified by the passing lyric it derives from). I am up for wherever they are going now.They do get a lot of E Street and Billy Joel comparisons, but I think a band they are a bit like in some ways is The Tragically Hip, partly in the way Gord Downie’s personality really rolled through all of their works and his own solo works. I haven’t heard the new album, hope it’s great, but I can imagine them turning out fifteen solid to exceptional albums with only the occasional downturn over thirty-plus years, they’re tooled in for staying power, have a deep back catalogue, and as those classic-level Finn lyrics you quoted show—like a great observational comic—his bit doesn’t ever have to get old.
I like the name Teeth Dreams and the lyric it comes from, but that album definitely has their ugliest-ever cover.
Teeth Dreams is very easily their worst record though.
I like the Tragically Hip comparison, especially since THS and the Hip are both at the top of my list. Like Craig, Gord was a master storyteller. And their lyrics share the ability to make their audience feel a part of something bigger.
OK well both of these songs completely kick, so THS can be expecting some of that sweet bfred money pretty soon.
Denver Haircut and Entitlement Crew are definitely two of the best songs on the album. Confusion in the Marketplace is also great, but I’m not big on the rest. I’d recommend looking into their singles that don’t appear on the record (over the past year or so they’ve released 9, 5 of which make up the last 5 songs of the album). The ones they left off, to me, are as good as Entitlement Crew and Denver Haircut, and better than anything else included here.
Interesting – thanks for the heads up. Maybe I’ll just pull them all and make my own version.
Sure thing. I mean, I do hope you enjoy the whole thing (I never hope someone has a bad experience with something), I just think I was a little bummed leaving these comments because I’m a big fan of THS and this always happens when your favorite band releases a record you’re not big on. It’s not that I despise it, or think it’s objectively bad or anything, just doesn’t do it for me, especially compared to their past stuff. They’re known a lot for their lyrics and a lot of these – to me – are watered down versions of what they’ve done better lyrically in the past. One note – re-reading my post to you, I got two songs mixed up – I said I only liked 2 of the singles they included on the album (Entitlement Crew and Confusion in the Marketplace), but there’s actually a third that I did think was pretty good, which is Star 18. I got that confused with “A Snake in the Shower”, but I will say, a lot of fans do like A Snake in the Shower, I seem to be an outlier.
It’s tough to still be penning lyrics about angsty youth that sound authentic when you’re a successful middle-aged man. You’d think Jane’s Addiction would have been warning enough.
haha, yeah that’s true. You end up doing an impression of yourself (although I wouldn’t go as far to say THS is at the point of self-parody, there’s too much good stuff in there, especially in the singles, to say that).
I’m always mystified by the ideas that 1) Stay Positive isn’t a pantheon THS record (it’s better than Boys and Girls), and 2) Heaven is Whenever is a letdown. HIW has a couple missteps but it closes with 3 straight massive tracks and is infinitely better than Teeth Dreams.
The reason I’d leave Stay Positive out of the Top Three is that it feels to me a LOT like a Boys and Girls repeat. Now, that makes the album very, very good, because THS is great at what they do, and they certainly have the right to keep to that formula. I love most of the songs on Stay Positive. But it feels like a parallel to Boys & Girls in so many ways:Track 1 is the anthemic opener (“Stuck”/“Constructive”)Track 2 is the darker but still super-catchy story song (“Chips”/“Sequestered”)Track 3 is the sketchy-incident song (“Hot Soft”/ “Cutters”)Track 4 is the fast-paced riffage (“Same Kooks”/“Navy Sheets”)Track 5 is the power ballad (“First Night” / “Lord”)
Track 6, well, I guess “Yeah Sapphire” and “Party Pit” aren’t that close but they feel kind of similar in both tempo and subject matter.Tracks 7 and 9 do swap places, but “Citrus” and “Both Crosses” do the token acoustic number, while “Magazines” and “You Can Make Him Like You” are almost sibling-like in their sad-relationship laments.Track 8 is the celebratory uptempo number (“Massive Nights”/ “Stay Positive”)Track 10 is the somewhat off-model experiment about music fans (“Chillout Tent” / “Joke about Jamaica”)Track 11 is the slower-paced anthemic closer (“Southtown Girls”/ “Slapped Actress”)But this is where I circle around to agree with you a little bit, in the sense that I think Heaven is Whenever doesn’t get enough credit. It really mixes up the formula they established with the previous two records: It starts with a ballad, the hardest rocker is second-from-last, and in general the songs aren’t as easy to pair with previous songs.
So not only do I possibly prefer it to Teeth Dreams, I might (on some days) prefer it to Stay Positive! But generally I’d say the first three are fantastic and the second three (plus the new one) are very, very good.
I don’t know. This just seems like the kind of specious crap rock critics come up with because they are so obsessed with crafting a “career narrative” for an artist that they can’t even hear what’s on the record. By this principle, “Let It Bleed” should be seen as an inferior record to “Beggar’s Banquet” because track by track it more or less recreates the same formula just as you’ve described. But “Let It Bleed” sounds like the obviously superior album, at least to my ears. So, whatever…
Well, I’m not really a rock critic, so I don’t have much riding on this narrative, and I promise, this is something that I thought while listening to Stay Positive (over and over!), not particularly looking for a unifying theory of the Hold Steady. There’s nothing wrong with using a formula. I’d give Stay Positive a B+/A- if I were reviewing it. I was just saying that’s one reason that I feel warmer, in some ways, toward Heaven is Whenever (or at least don’t think there’s a huge gulf between them, quality-wise). If Stay Positive repeated the formula of Boys and Girls but did better song-for-song, I’d just say they perfected something they practiced on a previous record. But I’ve rarely heard anyone argue that SP is better than B&G.
Seconded. Boys and Girls has better standout tracks, but some of it’s patchy. The 3-song bonus track at the end of some versions of Stay Positive is better than the lesser tracks of Boys and Girls (I have no idea how “Ask her for Adderall” never made it to the official tracklist; some days it’s my favourite song of theirs).
There are days HIW is my favorite THS record.
Stay Positive is a weird one for me – the best songs on that record are among THS’s best, but the worst songs on that record are among their worst. Although I do love that they went deeper into Sapphire and the clairvoyance angle here. HiW has some good stuff but it’s bogged down by all the other shit they tried to do with it, I think. The acoustic versions of those songs I think are infinitely better than what they released. We Can Get Together is the biggest offender; beautiful acoustic song, but the studio version is a drag for me. Ultimately, I like a lot of the songs, but I kind of hate listening to the album, if that makes sense?Teeth Dreams is a middle of the road album for me relative to their other work. The best songs on that album are solid, the worst songs aren’t too bad. I think when you release such amazing albums like Almost Killed Me, Separation Sunday, and Boys and Girls right off the bat, within just a few years of each other, and with their stories so interconnected, it’s hard for everything after not to feel like this weird “other” in the discography, despite my aforementioned fondness for Sapphire.Thrashing is probably the first Hold Steady album where I’m like “these songs just aren’t very good.” I left another comment about this but basically the short version is, they released 9 singles over the past year or so, 6 of which I thought were great, 3 of which I thought were whatever. 5 of those singles made the album, including the 3 I wasn’t a fan of, while the 4 they left off are better than any of the 5 “new” songs, with the exception maybe of Denver Haircut.
I find it a little ironic and bizarre that my top three favorite songs from the random one-offs they put out last year, Esther, Eureka, and Snake in the Shower, are the only three that didn’t make the cut.That said, after being generally underwhelmed with HiW and Teeth Dreams it really feels like they’re back with this new stuff.
I’ve only listened to the new tracks once, but I think this is more like a C- for me. Out of the 9 singles they released previously (5 of which make up the last half of the album), 3 of the ones that made the record were my least favorite of the bunch, and the the 4 that they left off I think are better than any of the new songs the put out, except maybe Denver Haircut, which I like. Also, I can’t even hear Finn on Epaulets. I didn’t think they could bury Finn’s vocals anymore than they have in the past, but they’ve managed to. You could get away with that on Separation Sunday because it gave the feel of him shouting over the band, and it really worked. But now he’s not shouting anymore, and his voice they decided to slap some reverb on him and he just gets lost. Teeth Dreams was a little muddled in this regard but it wasn’t terrible.Unless it grows on me in a pretty big way, this might go in the Heaven is Whenever pile – I like some songs but will most likely go on the back burner.
Great point regarding the strange listen that the second side is. Its pretty funny that Ive heard half the record already but am pretty pumped I didnt have to spend much to get the whole thing. Really enjoying it so far. Easily their best since Stay Positive.
It took me a couple listens to get into this one, largely because the album starts a little weak compared to the back half or two thirds. Everything from Blackout Sam on is great. The first four tracks are just good. But hey, I like good Hold Steady. This is on par with Teeth Dreams for me.
My favorite Craig Finn will always be Lifter/Puller, specifically “Secret Santa Cruz” and “Math Is Money”
1. Add about 20% more distortion to the guitars. Anywhere the guitars sound clean: dirty em up! This ain’t the fuckin Steve Miller Band is it? Turn it up. I’m looking at you Nashville Steve. Directly at you. Because it’s just not possible for Kubler to be the culprit. It’s not in his nature. Even sobered up these days, no way. Whenever he enters a room angelic power chords sound out from on high in the heavens to herald his arrival. Total Rock God. Rock, not Country, you got that Nashville Steve?2. Increase the tempo a bit. Change all that mid-tempo stuff that kind of shuffles along into up-tempo anthems that race along, basically.3. Craig needs to put the grit back into his delivery. The snarls and the shouts. Somebody needs to tell him, “That’s great that you can sing, Craig. Some people in the past said you couldn’t: but you proved them wrong. You can, it turns out.” Now stop doing it, please.He needs to can that smooth and mellow shit forever and go back to doing vocals that are original and strange and challenging to his listeners. This is THS are in The Hold Steady, not Boston. Nobody loved THS for your adherence to a conventionally mellifluous singing style. Kind of the opposite actually.My apologies if you were aiming to be the next Steely Dan, but you could keep being the first Craig Finn instead if you got back to what brought you this far….. TA DA! With those 3 things taken care of you’ve maybe got an album that belongs among THS golden age classics. But as it stands today: Not too shabby, but … a little shabby maybe? Shabby enough for 2019 I guess.
Holy shit, “At some point in the past 15 years, The Hold Steady was the best rock band in America.” This is a mediocre bar band fronted by maybe the worst singer in popular music history. Dorks discovering drugs for the first time maybe thought they were the best, but I don’t trust the music cred of anyone trying to legitimately put The Hold Steady up as a great band in 2019. I’m saddened to learn they are back but happy that this is the only mention I’ve seen of it so hopefully no one is paying attention this time.
This is sort of funny because “dorks” is also how I’d describe people who complain about Finn having a bad singing voice.
Yeah, why would I want to enjoy myself when I listen to music? I should let an accountant drone over some Blueshammer.