‘Teeth Dreams’, the Hold Steady’s sixth album, is one that embraces a grim reality. It’s less about hopeless romanticism than it is about unravelling half truths to reveal real hopelessness. As Craig Finn sings on On With The Business, it’s imbued with an “American sadness”.
Arriving in the wake of Finn’s introspective solo record and following up ‘Heaven Is Whenever’, the first Hold Steady album to miss its target by a distance, ‘Teeth Dreams’ is an evolutionary step, one that finds the band filling one void while exploring emptiness in a wider context.
The addition of Steve Selvidge on guitar has taken some of the sting out of Franz Nicolay’s exit, something that left ‘Heaven Is Whenever’ floundering in spots, even if the pianist’s idiosyncratic, character-filled playing will always be vital to the enduring appeal of ‘Boys And Girls In America’ and ‘Stay Positive’.
The guitar lines here, played in tandem with Tad Kubler, are among the most expressive in the Hold Steady’s recent material, backing some of Finn’s more impassioned, gritty vocal performances. If Nick Raskulinecz’s production is more kitchen sink than arena rock, there are few moments when the momentum is stopped by the sludge.
Here, the doomed hopes, empty beer bottles and wandering, layers deep stories of Holly, Gideon, and Charlemagne aren’t part of the script, with Finn instead sketching images of directionless souls bound by the fact that, underneath it all, they’re just exhausted and trying to keep one foot in front of the other. There are "salted rims and frosted mugs", but the kicker is that no-one has really figured things out.
Looking back isn’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be, either. The shoots of redemption dotted throughout are balanced by anxiety at where the roots lie, notably with the reintroduction of the Cityscape Skins on I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You: “So when I brought you back here for Christmas, I didn’t think we would see them. I guess I should have explained.”
Likewise, the cheap thrills and ‘massive nights’ that used to get our heroes from day to day don’t cut it anymore. The desperation of old is riding pillion with isolation and rising levels of unease in Michigan, Mississippi, St Cloud, Texas, Tennessee and south Minneapolis. “She’s sleeping at a storage space by the airport,” Finn sings on The Only Thing, where the anxiety-driven teeth dreams really take hold. “The only thing she talks about is TV.”
‘Teeth Dreams’ has to be marked down as a return to form for the Hold Steady, but in truth it’s really quite different from some of their more euphoric work. It appears that the darker, more unseemly side of things could provide a rich vein of inspiration for Finn. There are plenty more lost souls out there, after all.
Mon May 05 2014 - LONDON Bush Hall
Wed May 07 2014 - MANCHESTER Academy
Click here to compare & buy The Hold Steady Tickets at Stereoboard.com.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
.jpg)
