The Hold Steady attempt to balance widespread appeal while remaining embedded in the scenes they've been chronicling for half a decade.
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The Hold Steady's latest album begins with "The Sweet Part of the City", a number about kids meeting up under theater marquees, drinking until they run out of booze, partying till the cops come, listening to music all night, and making runs for more liquor. The song is quintessential Craig Finn, especially when he reveals a twist ending in the final lines: "We were bored so we started a band," he admits. "We'd like to play for you." The line comes across like a stinging punchline, sad and self-aware: Kids start bands to tell their stories, yet their stories are often the same. They play music to feel transcendent, to feel larger than their mundane circumstances-- so why isn't the crowd paying attention?
Coming from a band so rooted in notions of community and classic rock, "The Sweet Part of the City" seems to acknowledge that the Hold Steady realize their function as a liaison between the underground and the mainstream. They're trying hard to achieve widespread appeal while remaining embedded in the scenes they've been chronicling for half a decade. Heaven Is Whenever loiters in the same dives, clubs, and party houses as their previous albums and chronicles the sagas of similar hoodrats, townies, gamblers, waitresses, and girlfriends. Meanwhile, the band has graduated to larger venues, festival appearances, and an avid fanbase that shouts along with every word. The distance between subject and band has never been greater than it is on this album, and these new songs just don't hit as hard.
Finn still writes street-level narratives with a large cast of characters all united by their dire circumstances, and on previous albums, he managed to insert himself into their stories as a hapless buyer, a reckless hook-up, an accidental witness, or a reluctant participant. His first-person involvement gave him first-hand access to the kids, and he built songs out of stray phrases and details that explained their lingo and motivations. But on Heaven Is Whenever, he sounds one or two steps removed, less active in their sagas and less concerned with the particulars of the characters. Now he's shooting for the bigger picture instead of collecting the persuasive details and the convincing slang, which leaves these songs sounding largely uninhabited. Finn sings in first person throughout the album, gesturing at character and point of view, but the perspective from which these songs are written is neither entirely convincing nor consistent.
The band tries to punch up these songs as much as possible, adding intrusive synths and backing vocals, but they don't always achieve the fervor necessary to make songs like "A Slight Discomfort" uplifting. Tad Kubler gets a few good riffs in on "The Weekenders" and "Rock Problems", but the lackluster production blunts their impact. Elsewhere, the music is strangely staid and anonymous, lacking the drama that Franz Nicolay-- the mustachioed keyboard player who proved surprisingly divisive among fans-- could add with a simple piano flourish. "Barely Breathing" breaks into an out-of-nowhere clarinet solo, but that element of surprise is the most notable thing about it.
Still, there are strong moments here: That languid slide guitar on "The Sweet Part of the City", the shout-along hook of "Rock Problems", and the hammering chorus of "Our Whole Lives". "The Weekenders" musters a moody, desperate urgency that makes it sound like the dark sequel to "Chips Ahoy", with its hints of clairvoyance. But hearing the band hit this sort of stride is nothing out of the ordinary; hearing them sound so directionless and tired not only sounds new, but suggests that the Hold Steady aren't holding steady. Despite the confidence of that opening track, Heaven Is Whenever sounds like a transitional album, hopefully paving the way for something stronger, more cohesive, more specific. In the meantime, this remains an uncharacteristically weak effort by a good band that may be in danger of running out of stories.