During the past four years, The Hold Steady has honed its sound, becoming the new quintessential American rock band.
The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based group flawlessly channels both Bruce Springsteen and the great Joe Strummer in its classic take on rock ‘n’ roll. And with frontman Craig Finn’s lyrics, the band had found quite a nice niche to be in.
But with the departure of keyboardist Franz Nicolay, the band has some new hurdles to jump. The Hold Steady’s stellar past two albums, 2006’s Boys and Girls in America and 2008’s Stay Positive, began relying more and more on Nicolay’s exceptional abilities on the keys. Now that he’s gone — off to pursue a solo career — fans wondered how Finn and co. would be affected.
But devotees of the band need not worry. To sum up the group’s new album, Heaven is Whenever, in one word: amazing.
This is not the band’s best album, but it still brings the rock. However, it’s a new kind of rock — gone are the E Street Band vibes. What Heaven is Whenever gives us is a new dynamic. The album is more guitar-centric than past efforts but also showcases a more stripped-down version of The Hold Steady.
“The Weekenders” best embodies this new direction of the band, as the verses are softer and less informed by bar band rock. The chorus is chock-full of Finn’s genius songwriting with the hook, “And if you swear to keep it decent/ then yeah I’ll come and see you/ but it’s not gonna be like in romantic comedies/ in the end, I bet no one learns a lesson.”
Such simplicity and borderline narcissism is what makes The Hold Steady stand out from other American rock bands right now.
Finn is the master of writing songs that perfectly embody the American everyman. Songs such as “The Smidge” and “We Can Get Together” are perfect examples of this. He creates characters with distinct voices, and though these personas are not as strong as those on songs such as “Party Pit” from Boys and Girls in America, fans will still come to know and love them.
Much of the record is a bit softer than usual. But songs such as “Rock Problems” remind the listener the band can indeed still rock out with the best of them. It’s also times like these — especially in the song’s terrific guitar solo — that it’s OK to get upset by the fact that the band is still playing clubs instead of the Super Bowl halftime show. The group has all the potential in the world to do so.
But even in Heaven is Whenever‘s epic moments, the absence of Nicolay is occasionally noticeable. The keyboards on this album are few and far between, and the casual listener might not even pay attention to the minimal use of the instrument.
Nicolay was an innovator and a huge part of the group. While the rest of the group amps up the instrumentation, his distinctive playing style and backup vocals are missed. In the end, it’s nitpicking — the album is still very strong overall. But it is a weakness that the band needs to address before its next release.
While Finn is still on-point with his lyrics, the band takes some chances musically, most noticeably on the seven-minute-long “A Slight Discomfort” to fantastic results.
This is not the same The Hold Steady we’ve heard on past records, yet there are just enough similarities to past albums that Heaven is Whenever fits in with the rest of the band’s catalogue.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
klucas@umdbk.com
