Some thoughts on the new album

[dabook]

Why am I starting a new thread? Cuase I just heard it this morning and I am a longtime fan and its a discussion board and I felt like writing. I have been checking my mailbox for the new album and realized yesterday that instead pledged for the vinyl of RAGS. Hey...live and learn....so I bought the new album this morning and

1. I Hope This whole Thing Didnt Frighten You - Good to hear the CityscapeSkins are back right off the bat. So besides that incredible riff that runs through the song, my first feeling...first listen is that this is sort of an explanation about the past few years from the band to the fans. The whole idea of building a bunker and gearing up for war is the expectation of making THIS album. This line kind of says it all for me:
There was a side of this city I didnt want you to see.
Theres just these guys that I know we go back pretty deep
and I hope this whole thing didnt frighten you.

They had said they werent getting along for a bit and Franz left and HIW....and they want to make sure we were ok. Yeah...I know...its all about us....we're all the hold steady. And Finn's voice kicks ass...even with the reverb/echo.

2. Spinners - Love it on so many levels. Reminds me of a girl I used to know taking on so much...heartbreak hurts but you can dance it off...aint it true? And this verse, well it just makes so much damn sense:
Once you're out there everything is possible.
There might be a fight. There might be a miracle.
Loosen your grip, it feels so incredible.
Let the city live your life for you tonight.
Yeah....it reminds me of someone....but Craigs good at that...I guess we all remind someone of someone.
It also brings me back to years gone by and the girls I met at Dead shows, the spinners....and we know Craig is a Dead fan. Town to town...different guys....all about the music and the spinning which made life bearable. (no pun for GD fans) ....and what the fuck is that guitar solo at the end....give me some more of that!

3. The Only Thing - Ok...this is Finn at his songwriting best....two lines " Floating around like fists in a fight" & "floating around like a nurse in the night"....somehow both connected and so visual that they bring you right into the story. The idea of her teeth in my dreams , reminds me so vividly of anxiety dreams I used to have when I was younger. Literally waking up and wondering if some teeth had fallen out. Its a gross idea that works perfectly. Musically i love everything, the guitars sort of laid back and Bobby and Galen laying down a great foundation. I also thinking the backing "ooooo's" are so much more subtle and work perfectly. OK....I'm loving this album so far.

4. The Ambassador - For any of you or us who have take pen to paper and tried to write a song, its things like this that make me want to crumple up the paper and pour myself a tall glass of JB and give it up. This is so good it brings tears to my eyes. I mean if we want to get historical it sounds a lot like the return of Holly, but I am not going there just yet. Its the tone of the song that is conciliatory, as if there was no way to stop it, yet theres anger and vengefulness that is not so slightly veiled. It goes back to the previous song where Craig sings "She's got a necklace. It looks pretty expensive.I'd like to know where she got it." He sort of spits that out. And then theres is this whole verse which to me signifies something really bad happening:

pretty sure you'd recognize these guys.
That were asking around for you just the other night.
There was blood on the bed
And the lights in their eyes.
If you came around the back
We could take them by surprise

Thats deadly and scary and frightening all at once. Its the whole "do want it like a murder mystery or do you want it like a comeback story" For me its way too early to start wondering who is who or where they came from or how they got there. But this is an incredible song right up there with Lord I'm Discouraged or First Night.

The line :" He keeps talking about some rock Like he wants something hard to hit his head on."....so simple yet so brilliant. When I first listened I thought....thats sort of simplistic and then BAM....ok. The idea of the space between skin and blood and naming The hotel The Ambassador....but nothing really diplomatic ever happens there. Wow.....kudos Craig.....you almost killed me.

5. On With The Business - This one put a huge smile on my face. I couldnt help but think of Lifter Puller meets Broker Dealer meets You Gotta Dance. The wordplay is so fast its like a rap song and you have to listen for every little catch and then theres some big connector like "I said a couple of things that werent probably true" or my favorite "Conventional wisdom says that we should probably cruise". Why do I think this was written while Craig was watching "Breaking Bad"? I love the didtortion in the voice and then at the end the same with the guitars. It takes the song to an otherworldly place where is exactly where it is happening if youre looking at it as I am...a drug song. I love "I know I made them a promise but those are just words". Is that junkie talk or what? Chemistry, Currency and great expectations...ahhhh....the American Sadness in four words.

OK thats it for now...listen to more later .....but this overshadows the last two albums by far. I think Craig's solo album opened up a well, cause the lyrics on this are fucking outrageous and I have no problem calling him the best lyricist around today. So far...great stuff...cant wait to get into the second half. But I gotta get on with the business.....

[dabook]

If anyone cares...the rest:


6.Big Cig-On first listen I think the girl in this song is the same girl from Magazines, just a little older , like the rest of us. She sounds like some socialite, and theres a way that Finn cuts her down just a little with each line. The pills in her purse and the way he serves his purpose. I love the line about powering down just to socialize. I know what that means. Then theres that Rick Nielsen solo after about the line about trysts we can live with. Love it, love it, love it. So far, the one thing I had heard was Craig's vocals were mixed too far back and too much echo and I am just completely at odds with that. I think he sounds great.

7. Wait a While - Oh man this song just brings me back. The line
"Once they hear you've got a broken heart
They're going to come around and try to make you smile."
followed by the declaration that there are other words than yes.....damn. It so reminds me of being in that "friend zone" where you are trying to give good advice while secretly desiring the person youre advising
Talking loud. Making eyes.
Like you're a little bit wild.
Why don't you wait a while?
Why don't you wait a while?

yeah ...wait a while...for me.

8. Runners High - OK ...I'm convinced Craig had a whole notebook of songs from writing in Winthrop Park in Brooklyn and some of those got on here. This is one of them. Its a singular story. It doesnt have anything to do with whats happened before its just a great story. The way it switches from his friend to him and the possibility that there was never a friend at all. That its just a psychosis."He stopped by and I didnt even recognize"....thats just the person he is appearing. Man I'm so sick of running. This songs hits me hard lyrically where the musical part is good but doesnt take me over the top. Its backing music for a great story.

9. Almost Everything - right from the start you know this is a paean to the Unified Scene. The guitar slow and low which reflects the seriousness of what he wants to say. "With the lambs from my dreams looking up at your hands./And your hands pointing up at the lights." My God how many of us have doen that how may times and then :
So hey won't you show me a sign
If I'm getting through to you.
I'm still pretty into you.
This may sound narcissistic, but the band needs us as much as we need them....need being used euphemistically. A song like this is like a secret lullaby for us, late at night when the shit gets bad.

When the lights come up.
I can't see so much.
I can hear you breathe.
I can feel almost everything.

10. Oaks - So this is the song I heard about, that I just had to hear. Maybe its the buildup or maybe its just the song, but it doesnt do much for me. The imagery is beautiful, but in terms of my life and what I experience and what I have lived it has the least connection. I think on this one Craig tried to write an epic and while ist beautifully musically and I could listen to the end all night long, the lyrics dont have the same effect on me. Another part of it is I have always thought that at a rock show you should never end with a sad/slow song. Rock and roll is about the energy of the heart and the soul and the mind all coming together and Oaks as a final song doesnt make me want more. It signifies an end for me. OK ...thats it...go home. I do love the line "If you want to be saved , all it takes is a wave" cause that can mean so much.....its a hooker on the street, its a church raising hands, its a Hold Steady show. But while I dont dislike the song, It doesnt make me hungry. It doesnt make me hurt. Its just a plain old good song.

So out of 10 songs I am bowled over by 9. Thats a pretty good percentage. The band sounds so good and I didnt even find myself looking for the piano parts that might have been. This ranks up there with all of the first three albums. Beautifully written, mixed, produced.....yeah I am a Hold Steady fan...but there was a time I was a convert and a disciple. This makes me want to spread the word again. Thanks Craig, Tad, Galen, Bobby, and Steve. See you at the rawk show.

[dealwiththedealers]

Dude, great stuff. The Business solo reminds me of Nielsen too. Thanks for sharing.

[nowah]

Didn't want to be the first person on the board to advance the Magazines/Big Cig connection but I agree with you on that one. Magazines girl is known to go to benefits and she's got boys on board and boys on deck but the Big Cig narrator serves a purpose to her.

Very thorough, very good take. I liked reading it!

[dabook]

After four straight listens I thinK i know what appeals to me. They sound comfortable again.Like the pressure was somehow turned off. Right from the get go when Craig sings "World War IV" with that reverb.......my smile gets big. When I was a kid and we sued to be at Grateful Dead shows and people were tripping and the Dead were hitting on all cylinders you would see that. We used to call it "The Secret Smile". I have that same feeling while listening to this album. Nothing sounds out of place, and there is a strange continuity between this album and the first three. I know on SP and HIW there were intimations, allusions and downright connections to old characters. But they seemed forced, like they had to be there. On this album, I am hearing about the same people but strangely they seem more familiar despite their anonymity. He does mention Sarah by name who may or may not be the character from Sarah I'm Surrounded.

I am completely blown away by The Ambassador. Its like a fever nightmare you do not want to end.

[stringer]

I tend not to get sucked into thinking about the production side of things too much because I tend to think overanalysing stuff makes you think of the utensils and not the taste, so to speak.
But Nick Rask's done an incredible job, and also y'know they say like 'oh this producer has worked with these bands/, but this albm and, say, Deftones' Diamond Eyes sound entirely different, sonically speaking. Which seems to me that he's listened to what the band wants rather than impose a certain style.

[I'M THAT GUY!]

I'm not the kind of fan who tends to analyze. I'm not really the kind of fan who thinks much about the music- sample dialogue from harrisburg "how do you pronounce your name?" "It's Galen." But I think, just maybe, I'm gonna take a few hours tomorrow on my day off and just listen to the album without doing anything else. It might take chemical intervention to keep my millenial fingers from reaching for my phone to check email and such.

But posts like this make me want to get deeper.

[dabook]

So as an old dude I had another revelation about this album that struck th same chord as the first three albums. These albums/songs allow me to remember situations that have already occurred in m left and somehow equate them to the now. Sort of like learning from my mistakes in future vision. This album bringS me back to that.