Even though it’s ostensibly a solo record, Clear Heart Full Eyes feels like it was never meant to play to the strengths of the man behind it. That man — Craig Finn — is more at home with his main squeeze, The Hold Steady, a bar band thick with power chords and wailing guitar solos, where he’s free to excitedly rant about the drugged-up nights of his drugged-up characters.
The original idea behind Clear Heart Full Eyes was that it would be a slower, quieter, more introspective record. Finn himself appeared on Minnesota Public Radio and debuted two tracks on which he quietly picked an acoustic guitar with a backing band full of somber mallet instruments, an upright bass and pedal steel.
The better of the two tracks, “One Single Savior,” found Finn at his most subdued. It made good on his promise to show a less bombastic, but no less affecting, side of himself. It focused on his lyrics — his undeniable strength — but was never uninteresting musically.
The problem is that the song didn’t even make the album. And neither did any that even approach its level.
Instead, Finn gives us an 11-track paean to boredom, a record on which the music and lyrics clash annoyingly throughout. As competent as the instrumentation is (most via Finn’s hired hands), the arrangements unwisely flit around the stereo space, coming out of the speakers from all different angles, interacting with each other in ways that call attention away from Finn’s voice.
There’s simply no need to try to integrate so many ideas into each track. The Hold Steady’s music, at its best, isn’t too much more than a canvas for Finn to lay his words on. It’s impossible to penetrate the guitars’ distortion, which makes the vocals the undeniable focal point. The band works because it finds the best way to use Finn’s voice.
Clear Heart Full Eyes doesn’t seem to have that sense of consideration, and it suffers. Only one song, “Rented Room,” in which a quietly soloing guitar only takes control when Finn takes a vocal break, exercises the instrumental restraint of “One Single Savior.”
But otherwise, for 45 interminable minutes, nothing happens. Finn has plenty of stories to tell, but this time around it doesn’t really feel like he wants you to hear them.
VERDICT: The idea is nice, but Craig Finn can’t turn out anything interesting on his first solo record.
jwolper@umdbk.com
