Daily Cardinal arts writers Kyle Sparks and Todd Stevens go head-to-head in a debate over the quality of the Hold Steady's new album, Heaven is Whenever.
Hold Steady's Heaven ironically hellish
By Kyle Sparks
During another triumphant stretch of songwork on his band's latest release, Craig Finn repeatedly confides, ""Heaven is whenever we can get together."" And for the majority of his rock 'n' roll tenure he has validated that same sentiment. The Hold Steady are nothing if not a communal experience, and their history of bringing spit-covered bar rock to an arena-rock scope has repeatedly stretched intimacy to such an expansive scale that the moments of surreal euphoria often appear truly divine.
But on their latest, Heaven is Whenever, the Hold Steady are more pointed toward the sweeping grandiosity of their spacious guitarwork. They've lost their nagging voice and itch to party, and in doing so, they've lost the aspect that made them so relatable. Finn's lyrics existed more in crowds than they ever really did on a stage, and that was what connected the two and made the fans feel intertwined in the songs.
And perhaps that's the most awkward transition period on Heaven is Whenever: Finn's lyrical perspectives are no longer our own. He always toed the line between confessional honesty and elaborate storytelling, but he was always entrenched in the story himself. He was always the cool uncle who still did drugs and met girls, and he was always the best at retelling the stories about them. But this time around, he's more of a father figure. When he does re-enter our perspective, he takes on the paternal responsibility of the volatile ""Hurricane J."" He seems like a storyteller who might not see any irony in a song about ""Rock Problems.""
But the rest of the band doesn't seem entirely sure-footed either. Their bigger-than-Jesus riffs are what extended early Hold Steady records as far as they did, but they keep trying to tailor themselves to Finn's barroom vocals. Keyboardist Franz Nicolay's departure certainly didn't help the process, and his soaring vocals and circus-tent piano are noticeably absent from songs like ""The Weekenders.""
As if a parting gift for those of us nostalgic for their earlier material, the Hold Steady closed Heaven is Whenever with the closest regression to Almost Killed Me and Separation Sunday's start-stop riffs. ""Barely Breathing"" shows Finn back in the mosh pit, spilling blood and nearly getting killed. By the time the singer hands him a pamphlet on Hare Krishna, he says, ""You gotta be kidding."" Handed the rest of Heaven is Whenever, many of us are likely to say the same.
In ""Soft in the Center,"" Finn explains it all when he says, ""You can't tell people what they want to hear / If you also want to tell the truth."" It's hard to say which side of the band's discography represents what we want and which side represents the truth, but it's fairly obvious that whichever side we're on now is the side he is intending to stick with.
The easy comparison here is Wilco. For most die-hard fans who have followed the Chicago outfit from as far back as 1995's A.M., the intensely personal alt-folk group's most recent three albums of adult-contemporary sound like a band out of ideas. Yet, nowadays they're more popular than ever. Craig Finn and Co. seem to be following a similar trajectory.
They've already written a handful of canonical records to rally a faithful band of supporters, and they can afford to shed some hostility without losing too many followers. So although it doesn't deliver on the surface, if Heaven is Whenever is properly used as the foundation it is meant to be, the Hold Steady are poised to become the next biggest band in the world, even if that means they're no longer somebody's favorite.
Whenever the Hold Steady release an album, the result is pure Heaven
By Todd Stevens
The Hold Steady have developed such a cult following that they could likely release anything and their Unified Scene, the band's unofficial fanbase, would worship it on high. Ever since the band released its seminal sophomore effort Separation Sunday, where Craig Finn revealed himself to be one of the greatest literary lyricists of his generation, the Hold Steady's devoted fanbase has followed them to every high-octane show, exhibiting a passion disproportionate to its size.
However, in the years since the Hold Steady's greatest achievement, Boys and Girls in America, they have put their fans' loyalty to the test. Their last release, 2008's Stay Positive, was often criticized for not bringing anything new to the table and not improving upon the old. Those criticisms ring a bit hollow, because an album that continues on the path of Boys and Girls in America is hardly a bad thing. But still, fears arose that their newest effort, Heaven is Whenever, would continue this trend of more of the same, despite claims from the band that they were heading in a new direction. To a certain extent, these fears are founded, as Heaven is Whenever is far from a revolution of the Hold Steady's signature sound, despite the departure of keyboardist Franz Nicolay. But while their sound retains its same form, it has still made room for growth.
Throughout their discography, the Hold Steady have ranged from stark bitterness to ardent romanticism, from the sarcastic detestations of Boys and Girls' ""You Can Make Him Like You"" to the redemptive nostalgia of Sunday's ""How a Resurrection Really Feels."" But Heaven is Whenever does not wallow in these extremes. Instead, it appears that Craig Finn and his bandmates have reached a certain level of acceptance with life, lovers and the world itself.
This is best illustrated in the contrast between the album's titular song and the album's first single, ""Hurricane J."" As a song, ""Heaven is Whenever"" is perhaps the most saccharine love ballad Finn will ever write, but he subverts it immediately afterward in ""Hurricane J"" by declaring the object of his affection, Jessie, ""A pretty good waitress / But Jessie I don't think I'm the guy."" Finn fully realizes that this relationship is not meant to be, just as he realizes in ""Soft in the Center"" that ""You can't get every girl / You get the ones you love the best."" But at the same time every single note and word of the title track is completely authentic, underscoring that while the heaven he refers to may have only existed for a moment, it sure was one hell of a moment. It just can't last. This is not romanticism. This is not cynicism. With Heaven is Whenever, the Hold Steady have found realism.
Yet with all of this emphasis on tonal evolution, there is some variety thrown into the sound, even if it isn't the huge leap forward alluded to earlier. ""Barely Breathing,"" perhaps the most appealing song on the album to the snarkier Hold Steady fans, throws in an intriguing clarinet solo out of left field, and ""Our Whole Lives"" opens with a lead straight out of the ""Hot Tub Time Machine"" version of the 1980s.
But overall, the sound is still classic Hold Steady—and just like Stay Positive, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Finn and Co. can still combine their hyperarticulate emoting with their grand rock-star style, and while it may not be a creative height, it keeps them on their highest plateau.
