Heaven Is Whenever

Time-proved music from The Hold Steady

Human creative work itself is a thing worthy of constant studying. Such a notion as classics implies those pieces of art that are time-proved and have an unconditional impact on most people. To value this or that piece of art as it deserves it is not enough just to get acquainted with it. For example the music art experts say that it is necessary to listen to the same piece as many as eight times to understand classical music! The same is true about literature: each time we return to our favorite book we always find some new thoughts in it and wonder how they remained unnoticed during the first reading. We can look at an enormous picture in museum for hours and keep finding new details. As for pop and rock music, it often happens that we like a song at once and forget about it completely after some time. Luckily there are such bands in the world as The Hold Steady which create music which time proves to be great and which opens more and more of its facets after numerous times of listening, and its new album Heaven Is Whenever is no exception in this respect.

Heaven Is Whenever is an integral and complete record

Practically all the rock compositions on Heaven Is Whenever are completely devoid of any gentleness. The musicians play desperately, loud, harmoniously and sometimes even fiercely and aggressively, and the vocalist and the band’s front man Craig Finn does not fall a step behind. The only deviation from the formula are slight flirting with country at the beginning, on the opener The Sweet Part Of The City, dissolved by rather powerful drums, and the melancholic final number A Slight Discomfort. They serve to embrace the rest of the emotional and eclectic compositions making the entire picture integral and complete: there is introduction, the main part and the conclusion in it. The album’s main themes are vulnerability, life in a big city, an average person’s daily problems, entertainment and also as it could be found on The Hold Steady’s previous works some philosophic observations can be traced. It goes without saying that Craig Finn is evolving not only as a master of story telling – his vocal skills undoubtedly deserve praise. For instance listen to the songs The Weekenders and Rock Problems with memorable guitar riffs, and the track We Can Get Together, with the album title in its chorus can easily be considered the best on the album due to the complicated tune, vivid chorus with witty lyrics, and a harmonious arrangement. Another interesting number Hurricane J starts with the active drums and guitars and is devoted to a girl with a strong character, whereas the song Our Whole Lives is built on the contrast of heavy guitars and drums and melodious keyboards.

An album destined to become the genre classics

So after the first listening to Heaven Is Whenever everybody has mixed feelings and it is no doubt that the utter delight is not one of them. Yes, the good points of these songs are noticeable at once but not everything is yet clear in this music, not everything can be remembered, not all the thoughts caught, and one has to listen to it again and again just like a classic piece of art. Does not it prove that the album Heaven Is Whenever not only turns out to be a step forward from all The Hold Steady’s previous works but also will find itself among the best records of the entire indie scene? Rich, bold, rough, raw and at the same time very qualified material will leave indifferent none of the indie-rock fans. Although the attention is at once drawn to the vocalist’s singing for he was so fond of just telling the lyrics before and today he sings throughout the entire album, the rest of the members also deserve a special word. Take, for example, the guitar solos – the tracks with them are certainly among the best moments on Heaven Is Whenever. Each time turning these compositions on you will conclude that The Hold Steady have learnt the algorithm of writing an album destined to become the genre classics.