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Post by muzzleofbees on Mar 25, 2015 7:56:40 GMT -5
Exactly one year ago today, Teeth Dreams was released. It feels like it's been with us for longer than that. My perception of it has changed quite a lot during that time. I had mixed feelings about it when it first arrived, and to this day I'm not sure if it's a merely good or pretty great Hold Steady album. I tend to think that the weaker tracks are a bit weaker than they were on the previous records, but on the other hand, a couple of the best songs is more firmly rooted in the THS canon than most of the tracks on Heaven Is Whenever.
Frighten You works exeptionally well live, Spinners is still one of my favourite "slick" Hold Steady tunes and both The Ambassador and Almost Everything ranks among the best ballads they've done. I really digged the section of Big Cig/Wait A While/Runners High upon release, but they don't tickle me in the same way a year later. And I still don't quite get the feel/sound of The Only Thing and On With The Business. Oaks is beautiful, but to my ears it lacks a bit of momentum or grandeur, compared to A Slight Discomfort or Slapped Actress. Still a great tune, though. In retrospect, I feel that a couple of the bonus tracks had deserved a spot on the album. Even though Records And Tapes has a distinctive b-side feeling to it, I still feel it's one of the best songs to emerge from these sessions. And Saddle Shoes keeps on growing on me.
I'm really, really glad that Hold Steady released an album i 2014. It felt that a "comeback" was long overdue. Likewise, I'm glad the album gave us a handfull of great songs who sits pretty well in both the catalog and on the setlists.
Happy birthday, Teeth Dreams! It was a pleasure getting to know you. You're a pretty cool guy.
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Post by thebambino on Mar 26, 2015 17:33:09 GMT -5
I'm basing this on almost nothing, but if THS were finished as a band, Oaks would make the perfect last song of the band's last album.
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tbob
True Scene Leader
Posts: 548 
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Post by tbob on Mar 26, 2015 21:27:35 GMT -5
I'm basing this on almost nothing, but if THS were finished as a band, Oaks would make the perfect last song of the band's last album. We'll have less of that please! I read an argument on here recently suggesting that "A Slight Discomfort" would have been a great epitaph but I'll take Teeth Dreams and raise it with a 7th album! |
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Post by doctoracula on Mar 26, 2015 22:36:26 GMT -5
It was probably me arguing for "a slight discomfort" as a perfect end song for the band. I still feel that way, if they had ended after that record I feel like that song took the whole story arc that had been built to that point to an end. Stories only end when the teller decides to stop telling, and if they'd stopped there I think it would've come full circle nicely. I'm glad they didn't break up, obviously, and the story is still going in one form or another.
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Post by delboydrums on Mar 27, 2015 4:09:14 GMT -5
I'm basing this on almost nothing, but if THS were finished as a band, Oaks would make the perfect last song of the band's last album. We'll have less of that please! I read an argument on here recently suggesting that "A Slight Discomfort" would have been a great epitaph but I'll take Teeth Dreams and raise it with a 7th album! Amen to that! They'll be back, mark my words. |
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Post by thebambino on Mar 27, 2015 8:49:14 GMT -5
Don't get me wrong, I want another record...but I'm just sayin.
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Post by dealwiththedealers on Mar 27, 2015 10:20:29 GMT -5
A Slight Discomfort definitely is a logical and emotional conclusion to the story arc of the first 5 records. It's my favorite of all the THS album closers.
Oaks is an incredible song, but to me, it actually feels awkward closing out Teeth Dreams. As a listener, I don't feel like I went on enough of an emotional journey throughout the record to have earned the payoff of Oaks.
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tbob
True Scene Leader
Posts: 548
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Post by tbob on Mar 28, 2015 22:59:30 GMT -5
Don't get me wrong, I want another record...but I'm just sayin. I didn't mean to suggest you wanted the band to end. I figure we all are The Hold Steady because we all love The Hold Steady. Let me put it this way... Bonehead from Oasis once said they should have split up after they played to a quarter of a million people over two nights at Knebworth. I think that's all well and good. Oasis certainly didn't release as good an album as Definitely Maybe or (What's The Story) Morning Glory? after those shows in 1996. However I would have only seen Oasis once and the world would have been deprived of some great tunes from the other 5 albums had that been the case. I guess I mean that if THS never better Separation Sunday it doesn't mean they should call it a day! |
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tbob
True Scene Leader
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Post by tbob on Mar 28, 2015 23:41:04 GMT -5
As for album closers it's How a Resurrection Really Feels surely?! A Slight Discomfort close 2nd!
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stephano
Sniffling Indie Kid
Makin' meals out of marzipan
Posts: 212
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Post by stephano on Mar 29, 2015 4:20:21 GMT -5
I have a strong feeling that THS will make another record in the next 1-2 years and take a hiatus. Then I think we'll get a record every 4 years or so as they become a band who grew to a size, cemented their position and just get back in action when they feel like it. On their terms.
I already see Teeth Dreams as apart from the rest of the run of albums. Some momentum was lost with Heaven Is Whenever. I still love all the records. But Teeth Dreams feels different. We might get future albums going off on specific tangents then the follow up zagging when the last one zigged.
At this stage THS feels to me like Manic Street Preachers. A weighty output behind them. A solid fan base. A ton of creativity but no one road map for the future from here.
Generation Terrorists to Design For Life was a great run. This Is My Truth is MSP's Teeth Dreams. I like the record but there might be the odd Lifeblood before we get a Rewind The Film or a Futurology. That said I kind of like how The Manics are a working band again on festival bills in the afternoon after a period of headlining stadiums.
I'd still love to see The Hold Steady headline a stadium.
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Post by orzelc on Mar 30, 2015 6:51:32 GMT -5
I probably slightly over-rate Teeth Dreams in an objective sense (at least, insofar as it makes sense to talk about objective rankings of art), because it was exactly what I needed when it came out. I was trying to power through revisions of my book, on a tight deadline, and between teaching and being stuck as department chair, my writing time was reduced to about an hour and a half every morning before class, and all morning Tuesday and Thursday. A new, loud, Hold Steady record was exactly the motivational soundtrack I needed for that process, and it was followed closely by a new, loud, Afghan Whigs record, which also worked really well.
I'm pretty proud of the resulting book, and those two records will always be inextricably linked with it, which gives them a bit of a boost in my mental estimation of where they fit in their respective catalogs.
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