The Hold Steady: New Album: Heaven is Whenever

The Hold Steady announce new album

Heaven Is Whenever is set for release May 3 on Rough Trade in the UK (and May 4 in the USA on Vagrant Records.)



The album was produced by Dean Baltulonis, who engineered the band’s debut Almost Killed Me and produced their second album Separation Sunday. Heaven Is Whenever was recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios in upstate NY and Wild Arctic Studios in Queens, NY, with mixing also happening at Wild Arctic.



Singer Craig Finn says Heaven Is Whenever is about “embracing suffering and finding reward in our everyday lives”. Piano and keys, though still present, take a backseat to guitar on the new record, which also gets production help from lead guitarist Tad Kubler.


Recorded in several smaller sessions spread out over a long period of time, the songs on Heaven Is Whenever received the benefit of being road-tested on the band’s recent tours including the UK shows last September. As Finn says this allowed them to “see what was working and what wasn’t. I believe this record benefits from us working at a more deliberate pace.”

Following the release of 2008’s critically acclaimed Stay Positive which gave the band it’s highest Billboard chart position to date, and a Top 15 album in the UK, The Hold Steady toured relentlessly, playing to some of their biggest audiences to date.



The Hold Steady is: Craig Finn, Tad Kubler, Galen Polivka and Bobby Drake.



Heaven Is Whenever tracklisting:



1. The Sweet Part Of The City
2. Soft In The Center
3. The Weekenders
4. The Smidge
5. Rock Problems
6. We Can Get Together
7. Hurricane

8. Barely Breathing
9. Our Whole Lives

10. A Slight Discomfort


Feel-good hit of the summer?

The song titles sound like a Counting Crows album (except for "Soft In The Center").

They opened for Counting Crows on a number of dates during their last tour.

coincidentally, they also have on several occasions counted crows

if that isn't a Duncan Sheik cover then I will eat crow

Sad to hear Finn basically coming out and saying that this is going to be another faux boozy, cut-rate self-help album. Hoping for something more than that. At least Fancy von Mustache is gone. The guiter > player piano thing sounds like at least a step in the right direction. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I really loved this band as recently as a few years ago, and I'm hoping to be re-impressed. I'm just not at all convinced I will be.

Another spin in a downward spiral.

i wouldn't want them to try singing about anything else

I thought 'God, already', and then realised eighteen months had passed since the last one

this has already replaced the joanna newsom album as my favorite disc of the year. really amazing work.

At least Fancy von Mustache is gone.

lol! you'll see him again soon, in a one-man vaudeville show (no jeok, actually)

i heard that they realize that the last two albums were recorded like shit, i hope that's true....

I didn't know Fancy Von Mustache is gone! In that case I'm actually excited - Almost Killed Me is still my favorite by a mile

lol this line from pitchfork's news post about his split, saying Nicolay's input helped "transform it from an indie allusion at 70s arena rock into something that could compete with the real thing" kinda sums up why I couldn't stand him.

"transform it from an indie allusion at 70s arena rock into something that could compete with the real thing"

really doe?

I liked a lot of his contributions, but hated his piano sound.

And his stupid fucking mustache.

wish they named the new album "his stupid fucking mustache"

"guitarist Tad Kubler said, "I think this is a guitar heavy record. But I would NOT say this is a heavy guitar record"

?!

yet another reason why aome musicians better not describe their own work.

the new status quo

it just means that there are a lot of guitars but those guitars aren't necessarily heavy.

like a bert jansch record is guitar heavy in a way but it's not heavy guitar

basically i think tad is trying to say the new hold steady sounds like shadowfax

I always hoped Finn would try for more Mark E. Smith and less Springsteen.

what universe did i just step into where this is the reaction to a new hold steady album

i am amped as fuck for this

probably goes without saying

I'm amped too. Didn't realize the backlash was so strong. The last album was a huge step up after the disappointing, to me, Boys and Girls.

what universe did i just step into where this is the reaction to a new hold steady album

lol. i still love this band. for reasons i've never quite understood, i rarely listen to the last disc, tho.

Would love to hear Counting Crows cover a Hold Steady song.

And would love to hear The Hold Steady do "Round Here."

i loved stay positive but yeah it feels really recent still and i don't think i'm ready to be amped for another one...

i'm totally amped for this - summers feel more right when hold steady albums drop

I didn't like Stay Positive as much as the other ones, but Boys and Girls in America is one of my favorite albums of the decade. I am really excited for this.

i'm totally amped for this - summers feel more right when hold steady albums drop

i think this was part of my problem with stay positive. it came out in the fall (or at least that's when it was made available to me on emusic), iirc, and i just don't feel like listening to the hold steady in the fall. they're music for a hot summer day.

yeah like i can't count how many times i listened to constructive summer all hopeful last spring

I am so behind on the things I love.

Please bring back the Hold Steady I used to like.

http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2010/03/hold-steady-heaven-is-whenever-album-art.jpg
http://theonlythingiknowforsure.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/url1.jpg

Damn... almost.

hold steady cover has been growing on me, over the course of the last 5 mins

yeah. it's simple and good.

WHAT IS HE REACHING FOR?

That reminds me of all the B&T stripey shirt guys who pumped their fists at the Terminal 5 show.

i am a fan of this but honestly in the dig age album covers mean nothing to me mostly

New single streaming here: http://pitchfork.com/news/38234-premiere-hold-steady-hurricane-j/

jesus that's horrible production

compressed to hell more or less than BAGIA?

drum reverb from many, many years ago?

i could probably just click that link and listen

or you could trust us to describe it to you!

still compressed to hell, Finn's voice sounds different for some reason I can't pinpoint, but the song is alright

looks like it's still streaming at the link upthread too: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/apr/20/hold-steady-heaven-whenever

one of the tracks on the first song is flipped backwards. should've went all

http://www.paw-tracks.com/PAW15_rgb.jpg

sweet part of the city is pretty nice...kinda allman bros groove..."no one left to run with anymore" by allmans has some hold steady type concerns, lyrically

I am greatly enjoying this record.

how does it compare to the last two?

It's the dullest album they've ever made, by a longshot.

that's kind of the sense i'm getting from people

or, if not *the* dullest, certainly not as good as the last two

Which were not quite as good as the first two.

I loved this band, loved their PFM Festival show in 2008, but every time I think, "I need to listen to Stay Positive again," I remember the one with the harpsichord.

"Both Crosses," i think?

"One for the Cutters"

This one isn't bad, just boring, and I think that makes it even more disappointing.

It's a big step up from Stay Positive.

No, its really not. "Sequestered in Memphis", "Constructive Summer", and "Lord, I'm Discouraged" are each better than any song at all on the new one.

man, i really liked the last two. RIP Hold Steady

Nicolay knew it was gonna be a disaster & jumped ship before shit got real

yes he jumped ship to -- no joek -- develop his own one-man vaudville touring show.

a little singing. a little dancing. audiences will be left breathless.

Let's not get carried away, its not like this one is an abomination... its just Hold Steady on autopilot. I'm not ready to completely write them off just yet.

yeah, i still might pick this up -- but let's meet back here in 2012 & see what's up

"Sequestered in Memphis", "Constructive Summer", and "Lord, I'm Discouraged" are each better than any song at all on the new one.

So are "One For The Cutters," "Stay Positive," and "Joke About Jamaica."

And right, the third and fourth ones weren't as good as the first two.

I mean, basically I'd say they've gotten worse on every album, except all the Catholicism on Separation Sunday puts that one in front of Almost Killed Me for me. But the new one is the first that I just think isn't a good record.

Listening now - not amazing, but not nearly as bad as I'd been led to believe. Bear in mind that I still play the hell out of "Stay Positive" and "Separation Sunday".

Also, pardon me, I'm not usually one to bitch about tuned vocals, but one of the things I LIKE about Craig Finn is he's pitchy as all hell, so it just sounds weird to hear him in key all of a sudden. I dunno, maybe he got voice lessons? Whatever is being used is pretty subtle but it's kind of a headfuck.

A couple of good tunes, but this is the first one I think is mostly terrible.

i haven't really focused on this disc much yet, but i kind of like finn's becoming more of a wise old mentor to the troubled kids. he's too old to write as if he was a participant in "the scene," and i think he's making that change in lyrical focus nicely (again, from what i've heard so far).

http://stereogum.com/381371/franz-nicolay-joins-against-me/news/

I think it's a ton better than Stay Positive, which combined a handful of their very best songs with their hands down worst songs. This one doesn't have anything as good as Joke About Jamaica or Constructive Summer, but there's nothing that's genuinely bad on it. It's consistent. And has a handful of stunners - Weekenders, We Can Get Together, Our Whole Lives. Five albums in and they're trying to work out how they keep it going - and they can't do that by being 40somethings still maundering on about doing drugs in suburban Minneapolis. For me, it's third in the album rankings, behind Separation Sunday and Boys and Girls. I kind of wish they'd get more of that Stonesy raunch back, but I can live with Cheap Trick is an alternative model for guitar sounds.

Really don't like it, first track aside. There's a preponderance of chuntering mid-tempo rockers and it feels like a spark has been lost with the departure of the keyboard guy. And I liked nearly everything on Stay Positive.

Fwiw, a couple of things I wrote about their new one:

(scroll down)

http://www.rhapsody.com/the-hold-steady/heaven-is-whenever-2#albumreview

(along w/ two other talky bands):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/05/the-fall-the-hold-steady-and-titus-andronicus-talk-your-ear-off.html

And their previous one (which also disappointed me, just not as much):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2008/07/the-hold-steadys-doxologies-toxicologies-and-seven-deadly-finns.html

And the one before that:

http://www.blender.com/guide/new/54248/boys-girls-in-america.html

It would've been a strong EP.

every time I think, "I need to listen to Stay Positive again," I remember the one with the harpsichord.

I think "One for the Cutters" is my favorite song from that album - it's one of Finn's best lyrics; such a cool story song...!

I hate the studio version of that song, but I found the acoustic version from their Sound Opinions session really cool and creepy and moving. I don't think the harpsichord is the problem - there's something ineffable else wrong with the studio version of that song - it's just the easiest "different" element to blame.

:(

finally listened to this

I don't really get what they're looking for. I don't think a voice like that is going to break through on rock radio. The songs plot, and both Finn's lyrics and his delivery lack the pop that made this band compelling even when the music was (on occasion) pedestrian. What a drag.

i heard he's catholic and likes to drink

and then last night
she cried and told me about Bruce Springsteen

yeah, i was giving this disc a big benefit of the doubt, based on the fact that i still love finn's lyrics, and i think there's a niche for this band to age gracefully (i.e., move from participants in "the scene" to older observers of it).

but i listened to this disc side-by-side with separation sunday, and it suffers badly by comparison.

http://www.netsites.net/imagloc/halloween/dancing-skeleton.gif

i'm not quite that old. but close.

not directed at you, dogg! just a dancing skeleton non sequitur

dogg, esq.

:-D :-D

me and my friends are like
the drums on "Drops of Jupiter"

hey soul sister, ain't that Craig Finn on the radio, stereo

"A Slight Discomfort" may very well be one of the best songs they've ever done. Certainly one of the darkest and most mature (and yeah, I get that THS isn't necessarily about maturity, but still). Loving that wistful piano outro.

this has really grown on me, "we can get together" in particular is like, heavenly, if i may

still havent listened to this, im drunk so maybe its time?

do iiiiit and liveblog

^^

just sayin i am so disappointed in u

lol i fell asleep :(