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Mar 10Holding pattern.
Tracks are slowly leaking out from the new Hold Steady LP, Heaven is Whenever. And… they’re not great. The two I’ve heard so far, “Rock Problems” (thanks, Ed) and “Hurricane J,” sound surprisingly generic, processed, and, as Ed put it, “de-fanged.” Also, I’m not a fan of frontman Craig Finn’s attempts at crooning–his voice is pretty grating, and singing lessons are not going to hide that fact. Plus, I’m not the only one who likes his rasping tenor bellow.
I’m not optimistic about the rest of the album at this point, but I’ll withhold final judgment until May. Gotta stay positive.
Update: Ed sent me a few live versions of a few other tracks, which I liked better. This isn’t that surprising–most of my problems with the two tracks posted above are related to production. We shall see on May 4, I guess.