So I was thinking lately about how gorjus is going to see the Hold Steady in Memphis soon, and I was getting a little sad. Not because I’m not getting to go, but because I know that when he comes back, he’s going to say something like, “I know we’ve been really hating on Heaven is Whenever, but now that I’ve heard those songs live, I have a new appreciation for them and for what that album is really about. I think it’s one of their best!” The crucial glue of our friendship these past few months has been our mutual crushing disappointment over that album, a disappointment which we realize is irrational and all out of proportion relative to the ridiculous bonanza of joy we’ve derived from the Hold Steady over the past few years. Nevertheless: What will we do when this suture of loathing comes unstitched one blood-sodden thread at a time?
As a way of preparing for this wretched day, I decided to give Heaven is Whenever a third or fourth chance. This late spring/early summer has been pretty rough, so maybe I was just in a lousy mood the first few times I listened to it, right? Was it really fair that I called it the best album the Gaslight Anthem has ever made? Was it cruel to predict that the next Hold Steady album will be a cycle of midtempo songs about fatherhood?
But alas, although my estimation of the album climbed slightly—I like “We Can Get Together” pretty well, even if it goes on too long, and “Weekenders” is solid, even if it gets most of its juice from reminding us of a much better Hold Steady song—I still think it’s a miss. Let’s just take “Hurricane J” as an example. Leave aside any objections about the processed backing vocals: just look at the lyrics. Now, there are some solidly Finnish lines in there—“You’re a beautiful girl and you’re a pretty good waitress,” that one I like, and Finn sells it with his delivery. But here’s the thing: I don’t think Finn realizes that song is written from the perspective of the creepiest loser on the waitstaff. You know the guy: The one who hits on the approval-hungry girl with the eating disorder and daddy issues by telling her about how he hates to see her waste her potential screwing around with all the younger, hotter guys who aren’t him and who don’t appreciate her the way that he does. An actual lyric from the song is, “I don’t want you to settle, I want you to grow.” Friends: That is not a lyric. That might be the idea behind the lyric; that might be the theme of the song; but you don’t just sing that outright. Come on: Aestheticize. Look, the Hold Steady specializes in songs told from the perspective of unreliable narrators, and this guy could be a classic HS type. But I get the sense that the song is completely in earnest—that the character being studied here is Jesse, not the guy doing the studying.
And . . . and now I don’t like one of the only songs I liked on the record. THANKS PROF
More seriously, I really am interested to see how it goes down Sunday night. A friend that saw them recently said they were only doing about five songs from the new record. Maybe they realize it’s a step out of sync? Or maybe they just have a good library now and don’t have to hammer on the new stuff.
I think I already wrote you an e-mail admitting that it made me like “Stay Positive” less, which is pretty depressing, too. But compare/contrast “Magazines” with “Hurricane J” and ain’t nothing look good.
I actually sort of hate “Magazines,” but mainly because of the distracting guest vocals from the guy from Lucero. Damn, I am a bilious sort today.
“Always aestheticize!” Is that how it goes? It is now!
ok, ok. i had a long, well-reasoned response to this germinating in my head but was too damn lazy to write it. fortunately for us, this guy did it for me:
http://bham.fm/2010/07/this-just-in-i-still-love-the-hold-steady/