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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 5, 2021 14:05:34 GMT -5
#79: BARELY BREATHING
When I read the Bandbox fanzine who came along with one of the Heaven Is Whenever reissues, I noticed two things: 1) Someone (Tad?) compare it with Cattle And The Creeping Things, which was exactly what I thought the first time I heard it, and 2) Someone (Tad?) make a little too much fun about the clarinet. In a “what on earth were we thinking?” type of way.
The clarinet have never bothered me, and I’ve never really thought it sounds out of place or weird in any way. I actually think it fits the songs really well, and that it fits the, eh, vaudevillian style of the song.
It’s a cool song, right? I would love to hear it more live. The classic Craig mashup of sport, rock shows and violence sounds very distilled here, and there’s an urgency in the music who backs it up.
I’ve also always thought that the music responds well to the “heat and intensity” part, this sounds like a song for hot and intense nights, parties who start out sweaty, then turn druggy and bloody. And while the part about “the kiiiiids” who “aaaaareee aaaaall diiiiistraaaacted” sounds slightly forced, I kinda like it too.
Not a massive banger, not an emotional peak, but a very good song on a very good record. Oh, and the note it ends on is a perfect setup for Our Whole Lives.
Final points:
- We talked about the clarinet, but what the fuck is the deal about that glitch on Craig's voice when he says "street fight"? That sound so out of place and out of character, more than the clarinet, more than the synth on Navy Sheets - I love how Craig keep refering casually to "summer '88", like we're supposed to know what he mean. This is another thing he master so well: Making the very specific feel so universal. I was three years old that summer, and I've never been to the Midwest, still, the way he talks about it in this song and in Records And Tapes, makes me almost able to smell it.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 5, 2021 14:55:52 GMT -5
#78: I HOPE THIS WHOLE THING DIDN'T FRIGHTEN YOU
This one has a very comeback like vibe to it. And at this point in time, it’s easy to forget that the gap between Heaven Is Whenever and Teeth Dreams were longer than between Teeth Dreams and Entitlement Crew. So when this dropped, it felt like something was back on track And it’s a nice comeback, after all. Raw, punchy, referencing Sweet Payne in the opening line, all that. It feels related to Stay Positive in more than one way. Sound wise, it’s in the same corner of the Hold Steady room, but also thematically. Both songs dwell upon coming back to somwhere from somewhere, like a characater returning to a scene he once fled, but now - for some reason - decide to pay a visit. And Craig’s eternal euphemisms hit especially hard here. “There’s just these guys that I know, we go back pretty deep”. You can easily tell why she’s frightened.
The song itself is good, tight and punchy. But it feels a little to compressed, and like it went one too many times through the rock machine. I love the bridge, though, and I think Hold Steady get less credit than they deserve for these short glimpses of Beatles-ish psychelics. It’s not exactly I Am The Walrus, but there’s some nice backward (?) guitars here. And it wasn’t the first time Either, The Smidge has a similar sounding bridge which is also cool.
All in all a good song, but in hindsight also a little disappointment as lead single and opening track on the comeback album.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 5, 2021 15:05:22 GMT -5
#77: NAVY SHEETS
I guess this was a contender for a song to just leave completely out. I didn’t do a tight count of the number of songs who met the criteria to be on this list, but I don’t think I’ve left out more than about fifteen or sixteen studio recordings (covers excluded). And I think there’s plenty of people who’ll say Navy Sheets are among the fifteen worst songs Hold Steady ever recorded.
(Big digresssion: I’ve noticed my first real fuck up in this ranking. For some reason, Confusion In The Marketplace had fallen out of my list. It won’t make much difference when we enter the top 50, but I think it should have been somewhere between #85 and #100. I won’t go back to correct things, but I just drop it casually here: I don’t think Confusion are among the fifteen worst either. It’s a little boring, but it grows on repeated listens, and the sheer sound of it is pretty sweet)
I don’t exactly love it myself, but I certainly don’t hate it. For a long time I had issues with the studio version, but hearing some bootlegs (and a proper live performance in Brooklun in 2019) really helped. Without the synth, it’s just a hectic, angly and quite catchy rock song. It (once again) has a nice bridge, and not only that, the song seems to change shape when it comes back out on the other side. There might be some slight chord changes (even a modulation?) there too. And finally, it’s so full of rich Craig imagery, which gets a little lost in the fuzz at first, but become clearer after several listens.
If anything, I think the band should reclaim this song in a more confident way. How about use it as an opener, just once? That would shake things up!
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 5, 2021 15:17:19 GMT -5
#76: A SLIGHT DISCOMFORT
I think it’s a shame that this one is completely out of the setlists nowadays. Then again, I can understand it, cause it must be damn hard to replicate the atmosphere of this song love. So much of its appeal is in the details, in the interplay and eerieness.
The first part of the song is the spookiest they’ve ever sounded (with a possible exception for Hanover Camera, but it’s kinda like Dracula-spooky vs American Psycho-spooky), and the bloodsuckers and the parasites creep up from the music itself.
The last part is the culimination of the glorious fuckup trope, a majestic finale which sounds dramatic and defining. It’s pretty clear to me that the thing that won’t hurt is a needle. injecting some sort of substance. And since I’ve always heard Sweet Part Of The City as a heroin song, I’ve always assumed that the fading crickets is supposed to sound like an overdose.
I won’t put on A Slight Discomfort that often, and every now and then I start to search for something else on Spotify when Our Whole Lives is over. But I really like this song, and have a respect for what it’s supposed to do, and how good the band are to convey that (imagined) idea into a song.
Final points:
- The title is so strange. It's straight-forward, but it's a weird way to name a song
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Post by tableinthecorner on Apr 5, 2021 16:32:10 GMT -5
I was listening to A Slight Discomfort as I got COVID tested earlier this year (which I thought was pretty fitting) and, I gotta say, it definitely boosted the experience. Completely agree with that analysis, although I do have it ranked a bit higher. Loving the list man, keep it up.
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Post by skepticatfirst on Apr 5, 2021 21:01:42 GMT -5
#86: SNAKE IN THE SHOWERAnother tricky one. I have mixed feelings about Snake In The Shower. To start on the negative end: This belong to a category of Hold Steady songs who have a musical thing/attitude/sound who really rubs me the wrong way. I don’t know if I’m able to explain it, and certainly not in theoretical terms, but there’s a group of songs with a tough, abrassive, very rock-y sound. Maybe built on chords more often used in metal or hardcore, and not that often in straight rock. Stay Positive is in this group of songs, Joke About Jamaica too, even Hot Fries. And I like a lot of these songs, it’s just one step away from the Hold Steady I love the most.
On the other hand, Snake In The Shower is cool as fuck, and it benefits a lot from being recorded by the Hold Steady who was in 2017 rather than in 2004 or 2007. There’s a certain class to every element here which I’m able to appreciate intellectually, even if it doesn’t hit me as hard emotionally.
And last, it has this doubleness of being relasad as as b/w with Entitlement Crew, the first new music to emerge from Hold Steady in over three years. That adds excitement to the mix, but the comparison with Entitlement Crew lessen the appeal somewhat.
All in all: A great rock song by a band who finally was making music again. I love to hear it now and then, but don’t have an urge to see it frequently in the setlists. Final points: - A couple of days after this song was released, I was sitting very, very drunk at Lake Street Bar in Brooklyn, talking to skepticatfirst about this song, and was trying to draw lines between it and Dolly Parton, cause of the "coat of many colours" line. He was shaking his had, and saying something about Job, and I don't think it occured to me until the next day that Dolly Parton wasn't the one who invented the phrase. A few things about all of this: First, I don't remember shaking my head about the coat of many colors, but that's really funny. Good times. Second, like you, I'll always think of it as the B-side of Entitlement Crew that I have to go out of my way to listen to, but then it always hits me with a double "holy shit I forgot how good this is" and "man, it felt good when these came out after I thought they were done." I've heard EC too many times to still have that feeling, but I get it back with ASitS every time. Third: I really like that group of "hard" songs --- ASitS, Joke about Jamaica, Stay Positive, and Hot Fries. If anything, JaJ and SPositive are annoying when they lose momentum --- JaJ when it falls off after the spectacular line "now we eat in our cars," and SPositive when Josh comes out and hijacks the flow. "she hasn't had any eye contact tonight" is a hell of a line, too.
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Post by skepticatfirst on Apr 5, 2021 21:13:12 GMT -5
#89: BLACKOUT SAMIn many ways, Blackout Sam is a sign on what was about to come on Open Door Policy. There’s other precursors from the Thrashing era too, but this is to me the first crystal clear glimpse of Hold Steady as a very grown up, mature and more at-ease band. I still have a hard time accepting the jazzy and loungy intro to the song, it’s a nod to music I don’t really like at all. But when the band comes in, and they build this laidback midtempo juggernaut, I kinda dig it. Just listen to how they incorporate the harmonies here, how casual but professional it sound. Or how the entity of Tad, Galen and Bobby, who’s been doing their thing for fifteen years straight, suddenly plays in a tastefull, musically acomplished way. I’ve never doubted their qualities as musicians, don’t get me wrong, I just hadn’t really envisioned them making something so slick and still quite thrilling.
There’s plenty of single songs I’d rather put on from this record, but as an album track, it works so damn well. Live too. Just a really good song, showing what Hold Steady suddenly is capable of doing. Final points: - It's interesting how Craig's been introducing new names these past few years. Jesse's probably been around for ever, but she was first named on Heaven Is Whenever. Teeth Dreams gave us Sarah, and on and around Thrashing we get Esther, Dolores and Sam. I'm pretty sure they just refer to characters we already know by other names, but it's an interesting twist nontheless. When I saw them play Cambridge in 2019, I remember thinking that Blackout Sam live was the standout number on night 1. Really rich and interesting musically. There's one thing about it, though --- that final line ... I've realized that there are a few tracks that have one line that just grates on me, to the point that it kind of downranks the song compared to others around it. Examples are "sure, they let you keep your handset" in Family Farm, and "I want to make you feel protected and high" in Blackout Sam. Not saying I would know any better how to end it, but something about that ending doesn't bring it all together for me. Still an objectively great song though.
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Post by thehudsonsteady on Apr 6, 2021 2:26:57 GMT -5
Muzzle of Bees you are insane to do a list like this and I'm glad! What a fantastic idea! So much room for discussion but I'll keep my point short...one thing I absolutely love about the band and the scene is the way different songs affect different people, 'Eureka' and 'Joke About Jamaica' would be in my top 10, not languishing in the 90s, and I love that about THS and their fans. Keep up the list, can't wait to disagree with you again!
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 2:46:17 GMT -5
Muzzle of Bees you are insane to do a list like this and I'm glad! What a fantastic idea! So much room for discussion but I'll keep my point short...one thing I absolutely love about the band and the scene is the way different songs affect different people, 'Eureka' and 'Joke About Jamaica' would be in my top 10, not languishing in the 90s, and I love that about THS and their fans. Keep up the list, can't wait to disagree with you again! Thanks, man! I've always wanted to do something like this, and since I've thought about these things for many years, it's just a great deal of fun writing it out. Haha, yeah, I guess there will be more entries who people will disagree wildly with. It sounds harsh to place a song at #91, but as you'll probably know, I really like all these songs. There's just so many good of them that some will fall pretty far down the list. And on a more general note: I'm finding it increasingly interesting to disect why I like some songs less than others. It's easy to praise all of these songs, but there must be a reason why some engange me more than others. Lots of the reason for that, is probably to be found in some songs being extremely good, matching all of my preferences in a perfect way. But that must also mean some other songs does that to a lesser extent. Some of these texts might sound a bit too negative, but the starting point is that I think all of these songs rock. I just need to point out the weaknesses to justify why one song is #91, while another is #7 or #2.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 3:00:58 GMT -5
#75: YOU GOTTA DANCE (WITH WHO YOU CAME TO THE DANCE WITH)
I was a little torn on this one. On one hand, I think it’s a bit overly simple and almost tounge-in-cheek like song, one who doesn’t have the gravtias or importance to feature this high. On the other hand, it’s a really fun and rocking song, with a couple of elements (the handclaps, the great little solo neard the end) who both excite me, and shows that Hold Steady have these little surprises up their sleeves.
Again, when I think of the song, I seem to hear a live version in my head. When I put on the original, I think the guitar sound is a little off, and that it lacks some warmth. The version on A Positive Rage is actually really good, and I prefer it to the studio version.
Funniest line: “You gotta go with what got you there/ I came with chipped teeth and bleached blonde hair”. I just love how Craig throw out these small characteristics, description of clothes, style or small personal traits, and build complete characters out of them. You don’t know too much about this person other than the chipped teeth and the bleached hair, but you can sort of piece together what it’s supposed to mean, what it’s supposed to tell, anyway.
Final points:
- This was a late discovery for me, if I remember correctly. Long after I dug into bootlegs, live versions and every b-side from Boys And Girls and Stay Positive, I sort of remembered there were some b-sides from Almost Killed Me too. I got to hear this, Hot Fries, Curves And Nerves and the others as pretty fresh songs, while I was a big fan. That might made me appreciate them even more - I some way, I feel the very simple lesson/metaphor is applicable to a lot of what happens in Hold Steady songs. So many of them is about people trying to play the hand they're dealt in the best way possible, even if the hand wasn't all that good in the first place.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 3:13:27 GMT -5
#74: SADDLE SHOES
Another potential controversial entry, and I really have to ask myself if I think this is a better song than Magazines, Blackout Sam or Lord I’m Discouraged. I’m not really sure it is, but the reason I put it up here is cause it’s managed to excite me in a slightly different way than many other songs.
It starts off so hectic, without any warning, and with a melody hard to catch. A bit cowboy like, in every sense, which fits the general motif of the song.
That makes the chours hit so much harder, it’s like the band lock into the right groove, discover the melodical theme, and just let it burst. There’s one small part here who always does it for me, the ascending multi-note guitar part right after “…so keep your bandages clean”. It nods to the similar guitar figure in Spinners, and I’ve always imagined it’s Steve playing it (I’m not very good at spotting different guitar styles, but it’s a way of playing I’ve rarely heard from Tad). This simple little thing just adds a whole new level to the song.
Then, there’s the bridge (yes, always the bridge), where we’re almost physically moved from the wildness in the main room, and to the appartment above. What the fuck is going on there? Skepticatfirst have an amazing part about this scene in Here Goes, I recommend it. But it was thrilling even before I read that.
It makes a ton of sense that this is a b-side (allthough it’s woven into the regular tracklist on the vinyl version), but it’s a really good one, I think, and one who’s easily enjoyed as a standalone track.
Final points:
- It has some similarites to Look Alive, in the atonality and the hecticness, but I can reveal right away: Look Alive won't make this list, and I think it's one of the worst songs they've recorded. It also underlines what I like about Saddle Shoes: The forwardness, the feeling of something at stake, which I feel Look Alive is missing.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 3:21:50 GMT -5
#73: RIPTWON
From one “simple” song to another. Well, it’s not really simple, but it belongs to a group of song without that monumental, Big Things feeling that so many of the huge, dramatic Hold Steady songs does so well. But there’s gold to be found in the lesser songs too.
Riptown is very much Rolling Stones to me, like a surprisingly good deep cut from somewhere on the second disc of Exile On Main Street. But it also makes me think of Titus Andronicus, and the A Productive Cough album. Both that and this song have a relaxed loosness to them, the sound of a good band having a good time in the studio, with no ambitions of changing the world in any way. Just fun, pleasing, good-natured, in a way. It fits so well into Open Door Policy, and is a welcomed breath of air between two pretty hectic and angly songs.
The handclaps in the second verse is just a small, yet beautiful and effective way to add life and joy to the song. Franz confirmed on Twitter that these are real handclaps, unlike the ones in Traditional Village.
Final points:
- I've always wondered when and why Craig decided to introduce computers to Hold Steady songs. It's not a big shift, but so many of the songs from 2004 to 2008 seemed a little timeless. There were references to movies and TV, but few cellphones or other devices who could time the events closer. From The Smidge via Traditional Village to this, computers have popped up in the lyrics. "Click on the icon and drag to the cart" wasn't a thing you could do in the mid 90s. Just an observation. - Riptown. Such a cool title.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 3:36:37 GMT -5
#72: DENVER HAIRCUT
Denver Haircut is a lot like Eureka to me - it sounds like a pitch perfect, almost generated Hold Steady song, with all the right elements in place. But it lacks the big swirl of emotion, the energy or the power to fully realise the idea. The verses lack a little bit of power, and even the more melodic payoff in the chours sounds like they’ve a little half-hearted.
That might be a harsh statement, and after all I’ve ranked it higher than about 40 other Hold Steady songs. I just think I expect more from a rocking opening track of a Hold Steady album. If Constructive Summer is exploding in rich colours and fireworks, this feels a little more sepia to me, and not in the way I want it.
As always: A really, really good song. But a couple of years after hearing it for the first time, it’s one one of the Thrashing tracks who promise more than it’s able to hold.
Final points:
- "He shaved his head at the airport" is a strong opening line, sets the scene in a perfect way - It's always baffled me how Craig, after writing lyrics for 25 years, suddenly decides to build a song around Metallica references, and to pull it off
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 4:02:46 GMT -5
#71: WE CAN GET TOGETHER
I’m not sure if there’s a collective opinion about We Can Get Together among fans. To me it seems like the song is a little forgotten. At the time it came out, it felt a little disappointing. Not only did it follow First Night and Lord I’m Discouraged (the big ballad at track #5), and did it in a very much more low key way. But it was also Hold Steady’s lushest, most rounded song to date. Everything about it is warm, cozy and embracing, all the way up to the angel choir near the end. If fans rejected it, I can understand why.
10 years later, I think it’s easier to really appreciate it as something different. An honest attempt on writing a heartfelt and shiny anthem to listening to music in a room together. And the alternative version on the reissue is arguably even better.
It’s not a song who really tell people what Hold Steady is about, and it might not be a song very many people actively put on either. But it’s nice and sweet, and if you just accept what it really is, I think it’s easy to enjoy it too.
Final points:
- This was actually a highlight for me from The Weekender in March. I didn't expect much when they went into it, but it turned out as a really majestic and big song, which I massively liked. I seem to remember a similar reaction from hearing it in a real live setting a couple of years back too, and I'm pretty sure it boils down to something Steve and Franz is cooking up. Neither of them played on the recorded version, and they've both talked about the fun in finding space for themselves in these songs they didn't originally take part in. I need to go back and check exactly what was so thrilling about it, but this is a decent guess, I think.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 6:00:01 GMT -5
#70: THE MOST IMPORTANT THING
We’re heading into deep cut area her, and I would totally get if people not only placed this well outside of top 100, or forgot about it all together. But I’ve grown to really, really dig it. It’s one of not-that-many song I often skip back to hear again when it comes on, and it has a light and joyous vibe, but also some weight and sense of importance.
When I think of it, it’s maybe “cinematic” who describes it the most. That intro could easily have been the song colouring an important scene in a movie, where the characters are off to something new. And the way the characters inside the song is described, also have movie like qualities. The structure and vibe of the song also reminds me a lot of Rock For Lite Brite by Lifter Puller. Easy and bright verses, bookended by a more hectic and dramatic scene, and then fade to black.
It’s weird that Hold Steady made this song during the Separation Sunday days, it sounds a lot more like something they could have come up with later on. I suspect that this is one from pretty late in the sessions, and maybe even with Franz involved in the writing. It’s got that For Boston/Teenage Liberation feeling to it, and it wouldn’t been out of place as a b-side to Stay Positive either. Anyway: I really dig this one, and I think you should too.
Final points:
- Hold Steady have been so omnipresent in my life the past decade or so that I rarely connect their songs to specific life events, the way I tend to to with bands I've listened to for a more defined period of time. But I have a pretty clear mental image of The Most Important Thing. The reissue dropped right around the birth of my second child, and I remember sitting on the bus back home from the kindergarden, where I had dropped off the oldest one, and heading back to my two weeks of paternity leave, and my newborn daughter. The song have turned into the sound of those bus trips those two weeks, cold and clear December in Oslo.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 6:31:25 GMT -5
#69: ROCK PROBLEMS
Rock Problems is the sound of spring 2010 to me. If I remember correctly, it was the third “leaked” song from that album, following Hurricane J and The Weekenders, and it was easily my favourite of the bunch.
I’ve always been a sucker for kicking spring off with a light and simple rock song, and I think this reminded me of one of the best springs in my life, back in 2002 where living was quite easy, and I sat in the low April sun blasting Hindu Times (Oasis) and Dope Nose (Weezer). Both songs are pretty mediocre singles from albums that by no means lived up to the older material from those two bands, but the feeling persist.
And Rock Problems isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it doesn’t try to be one either. It’s a straight forward, riff based rock songs with (seemingly) simple lyrics. I can dig that.
When I think of it, there’s some of that semi-psychedelic Beatles like stuff going on in the bridge here too (see I Hope This Whole… and The Smidge). Not exactly experimental stuff, but something that adds a little depth, while giving a fitting backdrop to the angsty and claustrophobic stuff in the lyrics.
Nowadays, the song has faded a little to me, but it still sparks some joy when it comes on, even if it’s mostly nostalgia.
Final points:
- I actually started listening a little to Cheap Trick after all the references in this song. I had In Colour on a second hand record, and it's quite good! - The throwback to Most People Are DJs are carried out pretty elegantly here
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 6:40:36 GMT -5
#68: DON'T LET ME EXPLODE
Sometimes, when I just read the title of the song, I discard it as an interlude. I sort of group it together with Crucifixion Cruise, some transitional track at the end of Separation Sunday, stucked between the real ones. But Don’t Let Me Explode is an actual song, with a melodic figure, verses and a middle part where the song actually explodes. And both before and after that explosion, Craig deliver some of his funnies lines over a melodic theme who’s a little off what Hold Steady usually does.
This is the kind of song I don’t pay that much attention to when it passes by on the album, but when the band slide into it at a concert, it makes me really happy. And it fits perfectly on Separation Sunday, and plays a big part in the overall sound of the album as such. It’s just not top 50 material, in a song by song ranking.
Final points:
- This feels narratively important, but also in some way, deeply personal - At some semi-offical bootleg I listened a lot to back in the 00s (Lollapalooza '05 or '06?) Craig does a long intro to this song. While Franz plays the theme he rambles on about the history of St. Barbara, her fate and christian rock. It's funny. - I think part of the reason I got into Hold Steady, was my love for Mountain Goats. John Darnielle warmed me up for these wordy narrative songs, and lately I've wondered if Craig had Have To Explode in the back of his mind while writing this. Great song, put it on if you haven't heard it.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 6:51:19 GMT -5
#67: YOU DID GOOD KID
This song is a very split experience to me. The verses have some of that “hard” thing that Stay Positive, Joke About Jamaica etc. have, and I think it’s cool and all, but it doesn’t grab me. And I’m at the verge of disliking the chants of “You did good, kid”. It sounds cold and detachted to me, and I sort of want it to stop.
Then again, it has this Clint Eastwood-y ring to it, which brings me to the chourses - which I love. They have this perfect honky tonk/saloon/western vibe to them, lots of Rolling Stones, but also a pastiche like playfulness. The way the brass section is integrated into the sound, playing on and off the plonking piano, is just so well done. And I can’t imagine this would have sounded the way it does without either Franz Nicolay or Josh Kaufman. Each time the verses come out of the chourses, they sound better than what they did before, and at the end of the song, I always think that I like it a lot.
It’s not a smashing hit, but it’s a very carefully constructed rock song with a style and a purpose. And if this is the filler stuff of Hold Steady v.2.0, I’m more than happy about that.
Final points:
- Of all the songs portraiting a party-gone-wrong in some desolate building, this is the song who gives me the best mental impression of how everything looked, smelled and felt.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 13:21:01 GMT -5
#66: SKETCHY METAL
This is the lowest ranked song from Almost Killed Me, every song from that album is on this list, and making the list I realised how much I like that album. Could it be my favourite Hold Steady album? I still think Separation Sunday is a tad sharper as an album experience, but song by song, it’s hard to compete with AKM.
Nevertheless, Sketchy Metal have always been the one I could possibly skip. It’s slow, slick and almost a little sleazy. It’s not the song you would sell Hold Steady with to a newcomer. But, damn, it IS good. Craig delivers the sprawling story from a haze, and the music allude some sort of cool, laidback and duggy vibe. People shuffling through bad decisions, but meeting people along the way, rejecting norms and expectations, just floating on in a paralell universe.
It’s not a hit song, but it is a very good song to put on side 2 of an album with plenty of raucous rockers. And it’s a song who speaks to people allready on the inside, those who recognize those little hints and wink-winks. By now, I think it’s special, in its own weird way.
Final points:
- I won't do the full story, but to keep it short: I've been in touch with Craig now and then during the past seven or eight years, and before I went to Cologne to see Hold Steady in 2014, he straight up asked if I had any requests. It's hard to name a single song or two when you're put to the spot, so I just asked for a deep cut from one of the early albums, hoping for a surprise. Halfway through the show he pointed his finger at me, saying "this one goes out to my friend Jonas", and Tad kicked off the intro to Sketchy Metal. In a weird way, I was a little disappointed. Had I wasted my request on one of the songs from the early days I liked the least? During the song, and especially afterwards, I was able to really appreciate it. I had to check back to see how rare it really was in the setlist, and the answer was "very rare". And with the night ending at a nearby bar, not only with large portions of Hold Steady, but also shotting tequila with the amazing guys from So-So Glos, I agreed that it's "always entertaining when you're hanging out with entertainers".
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 13:29:04 GMT -5
#65: HURRICANE J
Is this the purest pop song in the entire catalog? When you add up opp the woah-woahs, the crystal clear melody, the interplay between the verses and the chourses, and the shimmering and sparkly Heaven Is Whenever production, I really think it is. And mostly in a very good way. I’ve always enjoyed the light, sweet verses, playing perfectly along with the story of Charlemagne chatting up Jesse, the most. The chourses sounds a little forced, like the song is pushed to its limits, and the woahs is a little too high in the mix. But the bridge (yes, again) is pretty much perfect, at the perfect point between an insisting Craig and the ever-important sense of something at stake.
This is also one of the songs where I like the live version A LOT better than the studio recording. Harmonies a little lower in the mix expose how good the song itself is, and underlines Tad’s role in the composition.
As a lead single from an album, it’s not all the way up there, and for quite some time I though it was among the weakest tracks they’ve released. But it’s grown a bit on me, and now I sort of hope to see it in the setlists.
Final points:
- This is, of course, tied to the same spring as Rock Problems, and I envision the Copenhagen appartment I lived in at the time when I hear it: Sitting in my sofa with some cheap white wine, blasting Heaven Is Whenever on a cheap stereo, still smoking cigarettes, feeling pretty allright, yes, mostly pretty allright - The discussion on this board regarding hurricanes named Holly or Jesse or whatnot from the 70s was the first really thrilling/chilling dip into the narrative stuff for real. Hats off to skepticatfirst, who have taken this about five thousand steps further
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 13:39:11 GMT -5
#64: THE FEELERS
Another tough track to rank, allthough you might get tired of hearing that. I’ve had mixed feelings about The Feelers for its entire existence, but it deserve a place on the list, for a couple of reasons.
First, I think it’s a pretty much perfect album opener for the album that Open Door Policy became. The slow, mystic introduction, where both lyrics and music is inviting us into a familiar but still different world, works just the way it should. ODP couldn’t have started with a Constructive Summer like blast, it had to be this way.
Second, I think it’s a testament to the band Hold Steady have grown into. A band confident enough to open an album with a slow burner like this, and being able to play this kind of song with subtle details, nuance and atmosphere. It’s a small song made big, or a big song made small - depending how you look at it. And it seems perfectly constructed, in a way.
Third, and last: It might be silly to say, 25 years in, but I think it shows that Craig is still developing as a writer. There so many things unsaid here, but at the same time so much said with so little. In the stretch between the meticously specific and the big and universal, and how the play into each other. It’s not the single lines or words, it’s just the general feeling of the world he creates with these words, who often make me grasp for air. The Feelers is at that level to me.
Final points:
- Lots of "The" titles on Heaven Is Whenever, it always make me think of Seinfeld episodes. "The Feelers" is both goofy and intriguing - I add on an unofficial ranking of opening tracks-as-opening tracks here. Not the song itself, but how good it plays it role in taking us into an album: 1) Stations, 2) Positive Jam, 3) The Feelers, 4) Constructive Summer, 5) Hornets, 6) Sweet Part Of The City, 7) Frighten You, 8) Denver Haircut
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 13:52:12 GMT -5
#63: T-SHIRT TUX
I’ve always though T-Shirt Tux has a kinship to Navy Sheets. There’s just something about that jumpy and childlike, almost taunting, riff. I spent months getting comfortable with that, listening to it to a point where it just became naturalized in a way. Now I like it, it has a jangly bar room vibe, very, eh, modern in a way. I don’t envision a dusty saloon when I hear this, I’m thinking a rather slick Williamsburg bar, and conversations between people who rarely inhabits Hold Steady songs. I know it’s all tied into the other stuff, but that’s my mental impression of the song as a song.
But it’s the final part who absolutely kills it, and justify it’s place on this list. Those soft and big piano chords from Franz, almost emulating Billy Joel, kicks off an absolutely beautiful crescendo, packed with sentimentalty, loss and longing. It sounds so swirling and encapsulating, and I think it a) should have gone on for two or three additional minutes, and b) should have been a closer on Thrashing Thru The Passion. Truly special stuff.
Final points:
- I've actually used that fun fact about Johnny Cash and Stalin in actual conversations. I had never heard about it untill I heard this song - I had a friend back in my late teens who had a t-shirt tux, and I'm still not sure about the percentage of irony he wore it with
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 14:00:45 GMT -5
#62: ASCENSION BLUES
This song sounds so little like everything else who came out of the Heaven Is Whenever sessions (with an exception for Criminal Fingers, who have some of the same vibe). On the album where almost everything sparkes, and the songs feels like they’re on shiny wheels, this sounds more like a hard, tight and sharp AKM or SP outtake. It definitely belong to the aforementioned “hard” category, but the rythm and staticness of it, makes it something different too.
There’s plenty NOT to like here, but what I do like is the cinematic feeling, and the extreme urgency in the song. It feels like a snapshot of a turning point, or even a point of no return, where the drama is real, and not in any way sugarcoated or softened. It’s a song with presence, who feels singular and pure, in a way. And while it’s not exactly pretty, it certainly hits some spots.
Final points:
- "We're gonna get something in heaven" is a 10/10 in character THS lyric - As everything from this era, this song too remind me of Copenhagen. But this is not the sound of my appartment, but rather of me riding my bicycle somewhere on Amager, where my university campus was located. Same goes for Touchless.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 15:08:23 GMT -5
#61: SEQUESTERED IN MEMPHIS
Yeah, this feels actually a little like business. It was the pretty bland single from the commercial album peak, it’s played at every show and no one seem to LOVE it. But I guess it’s a pretty popular song among fans in general, right? Well, I’ve always had a little chilly relationship to it. It’s a bit tame, a little too unfashioned, with it’s midtempo groove and slick chourses. Even the brass sounds as little uninspired (I sometimes imagine a re-recording of this, with the way brass are being used on ODP, and with Kaufman as a producer - think it could have been great). But as with so many songs, I feel better about it when it ends than what I do 30 seconds in. And I have to say, it’s grown enormously with The Horn Steady live, it sounds so much beefier. And that makes me think about the plenty of times I’ve seen and heard it live, not only without horns, but also without Franz. No wonder why I got a bit tired of it, hah.
So, yeah, a good, a bit business like song, with obvious qualities, but still far from my favourites.
Final points:
- I'm still not 100% sure what "sequestered" means - I think I might have heard the song before, but the first time I heard Stay Positive in full was at work in the aforementioned store where I first heard Boys And Girls, only this time, I brought with me a CD-R with a leaked version on it, a couple of months before the proper release. This was a chain store, and it was off course forbidden on multiple levels to play a record like that, but it was daytime, and I was pretty sure no one would ask what was on, and demand to buy it. Luckily, no one did. - It's cheap as hell, but I still love the live quote marks around "business"
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 6, 2021 15:20:21 GMT -5
#60: YOU CAN MAKE HIM LIKE YOU
I can see how I’ve entered the “hot take” segment of this ranking, with two fan- and live favourites stacked on top of each other on the bottom half of the list. And this is another case where my opinions have swung greatly over the years. When I first fell in love with Hold Steady, it was one of my favourite tracks. Again, that sentimentality buried deep in a sweet rock’n’roll song, it was pretty perfect. But I don’t think it went than many months before my excitement wore off. As always, it’s a great song, but with time it’s always felt a little tired to me. It’s smart and well put and all that, but I don’t get the sense of something big at stake. A nice snapshot, a short story, even with an emotional tangent, but also distanced from the scenes it portrays.
There’s a video from that End Of The Road show in 2009 of this song, where I can see myself in the frame, smoking a cigarette. At outdoor shows with bands I really liked, I used to time those cigarette breaks to the songs I didn’t feel the need to jump up and down to, scream along. This was already in that category back then.
But going back to it now, trying to listen to it with fresh ears, I really don’t have that many complaints. It’s excellent craft, well performed and a fits nicely into Boys And Girls, both sonically and thematically. Just a really good Hold Steady song, it’s alright.
Final points:
- Rememeber that Jesse Malin covered this quite quickly? It must have been in 2007 - The stretch of Party Pit/You Can Make Him Like You/Massive nights is an extremely strong run of uptempo rock songs everyone could and should like. And when I see the cover art, I always think about that string of songs. Not Stations, not Chips Ahoy!, but this trio
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