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Post by kayfaberaven on Apr 6, 2022 19:00:03 GMT -5
I haven't listened to Clear Heart as an album in a long long time but I think it very much has an element of it being a bunch of individual songs rather than a collection making up an album - everything post CHFE seems more like an album with a specific style. Dave Hause is the exact same with his solo album releases too. As for Jackson, it's actually one of my favourite Craig Finn solo songs - definitely Top 5. Interestingly you say it's placed inside a good run of songs which looks like it includes New Friend Jesus - now that's one I just don't see the appeal of. There's a guitar (maybe a pedal steel?) going throughout it that just really really irritates me. I really like Jackson too, especially the way it builds, and the last verse is just great.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 7, 2022 4:16:36 GMT -5
I haven't listened to Clear Heart as an album in a long long time but I think it very much has an element of it being a bunch of individual songs rather than a collection making up an album - everything post CHFE seems more like an album with a specific style. Dave Hause is the exact same with his solo album releases too. As for Jackson, it's actually one of my favourite Craig Finn solo songs - definitely Top 5. Interestingly you say it's placed inside a good run of songs which looks like it includes New Friend Jesus - now that's one I just don't see the appeal of. There's a guitar (maybe a pedal steel?) going throughout it that just really really irritates me. It's really interesting to see how much more divided people seem to be on the highlights of Craig's solo catalog than Hold Steady's. I have a feeling that we've all experienced these albums and songs more on our own than as a collective, both in the way we've listened to the records at home, and with the community thing around the shows in mind. I also think Clear Heart Full Eyes is less coherent than what came after it, and I guess that's natural for a debut album. It also feels like a reaction to Hold Steady in some ways - I get the sense that the entire band is holding back a little, deliberately not making it into capital R rock. I kinda like New Friend Jesus! It's silly in many ways, and almost turns into a pastiche or parody, but it's a nice melody, and it seems fresher and more free than some of the other songs on the album. We'll soon enough come around to review it here too.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 7, 2022 4:17:20 GMT -5
#42: DENNIS AND BILLY (Newmyer's Roof EP)
I totally get if and why people love Dennis & Billy. It’s such a sweet song, with a classic, well-told story, over familiar musical backing. It’s preeetty hard not to think about Springsteen here. I generally think people put a little too much emphasis on the similarities between Springsteen and Hold Steady, but this is right in the middle of it. And it doesn’t take anythin away from a nice song at all - but I still have to say I come to Craig’s stuff to get something unique, something only he (and of course, Hold Steady/Lifter Puller) are able to produce. This song doesn’t really offer me anything I can’t get equally good elsewhere.
And, damn, just reading the lyrics on my screen, makes me want to underscore just how a good of a lyric it is. It’s not revolutionary to turn the tables the way Craig does here, but it’s done in an empathetic, sweet and thoughtful way.
I have nothing bad to say about this song - there’s just so many more of them who thrill me more.
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robs
Hoodrat
Posts: 297
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Post by robs on Apr 7, 2022 6:21:07 GMT -5
#43: JACKSON (Clear Heart Full Eyes) Jackson was actually a UK single from Clear Heart Full Eyes, and while I understand its potential, I think it was a little strange decision. It’s a song placed inside one of the best run on the record, from No Future throughout Terrified Eyes, all within a sound I feel characterize the whole album. I like Jackson, but I think the verses promise a lot more than the choruses are able to live up to. It feels a little too subdued and muted, which also plays into the very Craig-y story about a named character with some issues. The story is a good one, perfectly calibrated between saying enough to give us an idea about both Jackson, Stephanie and the narrator, while also leaving gaps to fill in for ourselves. The melody is decent, but a little underwhelming. But I think the main reason for ranking Jackson below some of its album counterparts, is how it serves as an example of a general tendency on Clear Heart Full Eyes: That either the band, Craig or both, lack the confidence to pursue ideas all the way. There’s a sketch of a better song here, but everyone seems to hold back a little. Like they don’t really dare to push the song all the way through. Does that make sense? I actually knew a Stephanie who was long on looks and short on mental health. Killer line…
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Post by kayfaberaven on Apr 7, 2022 14:17:04 GMT -5
I also think Clear Heart Full Eyes is less coherent than what came after it, and I guess that's natural for a debut album. It also feels like a reaction to Hold Steady in some ways - I get the sense that the entire band is holding back a little, deliberately not making it into capital R rock. I think Craig has related that he hired the producer over the phone and then went down to Texas to meet the band. They immediately started recording and got everything done in a short amount of time (don't remember exactly...4 days? A week?). So it's not surprising that the music is the weakest part of the album.
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parock
Midnight Hauler
Posts: 1,000
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Post by parock on Apr 7, 2022 21:49:45 GMT -5
Nice job on this, Muzzle. Really enjoying reading your thoughts. Found myself 100% in agreement on your take of ‘Jackson’.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 8, 2022 4:33:52 GMT -5
Nice job on this, Muzzle. Really enjoying reading your thoughts. Found myself 100% in agreement on your take of ‘Jackson’. Thanks! I enjoy it a lot myself too
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 8, 2022 4:38:50 GMT -5
#41: HONOLULU BLUES (Clear Heart Full Eyes)
From a Springsteen pastiche to the most unhinged attempt in channeling Bob Dylan. I refuse to believe that it didn’t come up while recording the song, how this sounds like a reflection of about 60 different Dylan songs, and especially of his most joyous songs from ‘65-’66.
It’s not just the rambling music, which both in style, sound and tempo, is pretty close to about half of Highway 61 or Blonde On Blonde, but also the lyrics and the imagery. To me, Dylan and Craig are equally good lyricists, but they have some huge differences in style. In the Dylan songs I love the most, I admire the rich associations and references and the poetic rhythm, which transcends meaning and narrative analysis, being pretty just because really beautiful words are put together in an even more beautiful way. With Craig, it’s some elements of this, but the main quality lies in the deep narrative connections, and how they play out within single lines, single references or just the way he emphasizes a certain word. This, combined with some unreal character portraits (again, sometimes within a single line) and a pretty unique ability to present scenery and context, is what probably makes him my all time favorite.
Here, he seems to dip his toes in to more Dylan-esque waters, with seemingly absurdist lines without any obvious narrative thread. Sure, there’s specificity here as well, but the goal of the full lyric seems to be to create a mood, a scene, rather than to say something intellectual about either the world or people inhabiting it. And he’s of course good at that too.
I like the full package as a jam, but a little bit like Dennis & Billy, it doesn’t really offer me anything new or interesting, the way so many of these other songs do. I always enjoy it when it comes on, though - and for the musical part, this seems freer and more confident than some of the tracks preceding it.
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Post by skepticatfirst on Apr 8, 2022 6:51:12 GMT -5
Sorry to show up so late and then come with a wall of text; I've started this post a few times and keep tossing it out. Writing about Craig's solo stuff is hard. If I were really to try to frame the top things that keep me coming back to LP/THS, they'd probably be: 1) musical/lyrical voltage between poles of humor, despair, and exaltation. 2) lyrical craft serving up knee-buckling double takes. 3) epic narrative sustained across albums and decades. Any given LP/THS song is likely to exhibit all of these qualities in abundance. But that's not true of the solo stuff. - To lukefrombl 's point in the other thread, a lot of the solo tunes are long on despair without much else to stretch it out, musically or lyrically. For me, "replay value" has a lot to do with the experience of this "voltage," this tension. There are a lot of solo songs I don't revisit.
- The level of lyrical craft remains high in the solo material, but I'm not sure that it's regularly on the same plane as in LP/THS. The opportunities for drama and irony aren't as easy to come by without a running background narrative, either.
- The fact that Shepard shows up in the tracklist for A Legacy of Rentals doesn't change the fact that the narrative aims of the solo material are clearly of less ambitious scope.
All of which is to say, my enthusiasm for the solo material is mostly a kind of shadow of what I feel when it comes to LP/THS. But there are a lot of qualifications that go with that statement; see below. ***With respect to (1): there are a number of solo songs that *do* conjure that LP/THS voltage, just in a more subtle register. To me, Indications is an example of this: the jazzy lounge vibe crossed with a line like "She thinks that your friend with the death wish went back to Ohio" is pretty insane --- not this-one-goes-to-11 insane like The Flex and the Buff Result, but still a line that opens up a lot of space and wonder. Indications is definitely a top 20 (solo) tune for me, maybe top 10. *** Also with respect to (1): the spare build of a lot of these tunes gives Craig a chance to do some amazing things with them live. One of the songs in my top 10 (will talk about it when it comes up) ranks where it does almost entirely because of an awesome performance at a show. ***With respect to (3): the solo songs don't have an overarching narrative, but a *lot* of them are about a girl we know very well from the annals of LP/THS. This gets into a weird area: some of these songs I don't even especially like, but are nevertheless intensely interesting to me because of the light they shine on LP/THS narratively. Wild Animals is an example: the new information it gives us about the dress with the indian fringes (and other things) has my full attention. But because the song doesn't have much "replay value" for me, it kind of doesn't show up on my ranking. ***With respect to both (2) and (3): some of these songs are so cleverly written that the "oh shit, it's Her" realization comes way late, in one huge double take. Her With The Blues is an example of this. The premise of the Midwestern guy coming to the big city on vacation and dragging his bored girlfriend around to collect photos of urban decay isn't especially interesting narratively; to me at least, the song isn't especially interesting musically, either. But none of that is what's actually going on here. What's really going on in this song (and I promise not to do this often in this thread) is a reprise of the same old story we already know from all the way back in 1996's Double Straps: - The main character is a guy from the Midwest ("made me feel so smalltown") who comes to the big city ("well I came into the city") with a backpack ("keep this in your backpack/ carry it with double straps") and ends up engaged in a photo shoot ("you look so cute like that/ i want your autograph"); he gets in trouble with a girl who's got the "blues" (the "this" for his backpack; see third point below).
- He's got big ideas about urban grit ("you want the scars but you don't want the war"). He's got a bicycle and walking shoes ("The Gangster Disciples knocked me off of my bicycle ... They took ten bucks and my tennis shoes."). He rides along Riverside daring the world to knock out his teeth ("it's a long way from Cedar-Riverside to Cedars-Sinai [the hospital]"; "the devil's a person/ met him at the Riverside Perkins"). He meets a fellow with black leather shoes ("brown paper bag and black buckle shoes").
- His girlfriend has her arms crossed ("she crossed herself"), is nervous ("nervous cough," "she seemed a bit nervous"), is up for it ("down with whatever"), and likes it on TV shows ("she's crazy about the daytime TV," "the only thing she talks about's TV"). The "blues" she's with aren't the musical kind; they're amphetamines ("spilled the blues from his hatband," "bloodsucker blues in the lobby at dusk").
So this is weird for me. I get a big chill down my spine recognizing this ur-old story that won't go away. But it really has nothing to do with the song as such, which again doesn't have much replay value to me, and so doesn't really figure in my ranking. (A side effect of all of this is that it really makes me realize how much I appreciate the musical and narrative dimensions of LP/THS.) ***To kind of bring it full circle with respect to (1), (2), and (3): you've pointed out that, on close listening, Tracking Shots reveals itself to be all about Lifter Puller themes, and your characterization of it as a "ramshackle rocker" is right on too. For me, somehow, this specific combination really works --- it's the contrast, the humor/despair/exaltation thing, with the cheerful resolution of the music providing an oddly effective shot of liberation from the same old insistent sorrows of the story. The verse about "she kissed him hard ... baby, don't get hurt for this" always gets me. I haven't really worked out my "rankers" in detail, but airlessness and all, I'm pretty sure Tracking Shots is in my top 10.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 10, 2022 14:12:26 GMT -5
Sorry to show up so late and then come with a wall of text; I've started this post a few times and keep tossing it out. Writing about Craig's solo stuff is hard. If I were really to try to frame the top things that keep me coming back to LP/THS, they'd probably be: 1) musical/lyrical voltage between poles of humor, despair, and exaltation. 2) lyrical craft serving up knee-buckling double takes. 3) epic narrative sustained across albums and decades. Any given LP/THS song is likely to exhibit all of these qualities in abundance. But that's not true of the solo stuff. A wall of text from you in a thread like this is always welcomed! I think you pretty much described exactly what I feel about the difference between THS/LP and the solo catalog. That eternal tension, the constant negotiaton between the music and the lyrics, the light and the darkness, the face value and the deep-running double meanings, the humour and the despair, is what makes both Lifter Puller and Hold Steady so damn great. And you're right, it's not that present in the solo songs, many of which feel cleaner, purer, more focuset on a single subject. I would never call them one-dimensional, cause it seems really loaded and condescening, but they are quite often less layered, filled with less tension between different poles. I've come to think of the difference as the one between having one of the best nights of your life in a bar, right song at the right time, with a bunch of friends who each in their own way make the night special, and visiting a café and getting served a perfect lunch and a really good cup of coffee. Or - maybe more close to the actual subject - reading a really good short stories collection from an author who previously have written a series of life-changing books. I don't really feel the need to rank the experiences on a quality scale. It's related, but different. Some things are huge and important, some are just really, really nice. And without giving away too much: The #1 on this list is the song that has the highest voltage of tension to me. I think what you wrote made me realize that might be the main reason. I think I have a few more things to say about the rest of your post, but I need it to sink in a little. Don't be surprised if I come back to it all in a few weeks time.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 10, 2022 14:14:53 GMT -5
#40: TANGLETOWN (We All Want The Same Things)
When Craig repeatedly uses the word “mundane” to describe themes of his solo writing, I always think of Tangletown. These characters are both so sad and lonely, but they hang on, with each other as substitutes for something more profound or real.
It’s the concretes that’s in the spotlight here. The bottle of wine, the tennis, the clothing - even the money. These two characters kind of serve a purpose for each other, they fill a whole in each other lives, but it’s never quite enough. They all want something, but they can’t really seem to grasp it.
I think Craig says it really well himself:
“I wanted to illustrate how these characters wants and needs are complimentary on some level, but unsatisfying in other more major ways. Both parties are looking for something and not quite connecting. The term “finer things” means different things to different people.”
To me, it’s a little bit too mundane. Or to put it another way, this feels very, very mundane, and in that sense it’s very successful. Maybe it hits a little to close to home? I'm at a point in my life where things easily can feel a little mundane, and maybe I just don't like to get a reminder from my favourite songwriter of all time. At least, I think Craig achieve what he aims for. Not my favorite, though. I tend to like better the songs where something real is at stake.
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Post by thehudsonsteady on Apr 11, 2022 15:26:08 GMT -5
No. Just no, Muzzle. I've put up with a lot from you, the great Eureka debacle in THS top 100, but this is unacceptable. We need some kind of independent appeal process so that Tangletown can take its rightful place in the top 5, actually, top 3. How can you not truly love this gorgeous song?! The quiet drum machine and gentle backing vocals, the lines "He can barely even hear her talk/ Just stares beyond her shoulder/ And waits until her mouth stops moving" it's one of his best lines ever! C'mon, Muzzle, accept you got this wrong and substitute something else for No. 40, you know you should.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 12, 2022 5:31:04 GMT -5
No. Just no, Muzzle. I've put up with a lot from you, the great Eureka debacle in THS top 100, but this is unacceptable. We need some kind of independent appeal process so that Tangletown can take its rightful place in the top 5, actually, top 3. Haha! That appeal process could start off with you posting your list I really like Tangletown, and never skip it when it comes on. But there's a lack of urgency/energy there who make me rate plenty of other songs above it.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 12, 2022 5:35:57 GMT -5
#39: WESTERN PIER (Clear Heart Full Eyes)
Western Pier is kind of a sister song to Apollo Bay. The pier and the bay anchor them both to a maritime theme (who runs even deeper into Hold Steady, and who I personally feel have a lot more active role in Open Door Policy than previous albums), and they’re both introspective and soul-searching in what feels like a very personal way.
It’s also a really abstract and dream like song, where I get the sense that most of the information is between the lines rather than in them. The narrator is someone with a debt to pay, getting tangled up with people he should have stayed clear of, with a past that’s murky and probably pretty dark. Jesus is called upon late in the song, and it’s not a request filled with hope. He might be kind, but he’s still a judge. He might be forgiven, but there are certain things he cannot fix.
It’s a really good song, emotionally moving and touching. When it doesn’t rank higher, it’s simply because I feel it’s a little one-dimensional, that it doubles down on one singular feeling, and never really transcends into something else. Compare it with a song like Criminal Fingers, who have kind of the same vibe, but with so much more going on behind the scenes - a little bit lyric wise, but mostly when it comes to the music. And this is not really a criticism, Western Pier is what it is, and it works. There’s just - as so many times before - others I enjoy even more.
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Post by skepticatfirst on Apr 12, 2022 7:03:04 GMT -5
And without giving away too much: The #1 on this list is the song that has the highest voltage of tension to me. Ha, mine too! There are some good ones along these lines --- curious to know which one makes it to the top of your list. Western Pier is a really, really interesting song lyrically, way up there; but I just went and listened to it again, and apart from a couple spots near the end where the music kind of stops to take a breath, it feels pretty hopeless. Your description of it as somewhat "one-dimensional" is hard to argue with.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 15, 2022 23:12:25 GMT -5
#38: THEY KNOW WHERE I LIVE (Newmyer's Roof EP)
They Know Where I Live feels like a precursor to I Need A New War, four years in advance. There’s that slight jazzy-ness in the chords, the tempo and the sweeping feeling on top of anything. Still, the lyrics (not to mention the vocals) are very much rooted in a pre-We All Want The Same Things era. Where “dudes from St. Paul” are more present than middle age issues concerning long-running friendships, losing out in the lottery of life or keeping a steady job to pay for your sick partner, are brought into the mix. It feels like a mashup of what now, in hindsight, looks like to very distinct parts of Craig’s body of work.
I like the bleakness in this song, underscored by Craig’s pretty intense, bitter and paranoid delivery. This is another case of a character who’s done some things he shouldn’t and that the consequences are creeping up on him - and there’s really not much he can do about it. That sense of being caught in a net of your own actions, and the laws of the game you play. This is very familiar THS territory, but I think Craig’s solo style suits the stories so well, just in a different way. And you can trace this all the way back to Lifter Puller, where you felt like you were in the fucking middle of the actions, throughout Hold Steady’s more retrospective and romanticized version of the same events, to Craig’s solo version of it all, where weariness and defeatism have crept into everything.
It’s not the most built-out, fully-fleshed song, and it makes sense that it was dropped from Faith in The Future and ended up on Newmyer’s Roof EP, but it’s still a fine song.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 17, 2022 0:05:43 GMT -5
#37: HOLYOKE (I Need A New War)
There’s a few of those songs where one single chord change makes such a huge difference in how the entire song sounds. Like a key unlocking a door into a different room of the house, making the entire perspective change.
Holyoke isn’t a massive song in any sense, and it’s very much in the same style as the songs who make up the second half of I Need A New War. That’s where I tend to lose interest, in those jazzy and loungey moods. But that exact moment, when the melody takes a slight step down, and Craig, with a general notion of disappointment, croons “Said I’m sorry, but the game went extra innings”, loosen everything up. It seems so loaded with a deep sense of both sadness and understanding, like the narrator and the one he’s having a conversation with, knows exactly what’s the deal here. There’s no turning back, things are permanently broken.
I kinda like the sweeping horns (or is it synths?) in the middle part too. Again, it’s not my set of chords or tones, but it fits in here. They make me think of a specific moment of fall, right between the orange and yellow beauty and utter darkness, that one week where the entire world seems to be in a limbo. It’s cold, but not entirely dead, definitely not summer, but still a long way from winter. But we all know where things are heading.
There’s also an angsty beauty to the short, sparse lines that make up the lyrics. It’s not Craig’s most outright impressive poetic work, but there’s an eerie mechanic in the way that he cuts himself short, switching subjects, not finishing things up. It serves as a nervous antithesis to the sweeping music, like someone trying to seem calm while everything inside is in turmoil. And the subject of the angst seems to shift from himself to his counterpart, and then back again. Most likely, their relationships is one of the major causes.
So, yeah, is a #37 unfair? I’m not sure. Musically, this sits on the wrong side of my Craig Finn spectrum, but there’s so much to admire and discover here. Of all the songs in the similar style from I Need A New War, this is definitely my favorite, and I could be persuaded to push it a few places up the list.
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Post by thehudsonsteady on Apr 17, 2022 2:50:41 GMT -5
Despite our differences, Muzzle (Tangletown at number 40? WTF?) You are dead right about the second half of I need a new war, it does just get a bit too much supper club jazz at times. Just wanted to let you know.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 18, 2022 11:27:32 GMT -5
#36: SARAH CALLING FROM A HOTEL
There are days when I think Faith In The Future is Craig Finn’s best album. And it’s mostly down to how damn even it is, that every song (bar the one very close to the bottom of this list) is pleasant, enjoyable. Not always mindblowing smart or innovative, just really, really good. This, paired with an obvious confidence gained between here and Clear Heart Full Eyes, makes for a really good record.
Sarah Calling From A Hotel is one of the minor songs on the album, in the sense that it doesn’t demand much attention or takes up much space. It’s a sweet little portrait of someone caught at some place bad, probably because she made one or two sub-optimal decisions earlier on. There’s money, guns and diamonds, and while it’s hard to piece the full story together, we learn just enough to get a decent idea. There’s also this on-going theme of going down a path you know for sure leads to destruction, but deciding to do it anyway. It doesn’t have to be pure, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but “when you add it all up it’s worth it”. It’s a pretty heavy statement, when you think of it.
I just really like this sweet, simple melody, and when names like Sarah (who sounds familiar from Sarah I’m Surrounded, but also pops up in Oaks, a one-off for the THS universe) and Jenny (a pretty familiar name from the LP universe) pops up, it adds a certain mystique to it all. It’s not among the absolute best songs Craig have released, but it’s sure as hell nice.
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Post by lukefrombl on Apr 20, 2022 9:00:04 GMT -5
#36: SARAH CALLING FROM A HOTELThere are days when I think Faith In The Future is Craig Finn’s best album. That's probably because Faith in the Future is Craig Finn's best album.
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Post by skepticatfirst on Apr 20, 2022 10:24:00 GMT -5
#37: HOLYOKE (I Need A New War) Holyoke isn’t a massive song in any sense, and it’s very much in the same style as the songs who make up the second half of I Need A New War. That’s where I tend to lose interest, in those jazzy and loungey moods. But that exact moment, when the melody takes a slight step down, and Craig, with a general notion of disappointment, croons “Said I’m sorry, but the game went extra innings”, loosen everything up. It seems so loaded with a deep sense of both sadness and understanding, like the narrator and the one he’s having a conversation with, knows exactly what’s the deal here. There’s no turning back, things are permanently broken. ... There’s also an angsty beauty to the short, sparse lines that make up the lyrics. It’s not Craig’s most outright impressive poetic work, but there’s an eerie mechanic in the way that he cuts himself short, switching subjects, not finishing things up. It serves as a nervous antithesis to the sweeping music, like someone trying to seem calm while everything inside is in turmoil. And the subject of the angst seems to shift from himself to his counterpart, and then back again. Most likely, their relationships is one of the major causes. I've been having another go at these songs as you add them to your ranking, and I just want to say that a) Holyoke is the first one that's really hooked me after the first relisten; it's been on my mind a lot these last few days. And the lead-in to the hook comes from the fact that a) this is a truly great analysis. You're right about the single chord change as an anchor point; what really got me is the observation about the "eerie mechanic in the way that he cuts himself short," man, it is really eerie. Like a much subtler version of "there were days from last week/ I couldn't quite complete" (from the other Oaks song; Holyoke is middle English for Holy Oak). Really enjoying this, keep going.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 20, 2022 15:00:00 GMT -5
I've been having another go at these songs as you add them to your ranking, and I just want to say that a) Holyoke is the first one that's really hooked me after the first relisten; it's been on my mind a lot these last few days. And the lead-in to the hook comes from the fact that a) this is a truly great analysis. You're right about the single chord change as an anchor point; what really got me is the observation about the "eerie mechanic in the way that he cuts himself short," man, it is really eerie. Like a much subtler version of "there were days from last week/ I couldn't quite complete" (from the other Oaks song; Holyoke is middle English for Holy Oak). Really enjoying this, keep going. Yes, there's something about Holyoke that fascinates me, in a way few other I Need A New War tracks do. And I never thought about the choppy lyrics before I went back to it to write about it, then it struck me as something Craig don't really do very often - which is kinda weird, after all the extremely conversation-like lyrics he's been writing over the years. Great catch about -oke/Oaks! And one more thing, you have a better recollection than me of stuff like this: Are there any other mentions of "rental(s)" than 1) Rental, 2) Sequestered In Memphis, 3) Holyoke and 4) the title of the new album?
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 20, 2022 15:00:49 GMT -5
#35: GOING TO A SHOW (Faith In The Future)
I’m inevitably gonna contradict myself plenty of times in this thread, and this might be one of them. I’ve written some songs off because they sound a little underdeveloped, like sketches of a great song rather than a big tune in their own right. And Going To A Show is certainly a little like this. A meandering and pretty static tune who kinda promises an evolution or something to break the deadlock, but never get there. Still, I like it a lot.
There’s just a so intriguing vibe here, like the entire song is a snapshot of a certain feeling of a very specific point in time. The lyrics are shifting from being in the present, and giving us historical context, but the feeling persists. The main theme of the lyrics remind me of “hard to hold steady when half your friends are dead already”, and many, many similar statements of trying to stay calm, sane and afloat when bad things go down around you. Like the narrator takes an inward turn, just to keep himself together.
And while there might not be much going on melodically here, there’s a rich and interesting soundscape, with lots of stuff happening. It keeps me interested all the way through.
Not a big tune, but certainly a good song which fits so well into the extremely strong first half of Faith In The Future.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 20, 2022 15:04:14 GMT -5
#36: SARAH CALLING FROM A HOTELThere are days when I think Faith In The Future is Craig Finn’s best album. That's probably because Faith in the Future is Craig Finn's best album. Haha, yes, I could easily be convinced that it is. I have a really hard time chosing between Faith In The Future and We All Want The Same Things. They're not THAT different, but they hit me in two very different ways.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Apr 21, 2022 7:47:56 GMT -5
#34: NOT MUCH LEFT OF US (Clear Heart Full Eyes) Not Much Left Of Us might be the song on Clear Heart Full Eyes who’s most in sync with Craig’s vision of a divorce album. It’s a sad, sentimental and violin/steel guitar-seasoned eulogy over a relationship who’s ran its course. “Sometimes lonely is easy, sometimes together is tough” - it’s pretty classic stuff. I’m not gonna say it’s simple or clichéd, cause this is what these songs should sound like. And within this genre, this is a pretty good one too. What I fancy the most here is the sound and arrangement. In a way few other songs on Clear Heart Full Eyes do, this one really breathes, there’s space for stuff to happen here. Actually, it reminds me a lot of another closing song on an album from a favourite artist of mine from around the same time (2011): The Norwegian singer/songwriter Stein Torleif Bjella. Check it out if you like - allthough you won't understand much of the lyrics, it's a pretty sweet song. And Not Much Left Of Us keeps reminding me that I still would like to hear a full-on americana album from Hold Steady too, something dusty, acoustic and southern-y. But that’s a digression. And for what it’s worth, I think it’s a really good album closer. It settles a sprawling debut album on a perfect note, settling the first shot at a solo career in a nice way. It’s not Craig’s most original or impressive song by any standards, but it has a sweet vibe and seem to achieve what it aims for, Sometimes, that’s just enough.
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