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Post by star18 on Apr 12, 2021 11:36:39 GMT -5
Oh yeah, key change and modulation are the same thing. Was just spelling it out for anyone who wasn't familiar with the terminology. And the classic/cliched move is always one full step up (one boilerplate example is the end of "Livin' on a Prayer"). Of course, there's lot of other ways to change keys that are less obvious.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 12, 2021 11:57:04 GMT -5
Oh yeah, key change and modulation are the same thing. Was just spelling it out for anyone who wasn't familiar with the terminology. And the classic/cliched move is always one full step up (one boilerplate example is the end of "Livin' on a Prayer"). Of course, there's lot of other ways to change keys that are less obvious. In Norway (and I would assume parts of rest of Europe as well) this have become a joke about the classic Eurovision Song Contest songs. The entire contest have changed a lot in recent years, but for great parts of the 80s, 90s and early 00s, this was a standard template. A big, bright pop song, culiminating in a modulation. So, yeah, a big cliche. Which sort of makes it fun that Hold Steady shamelessly using it. I love it.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 12, 2021 12:00:20 GMT -5
"the criticism of Heaven Is Whenever. There were lots of objections to it, but many complained about it sounding to bright and slick. I sometimes got the feeling that this was a placeholder critique for something else, mainly that the songs just wasn’t good enough" Muzzle, you hit the nail on the head. Completely agree with this, the production didn't help but it doesn't mask a fairly tired and uninspired collection. I love THS but from first listen it was obvious that HIW was a disappointment. Your top 30 is going to be fun, like choosing your favourite child! That part became a little meta, and maybe went a little too far in degrading people's personal views. I understand that some just straight up disliked the production, but I just don't think they would liked the album a lot more even if the production were grittier. I'm personally quite a big fan of Heaven Is Whenever. I think it's hard to straight up compare it to Stay Positive, they have so different qualities. But I think I might prefer Heaven Is Whenever, as a pure listening experience at this point. I understand why people were let down by it, and I wasn't initially thrilled either, but I actually think time has served it pretty well. Yeah, we're soon heading into real kill your darlings territory. Some tough choices there!
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 12, 2021 12:56:43 GMT -5
#24: FAMILY FARM
The long gap between Heaven Is Whenever and Teeth Dreams, and the never-spoken-about, but still very present hiatus after Teeth Dreams, did something to me as a fan, as I imagined it did for a lot of you guys. It felt like we were approaching the end of the line, and I was just happy they seemed to be intent on doing live shows every now and then. Then, Entitlement Crew dropped, the singles kept being released and in 2019 we got Thrashing Thru The Passion. Even then it felt a little optimistic that Hold Steady had returned as a recording band for real.
I guess this backdrop is important to communicate how big it felt when Family Farm dropped on December 1st last year. Along with it, came the new of a new album, and the sense of relief and joy was huge. And Family Farm was so, so good, in so many ways. Not only is it a great song in its own terms, it also feels sooo Hold Steady-esque, while not sounding like a band trying to hard. It comes off so casually and easy, still so well-crafted and inspired. And it was the first sign of how extremely well the brass section have been integrated into this new sound.
This is also a pretty perfect example of what Hold Steady at is best does best: Mixing the joyous and euphoric rock anthems with the bittersweet and romantic - all delivered with classic Craig Finn lyrics about dependency, trouble and salvation. I admit it’s worn off a little bit after the initial excitement, but I still feel it’s a classic Hold Steady song, who carries tons of meaning and emotions, in itself, and as a symbol of what kind of band Hold Steady still are.
Final points:
- This is certainly one of the most brass heavy songs on ODP, but it also was a pretty clear sign of what to come. I've always dreamt that they used more horns, if only to hear songs like Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night in all its glory live. Now, we got The Horn Steady, both live and on record, and it's SUCH an improvement at this stage of their career - I talked a little bit about it regarding the computers popping up in The Smidge, Traditional Village and The Prior Procedure, but here we have another small lyric who place the song somewhere in time: Phones with ability to play certain songs as a ringtone. It's not very revealing in any way, but it's always fun to disover songs who can't be from this and that era - "Sometimes it feel sweet to be the teacher" = best line
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 12, 2021 13:01:17 GMT -5
#23: CHICAGO SEEMED TIRED LAST NIGHT
In hindsight it’s pretty unbelievable that this banger of a song is hidden deep into side 2 of Separation Sunday - I think it easily could have been a single. In many ways it reminds me of Got To Get You Into My Life, a brass heavy potential hit, and one of the last songs of another classic album with a monochrome cover. I also feel (which also applies to the Beatles song, really) it’s slightly underrated among both fans and the band itself, not too frequent in the setlist, and not really a lot of talk about it online. But it’s easily one of my favourite song of theirs.
Craig sounds almost drunk on this one, rambling along about Paddy (of Dillinger Four), Nelson Algren, William Blake and William Butler Yeats. There’s obviously a stop/start energy going on here, especially in the verses. But in the chours (if that’s the right word), things fall into shape, and the band come together in a tight alliance. I once again return to my hangup about the bridge. Holy shit, when the piano eagerly opens that part of the song, it feels otherwordly. And then Craig just bashes through with the “They did She’s Got Legs…” part, and closes it with another line designed to evoke response at a live show (I feel like screaming “MORE!” even hearing it in my own house).
I also want to point out how the lyrics in the sort-of chourses are a pretty impressive mashup of what Hold Steady can be as a band, and a dip into the broader narrative. Hold Steady sounds exactly like this to me: A band spreading their gospel from imaginary bar stools till everyone around them is high as hell. There’s just so much energy in these lines.
Final points:
- This is the D4 referencing song on Separation Sunday, and five out of eight albums reference D4. The exceptions (I think, I would be glad to be wrong here) are Heaven Is Whenever, Teeth Dreams and Open Door Policy - "...you gotta admit the band's pretty tight", and yes, I think we have to admit that at this point - I think Craig have slowed this down a little, but it used to be one of the songs he made the most of live. The way he communicated that "Hey, Nelson Algren" part at the end as a real (phone?) conversation, was really, really good. "Oh yeah, hi, Is this Nelson Algren? I just gotta tell you that Chicago seemed WIIIRED last night!"
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 12, 2021 13:08:23 GMT -5
#22: ASK HER FOR ADDERALL
Another energetic blast of rock’n’roll, and maybe the most cherished b-side of them all (even though it, like Saddle Shoes, are included on the LP version of the album), treasured by the band (they even open the odd show with it, an honour not given many songs) and beloved by the fans.
Somewhere upthread I described Stay Positive as a dark and a little weary. This song is the complete opposite. And to me it’s the exact sound of Hold Steady at the top of their power, at least commercially. Here they are, releasing perfect rock songs for fun, while casually mentioning that they’re in a position to open for Stones. There’s a feeling of freedom and positivity in every guitar note, Craig sounds upbeat and funny, and the lyrics - allthough pretty dark, in its own way - trills off his tounge like a comedians oneliners.
When the band takes it down a notch in the middle of the song, you can just tell it will soon erupt once again. But this sense of dynamics and rythm inside the song, is a sign of confidence and musicanship that I respect and love.
I find it strangely hard to write a whole lot about Adderall. Maybe cause it’s a very singular, self-encapsulating rock song who just rips.
Final points:
- I can't quite remember how this song used to go live, but there was a switch in the little "Now Holly won't say hi to me" part. Something more similar to the "So maybe now you might go out with me" part in Arms & Hearts?
And damn...
Writing that make me realise that I've made the first really big fuck up in this thread. Cause somewhere in the process of making the real list, I forgot about Arms And Hearts. I don't think it would be top #30 material, but it would possibly rank just below that. Cause it's really, really good. Just the kind of creepy intro makes it special, and the major shift between the soft first part and the explosion in the latter part, is great. I do feel, though, that it lacks something production wise. It sounds a little flat, and that the sound doesn't really do the size of the song right. I still think it would have made an impression on Boys And Girls, either instead of, or as a companion to Citrus and Chillout Tent.
Sorry that I forgot about you, Arms And Hearts.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 12, 2021 14:49:08 GMT -5
#21: KILLER PARTIES
in Hold Steady terms, this feels like making an objective assesment of Smells Like Teen Spirit. It’s a song that not only have existed for my entire life as an fan, but who’s always had that exact same function (allthough I’ve been to Hold Steady shows where it wasn’t played at all). It’s turned into liturgy, an integral part of the church Hold Steady is building, and especially after the comeback in 2016/2017. And even if the effect wears a little off after four nights of the exact same ritual, I still think it’s a beautiful way to end a show. I can live with a little repetition as long as it is as effectful as this.
But to make a judgement about the song itself, at this point, is tough. When I try to listen to it with fresh ears, I have to say it’s a pretty great fucking tune. It has this warmth and grandeur that the band would dig deeper into on later records, but all the components are here already. And it sort of lifts itself above the rest of Almost Killed Me, and not only finalize the narrative threads spread out through the record, but also gives them all sense of purpose. In style and tone it’s more religiously loaded than almost anything on Separation Sunday, it’s just the lyrics who hold back. And if you strip away all the theatrics from the live version of the song, it has evolved into a monster musically. The way they build up to those confetti inducing takeoffs after each “verse” is magnificent.
I could have pushed it a lot further down, and even a few places higher up, depending on perspective. I feel alright about putting it here. It’s like a family member who I deeply love, who sometime gets on my nerves, and who I don’t have an urge to see every week. But when I finally do, it still feel like coming home.
Final points:
- Yet another conversational song, where we hear only one part of the conversation - I had totally forgot that in the abscence of Franz, they actually used a mellotron for the last part of the song while doing it live (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfVrKTJywb8) - I once had my name mentioned in the "...and you, and you, and you, and we all, we are all..." segment. Yes, still childish. Yes, still proud. Haha.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 12, 2021 14:52:53 GMT -5
#20: CHARLEMAGNE IN SWEATPANTS
What an underrated gem Charlemagne In Sweatpants really is! I didn’t get into it to early in, but I still got into it. And now it seems like it’s pretty much, well, not the only thing, but something very, very important in the story about Hold Steady.
At first, it sound a little unfashioned, a little too much like some 70s dinosaur long gone, out of style and out of relevance. But slowly, the swaggy coolness about it reveals itself. It’s just damn groovy, slick and musically it perfectly captures how I imagine that Charlemagne see himself: Sexy, self-confident, a king of the streets. And beside that, I just thing it’s sonically very pleasing. The warm organ, the slick guitar licks, the way Craig sounds rough, but still crooning. It has a certain soul in it, something far removed from rocking things up, shredding through riffs.
And it contains one of the most on-point, baffling and continously mind-boggling couple of lines: “Do you want me to tell it like it’s boy-meets-girl and the rest is history/ or do you want it like a murder mystery”. Then, like, he adds: “Cause I could probably tell it either way, but I think…” and then “I’m gonna tell it like a comeback story”. This is Craig effectively giving us three just as valid perceptions on the story he started back on Almost Killed Me (or should I say on the first Lifter Puller record?) and keeps telling to this day. It might be impossible to boil it down to three separate paths, but they’re all present in everything he does. And the fact that he kind of stops the music, looking straight at you, breaking the fourth wall, and deliver this, always seems magical to me.
I’ve had the pleasure to hear it live a couple of times, and it doesn’t get any less cool, that’s for sure. As a pure song, it’s tough to say that it’s better than Stevie Nix, Slapped Actress or Lanyards. But as en experience, and as a perspective on the Hold Steady in full, it’s just so perfect.
Final points:
- That fucking title of the song - We've heard so much about Charlemagne over the years, and it's almost easy to forget just how great a character portrait this song alone is. If you'd never heard another song about Charlemagne, you could still get a pretty good picture of what kind of guy he is, from this song alone - Haven't I read somwhere that this was the first song, or at least first lyric, for Separation Sunday?
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Post by star18 on Apr 12, 2021 16:06:50 GMT -5
I might have this wrong, but I believe Craig said it was the first lyric (or slice of lyric) for the entire THS project. The phrase itself first appears in "Hostile Mass."
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Post by spacefuzz on Apr 13, 2021 2:30:42 GMT -5
Such an awesome job, loving reading through the list and your thoughts about each song. Man, between you and skepticatfirst (and many others on the board) I always learn/notice new stuff.
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Post by spacefuzz on Apr 13, 2021 2:35:28 GMT -5
And yeah you remember correctly, Johnny Depp played slide on Fade-In/Out, I remember some Noel quote about cocaine and a naked Kate Moss in the swimming pool somewhere in southern europe
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mafee
Clever Kid
Posts: 94
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Post by mafee on Apr 13, 2021 4:26:09 GMT -5
#22: ASK HER FOR ADDERALL From what I can see online, they only supported the Stones once? If that's the case, it was in my home town (more or less) - it was before my time following the band, but pretty cool in retrospect. Slane Castle is a pretty iconic gig to play (a list of everyone who's played can be found here, U2 and RHCP have both released live DVDs from there) - when the evening news did their segment from there that year you can hear THS in the background.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 13, 2021 6:52:54 GMT -5
#19: HOSTILE, MASS
I fell in love with Boys And Girls late in 2006, and went home for christmas as a fan. When I got back to Bergen in January, to pick up both studies and my job at the record store, I bought Almost Killed Me right away. Separation Sunday was already in my shelf, I had bought it in the summer of 2006, but hadn’t really spent much time with it. So when I got to Almost Killed Me, it was the third record I heard.
I got pretty quickly into the first six songs, up till Knuckles, but after that, the I thought it dipped significantly - and especially the drag between Knuckes and Sweet Payne, consisting of Hostile, Mass and Sketchy Metal. A little bit in the same way as Charlemagne In Sweatpants, Hostile Mass felt unfashionable. I could cope with the Springsteen nods in Boys And Girls, but this full blown saxophone solo over a riff who also seemed a bit to nightcub-y, a little too much like some 70/80s pop band, didn’t really appeal to me.
I can’t remember when it clicked, it must have been pretty late, but when it clicked, it clicked, There’s something subtle and beautiful here, somewhere in the mix between the almost cheesy riff and Craig’s pretty cheerful, yet pretty dark way of delivering it. Like someone smiling while telling you about something horrifying from their past. Then, I started to cherish single parts of the song. The way he describes Gideon getting jumped in, the bleak B-movie like scenes of seeing lousy movies for the AC, and of course the cinematic little gem of Charlemagne vs Hard Corey. When the songs end in the couple wandering out of mass, and straight into the emotional turmoil later described in Citrus, and the sacophone blasting out that solo, it’s pretty much perfect.
This could be a case of ranking a song slightly higher than it deserve, simply because the love I feel for it is a little newer and fresher than for some of these other songs. But I still think it’s fair to say that it’s one of the best tracks they’ve ever done.
Final points:
- I like the wordplay on "Mass." as an abbrievation and "mass", as church
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 13, 2021 6:56:22 GMT -5
#18: YEAH SAPPHIRESome songs rank high on this list cause they feel huge and important, some because they are intricate and mindblowing little works of art in their own sense. And some are on here simply because the sheer emotional explosion I once felt when I heard them, and still do, really. Yeah Sapphire belongs in that latter category.
In the middle of a bleak and dark Stay Positive, this shines as a shimmering rainbow, filled with blood, visions, intensity and desperation. In many ways, it’s not that good of a song-song, in the sense that it’s simple and repetitve. But the way the piano sound, the way Tad shreds that melodic little riff in the second part of the first verse, the way they peel off some of the instruments and leave some space and room in the kind-of chours - it all just works so well.
Then, as in so many song, they break it down - this time in a cacaphony of guitars, keys and lots and lots of drums - before they just let it rip in the final part. The “I was a skeptic at first but these mircales work!” eruption, is maybe the single most ecstatic point in their catalog for me. And I have to say it added to the experience to lay my arm around skepticatfirst and scream the line together on a sweaty night in Brooklyn, December 2017. That was my own little unified scene right there, where all the ways I love this band came together in one single moment. From hearing these songs for the first time, in a small bedroom with headphones on, reading the lyrics, via close reading of the same lyrics in a narrative quest that went beyond my wildest dreams, to the culimination of seeing the best band in the world, blasting out some of the best songs I’ve ever heard, in a real room with real people. To be able to experience this song with that company, ten feet away from the stage, was really special.
I also think the song itself is a testament to what Franz initally brought to this band. Not only the keys, but the influence in song writing too. I’m not saying this is better than the classic Tad jam, but it offered something different, which made the albums better.
So, yeah. Yeah Sapphire is worthy of a top 20 spot. Final points: - One of the earliest lyric discussion I was a part on around this message board, was about who Sapphire could be. For a long time she was considered to be a new character, then people started to tie her to "the precog girl". I'm pretty sure that after Here Goes, we can agree on this being Mary - Another strange title, don't you think? Not just Sapphrie, but Yeah Sapphire. It makes sense when he sings it, but still
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Post by skepticatfirst on Apr 13, 2021 6:59:44 GMT -5
I might have this wrong, but I believe Craig said it was the first lyric (or slice of lyric) for the entire THS project. The phrase itself first appears in "Hostile Mass." Pretty sure that's right. My recollection, and I could probably find the quotes for this, is that 1) he was at his desk at work when the image/phrase "Charlemagne in Sweatpants" came to him, and he wrote it down on a piece of paper; that was the seed out of which the whole THS story crystallized. 2) Knuckles was the first song they wrote.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 13, 2021 7:00:43 GMT -5
#17: SWEET PART OF THE CITY
There’s something about Sweet Part Of The City who sounds like it’s signaling a comedown. After four more than hectic years, from when Separation Sunday gained attention till the last tour of Stay Positive, Hold Steady seemed to be on a a single run without any pause. And while it was less than two years between Stay Positive and Heaven Is Whenever, it felt like a significant gap, and the end of an era. Tad had been sick, Franz had quit and the general buzz around the band was on a steady decline.
Then, Sweet Part Of The City kicks of the new album. Not with a big statement like Positive Jam, not with the drunken street preacher who leads us into temptation on Hornes, not with the perfect and radio friendly rock performance of Stations and not with a fuzzy chainsaw attack like on Constructive Summer. Instead, we get a dusty and warm ballad built on Tad’s soaring slide guitar. Craig’ enters from some sort of haze and croons his way back to some undefined past where things were happier, and most likely druggier.
Sweet Part Of The City is a very, very druggy song to me, more speficially a heroin song. There’s this dragged out, blissful, warm sense of letting go here, like the city sucking each character into a dream like state, and the drums sound big and vibrant, almost echo-y, to underline the slow vibrations. And it’s a weird opener too, not because it doesn’t seem fit to open an album, cause I really thing it do, but mainly because it sounds like they lose their nerve after the first song. Like this was the way the album should have soundend like, and then they suddenly turn their back on the stylistic shift, and head straight into THS-by-numbers on Soft In The Center.
I can’t quite explain why I like this song so much. it’s probably cause it offers something different, both on its own, but also as a promise of what an entire Hold Steady album of dusty americana would have sounded like. But also cause it carries so much of their inherent soul in it, even though it’s expressed in a different style. When the song fades out, and Craig talks directly to us (“We like to play for you”), we get the sense that they’re still here, but now, they’re here for us. And that’s maybe another part of while I like it so much: This is the crossroad, where lots of more casual fans fell off the wagon, but the ones of us who stayed on board were promised a good time nevertheless.
Final points:
- There's an awful lot of references to injecetion of drugs, and what sounds like an overdose, on Heaven Is Whenever. I've always heard A Slight Discomfort as a an overdose song, the pairing of heaven/hole in The Smidge and lots of this song, obviously ("when everything sparkles and it feels like we're on wheels"). It might not make a ton of sense after the thouroughly narrative dissections we've been through the past years, but the intial feeling persists. - "Sweet" is one of the most frequently used and fascinating words in the entire catalog
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bigontheinside
Midnight Hauler
If you don't know the words, don't sing along
Posts: 1,478
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Post by bigontheinside on Apr 13, 2021 8:37:37 GMT -5
#18: YEAH SAPPHIRESome songs rank high on this list cause they feel huge and important, some because they are intricate and mindblowing little works of art in their own sense. And some are on here simply because the sheer emotional explosion I once felt when I heard them, and still do, really. Yeah Sapphire belongs in that latter category.
In the middle of a bleak and dark Stay Positive, this shines as a shimmering rainbow, filled with blood, visions, intensity and desperation. In many ways, it’s not that good of a song-song, in the sense that it’s simple and repetitve. But the way the piano sound, the way Tad shreds that melodic little riff in the second part of the first verse, the way they peel off some of the instruments and leave some space and room in the kind-of chours - it all just works so well.
Then, as in so many song, they break it down - this time in a cacaphony of guitars, keys and lots and lots of drums - before they just let it rip in the final part. The “I was a skeptic at first but these mircales work!” eruption, is maybe the single most ecstatic point in their catalog for me. And I have to say it added to the experience to lay my arm around skepticatfirst and scream the line together on a sweaty night in Brooklyn, December 2017. That was my own little unified scene right there, where all the ways I love this band came together in one single moment. From hearing these songs for the first time, in a small bedroom with headphones on, reading the lyrics, via close reading of the same lyrics in a narrative quest that went beyond my wildest dreams, to the culimination of seeing the best band in the world, blasting out some of the best songs I’ve ever heard, in a real room with real people. To be able to experience this song with that company, ten feet away from the stage, was really special.
I also think the song itself is a testament to what Franz initally brought to this band. Not only the keys, but the influence in song writing too. I’m not saying this is better than the classic Tad jam, but it offered something different, which made the albums better.
So, yeah. Yeah Sapphire is worthy of a top 20 spot. Final points: - One of the earliest lyric discussion I was a part on around this message board, was about who Sapphire could be. For a long time she was considered to be a new character, then people started to tie her to "the precog girl". I'm pretty sure that after Here Goes, we can agree on this being Mary - Another strange title, don't you think? Not just Sapphrie, but Yeah Sapphire. It makes sense when he sings it, but still Great write up. Yeah Sapphire has become one on my favourite THS songs, I never tire of it
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Post by thehudsonsteady on Apr 13, 2021 10:55:18 GMT -5
Hey, Muzzle, I love your phrase 'dusty Americana' when describing 'sweet part of the city'. Whenever I listen to the song I get the image of a sparsely furnished room with dust in the air "it was stark but it was spacious" as the song goes. You also inspired me to listen to 'hostile mass' which I'd never really rated, only to find IT KICKS! thanks for that. I'll never understand the love some have for 'chicago seemed...' though, same with'southtown girls', funny how within all these songs we love there's some that can leave us cold. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed making this list as much as I'm enjoying reading it. If Weekender 2022 happens, I'll buy you a drink. I'm teetotal so it'll have to be tea!
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 13, 2021 11:14:18 GMT -5
Hey, Muzzle, I love your phrase 'dusty Americana' when describing 'sweet part of the city'. Whenever I listen to the song I get the image of a sparsely furnished room with dust in the air "it was stark but it was spacious" as the song goes. You also inspired me to listen to 'hostile mass' which I'd never really rated, only to find IT KICKS! thanks for that. I'll never understand the love some have for 'chicago seemed...' though, same with'southtown girls', funny how within all these songs we love there's some that can leave us cold. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed making this list as much as I'm enjoying reading it. If Weekender 2022 happens, I'll buy you a drink. I'm teetotal so it'll have to be tea! Thanks, man, I'm really glad you enjoy it! Yes, I've enjoyed it a lot. Lots of it is just though who's there from before, but forcing myself to actually think things through, is rewarding. I'll take you up on that tea - hopefully Weekender 2022 will happen, and hopefully I'll be able to go.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 13, 2021 11:15:29 GMT -5
Great write up. Yeah Sapphire has become one on my favourite THS songs, I never tire of it Glad to hear that! I think it's a bit underrated, to be fair. It's not that regular it pops up in conversations. But I'm glad it's returned to the setlists now and then, now that Franz is back. I don't think they ever did it without him (which might not be so weird, either).
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 13, 2021 11:17:37 GMT -5
#16: CHIPS AHOY!
I didn’t like Chips Ahoy! at first, I though it was too much rythm, too little melody, a bit too insisting and a little irritating. I soon flipped around, but when I think back, I’m pretty sure it’s grown more on the the past ten years than what it ever did in that inital fan phase.
It's just more and more clear to me that this is pretty much the perfect pop like single from a band like Hold Steady. Not too much rock, not entirely slick. Smart enough, but still universal enough that anyone can buy into it. Some great instrumental parts, where everybody get their spot to shine, and filled with little hooks that grab people’s attention. And even the lyrics are designed to drag people in: The first line is as memorable as you get, the chours is haha-funny, while offering a little food for thought, the small doubt raised over the she-character’s sustainability in the bridge, and the mysteries surrounding how she did that, why she won’t give herself over to the narrator and everything that’s unsaid between them.
It’s also the perfect middle ground for almost every type of Hold Steady fan. Everyone likes this, everyone sings along, there’s plenty of thrills for everyone here. And it’s maybe the perfect example of what Hold Steady were trying to evolve into circa 2006, and how successful they were at it. This is a potential indie hit, and I think they knew it.
Final points:
- I've had a Fantasy Premier League team since 2007, and it's always been named Chips Ahoy! - The first time I tasted a Chips Ahoy cookie was at Lanzarote in 2016 - I really like how they used the horse theme on the Chips Ahoy! single(s) too. I have both the green and the red one firmly placed on my shelf
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 13, 2021 11:19:47 GMT -5
#15: BARFRUIT BLUES
Of all the beatiful, gritty jams on Almost Killed Me, there’s a couple of them who’s just a little notch sharper and more focused than the rest. Barfruit Blues is certainly one of them. It starts off in the most unfashionable rock way possible, with the thumping rythm and the extremely 70s cock-rocky guitar sound from Tad. It’s like it stumbles its way through the first bars, but suddenly, when the second verse (or the second part of the first verse, depending on how you look at it), at all kicks into gear. The teasing is done, now it’s business. And Craig keeps up, when he barks “She licked her lower lip and the she kissed that Hallelujah chick”. It’s like the lights get turned down, and the heat get turned on at the same time.
From then and out, I’m locked in the groove untill they lift their iron claw, and the lights come on again right after “That’s not how he planned it”. This next part is live turned into a dizzying frenzy of organ and guitars, communication the narrators confusion and detatchment.
The final part switches between feeling lost and being determined, and it all ends up at the crossroad between “born to run” and “born to lose”. You can just sense that everything gets heavier from here.
It’s far from the best-best song they’ve written, but this one is all about groove and energy to me, and both the band and Craig deliver plenty of both. As other songs, it probably benefits from being a late love affair, something I really dug into when Boys And Girls and Separation Sunday were played to death. But I actually thing lots of Almost Killed Me stands the test of time better than most of the material. It’s just so pure, raw and straight-forward, with the everlasting energy and groovieness.
Final points:
- "It's good to see you back in a bar band, baby/ I said it's great to see you're still in the bars" is a pretty sweet line, and also a decent piece of self-mythologizing. And it's funny think about how Craig used to do it in character back in the day (like on A Positive Rage)
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 13, 2021 14:05:06 GMT -5
#14: POSITIVE JAM
Possibly the hardest song in the entire catalog to rank. Cause as an isolated song, it’s middle of the pack at best. A really cool intro, released by a life-affirming rock’n’roll performance, with some uplifting lyrics. But when it comes to Positive Jam, it’s realy hard to just take it as another song, simply because it isn’t.
It’s more of a mission statement, a declaration of intent, and also the blueprint for what over the years have turned into something resembling an ideology. I won’t overlook the band here, but this to me is the sound of Craig Finn not ony starting a band, but making it perfectly clear that it will be on his terms this time around. An the “positvity” he preaches is a multi-layered one, this isn’t all smiles and motivational quotes. The long and meandering describes people, even a nation, getting fucked over again and again, crawling back up on its feet to continue the struggle. Knuckles frames the fight these charcters fighting as a war, and I feel the positivity in Positive Jam is more about overcoming obstacles than to bathe in happiness.
Still, the last part of the song is pretty celebratory, but not without some clenched teeth. “All you cluster fuck clever kids/ hold steady!”. And, yeah, he got bored when he didn’t have a band, but it still seems like the fire burning inside him is just as much about revenge as boredom.
So, yeah, as as song it’s pretty far from being one of their 15-20 best, but as a device, a statement, something to give this new band a strong identity, it’s pretty much perfect.
Final points:
- I've many times wondered why this story starts in the 20s. Is there a historical reason? Is it a bit hard and clunky to sing "the (19)00s" and "the 10s"? I guess the natural answer is the need to make it fit with eight bars of music, but still - To follow up a bit on that: This first part ending in the 90s, also says someting about how... old it is. In 2021 it (finally) sounds weird to refer to the 90s as near history, if you get what I mean. - How can you not love a band who in their first song on their first album tell you that they've just started this band (,man!)? I wonder if Eddie Argos got to hear it before they recorded Art Brut's debut album.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 13, 2021 14:10:31 GMT -5
#13: HORNETS! HORNETS!
I was also a little uncertain about where to put this one. For a long time, it felt like the little uninventive and too-much-boogie, AC/DC knock-off opener of a fantastic album, sort of a prologue before things really kicked off with Cattle And The Creeping Things. And I think this might be another case of the live shows opening my eyes of how great it was, which then bled into my impression of the studio version too.
And once again, it was a case of finding the groove. It’s almost comforting in is static drive, and in some ways, I think it maybe had to be a little like this. Craig sing, scream, talk and bark all over Separation Sunday, he’s just all over the place. And if the band were as hectic as on Cattle or as brassy as on Chicago all the way through, things would be extremely tiring. Hornets is pleasing, comfortable, but not without edge or nerve either. And Craig’s lyrics are as evocative and story-driven as ever. There’s some great sensibility here, they way the guitar plays of the organ in parts of the song, and the subdued but intense part about driving down the 169. And when the riff kicks back in afterwards, it feels fresher, rehabilitated in a way, and I could live with it going on for quite some time more.
So while it lacks some of the grandeur of other songs, it’s really elegant, in a way. And it’s a very good opening song for an absolutely magnificent album.
Final points:
- I mentioned Art Brut in the last post too, and I'm pretty sure they stole the outro for Hornets for their outro of their opening track on It's A Bit Complicated, Pump Up The Volume. It came out about the same time they toured the US together. The long forgotten 1990s were on the bill too, and I still think their debut album is really good - Another clever song title, but maybe even more a title very in sync with indie bands from the same era. There were a lot of clever song titles going on back then
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 13, 2021 14:21:05 GMT -5
#12: PARTY PIT
Party Pit was probaby my very first favourite song by Hold Steady. I’ve told about how I picked up Boys And Girls In America late in December 2006, after listening to it passively in the record store I was working in. I remember working a long shift the 27th of December that year, the day where everyone come to exchange their Christmas gifts (back when totally ordinary people spent money on CDs and DVDs). After my shift, I picked up a few albums, among them Boys And Girls, and brought them home.
I sat down in the kitchen, the only common room of the small appartment I shared with two other people, tired as fuck, put a frozen pizza in the oven and opened a bottle of wine. And even 13 years later, I remember that Party Pit came on about at the exact same time the wine started to reach my head. And that’s when it started, that’s when I knew I god myself a band I would spend months listening too. Turned out it would last a little longer than that.
Party Pit is another of these perfect poprock tunes of Boys And Girls, but it has a sense of drama that few other songs on that record can match. You can almost tell it from the march like drums in the intro, the big ringing guitar riff and those sweet piano fills: This really means something, it’s about real emotions, real life. The story of people connecting, leaving, and then coming back, is very universal, but also full of Craig’s little drops of specifics. The stick pin dolls, the crystal court, the undefined scene by the revolving doors. And while the chours is great, you can almost sense that it’s building up to something else.
And that final part, my sweet lord how good that felt for a 22 year old not-quite-young-not-quite-grown-up guy. Now I know there’s a deep sadness in the “walk around and drink some more”, and I sort of caught the double meaning back then too. But it felt so huge, so celebratory, so anthemic. Even sitting in that kitchen, alone with my pizza and my bottle of wine, it felt empowering, intoxicating and liberating. A band of grownups, able to adress that sense of fearless youth with just enough wisdom and hindsight in the mix. It was the perfect mix.
That’s why Party Pit still is so damn important to me. The sound of the original have worn off a little, and as I said elsewhere, I think it sounds a little crowded and muddy. And the grandeur and drama of the original song, are rarely translated live either. But the entire concept of Party Pit, the way it once felt, and in my mind, still feels, makes it an easy entry at this point of the list.
Final points:
- It's funny, but I can't help disliking Craig adding the "Oh shit" from stage. I really like the way the guitars come ringing in right afterwards, and I kinda don't want to spoil that moment as the real start of the song - I like the sideways waving of arms, though
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