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Post by muzzleofbees on Jun 1, 2022 5:58:13 GMT -5
#22: GRANT AT GALENA (I Need A New War)
There’s certain songs that carry a weight and a sense of importance that’s really hard to put into words, and Grant At Galena is that type of song to me. Like so much of I Need A New War, it deals with someone pretty much at rock bottom, showering in the dark, relieved that even if the power has been cut off, he still got water.
I have been saying this a couple of times, but I think it’s especially relevant here: We All Want The Same Things deals with people who are at a different place in their lives than what they imagined ten or twenty years earlier. But they seem to find some acceptance, settling for mediocrity, trading in ambitions for what’s comfortable. They’re not happy or fulfilled, but they’re not unhappy either. By the time we get to I Need A New War, the characters have taken one step closer to the abyss, but also traded in some of the acceptance and apathy with a stronger sense of dissatisfaction or urge to change things up. Thing is, they’re at a point where it’s no longer in their own hands. Even if they want to, they can’t change their path in any substantial way. They might have ended up where they are due to bad choices, but once locked in a downward spiral, no positive action can undo it. And then the apathy turns to bitterness, and an anger you really can’t use to anything but harm yourself further.
I think this is so central to Grant At Galena. “I wore the right shoes, I wore the right shirt”, the narrator tells us, but it just didn’t work out. He’s trying to tell the same jokes that used to bring laughs, but people have moved on, he’s no longer on the right frequency. And I can’t help to think that when he says his “old friends are fine”, there’s some sort of sugar-coating going on - either deliberate or not. I’m not so sure he’s the one making the call on whether those friendships continue or not, and that the friends that still keep in touch do it more out of pity or duty than out of self-interest. Same thing goes for “their new friends are freaks”. Are they really? Or is this the narrator’s way to tell us that they might be perfectly normal, and that he’s the odd one out?
The entire theme of being in the need of a new war is quite simple, but yet so heavy. This is a guy who’s been in a fight or two, and maybe those fights have defined him in a way that makes it hard adapting to a new, normal life. If fighting (metaphorical) wars is the only thing you’re good at, then looking for a reason to start another might be compelling.
Finally, Craig’s delivery is outstanding here. I’m personally not a big fan of the extreme sadness of some of the I Need A New War tracks, but on this one, and especially in isolation, Craig does such a great job in expressing it, that I’m left speechless. Not only does he give the narrator of the song the defeated and weary outlook, he builds in the anger and bitterness, and the deep embedded wish to escape the self-made prison. The backing vocals entering in the last part of the song does wonders too, and they make the ending into a separate downward spiral, mirroring the narrative one. I’m left with a sense that after the lights go out at the end of the track, the narrator is set out to do something to break the deadlock. What he does, I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s pretty.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Jun 6, 2022 13:17:31 GMT -5
#21: RESCUE BLUES (We All Want The Same Thing)
I caught some heat further up in the thread for placing Tangletown so low. And I admit that it might be weird to put the song that’s maybe most like it, Rescue Blues, close to the top 20. I don’t want to make this thread into a boring faux-debate with myself on both sides of the table, but then again, maybe discussing why I like the other so much, while the other falls a bit flat.
In Rescue Blues, it’s pretty much all about the chorus to me. It has this fleeting, dreamlike quality, melodically beautiful. And just when I get content with this cozy vibe, it ends in something that shows some sort of eagerness, some forward-ness, like someone getting off the couch, and deciding to take some action.
This bleeds into the verses. The first time around, from the very start of the song, it sounds a little sedated, laid back, with a vibe of comfortable resignation. When it comes back after the chorus, it’s like some slight urgency is added to the mix.
To me, this is a great example of the extremely successful pairing of Craig and Josh Kaufman. I think Kaufman get the absolutely best out of Craig’s subtle songwriting, executing a really elegant push/pull thing, letting the groove roll when it’s time for that, and putting in these little bursts of intensity whenever it’s natural or useful. From someone hearing this from the outside, not being able to follow deliberations in the studio, it’s hard to separate their roles, but they sure make wonders when they’re together.
On a thematically level, I think this song is right in the center of what We All Want The Same Things is all about: The acceptance of the sub-optimal, finding comfort in settling for something alright. “That seems pretty pure to me”, Craig sings, and sort of underscores how this is the ideal - as an opposition to perfection, with the pair lined up against each other in Denver Haircut. And to connect this to something more recent, I sense a shift in Craig’s scope on A Legacy Of Rentals, when Rachel tells us that we all should mess with the settings, instead of “settling for whatever they give you”.
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Post by saintjoe on Jun 9, 2022 15:44:15 GMT -5
#33: ST. PETER UPSIDE DOWN (Faith In The Future) ** “Upper 20s, 7th avenue, just south of the Garden” - We’ve been used to think of 7th Avenue as the one in Minneapolis, but it’s pretty obvious that this is in New York City, with the reference to Madison Square Garden. I think back on Heavy Covenant, with its hockey references, before “...in the garden with a day to spare”. ** “Mustang Sallys, Monday mornings” - “I think she drove a new Mustang” + plenty of references of a party lasting throughout the weekend, and into a new week (think Joke About Jamaica, and the Saturdays being a runway into Sunday - sometimes Monday). I apologize if this is common knowledge or at least has been mentioned already. But there really was a bar called Mustang Sallys on 7th Avenue in the upper 20s, just south of the Garden. There were two bars there that must have been related, Mustang Sallys and Mustang Harrys. Mustang Sallys closed, but I'm pretty sure that Mustang Harrys is still open. In my younger days, I visited one/both of them a couple of times. They were popular places to pre-game if you were going to something at Madison Square Garden. Any re: Terrified Eyes. I'm a little older, and as you get older you tend to not sleep as well and worry about things more. At least that's how it's going for me. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night and I can't fall back asleep, and my brain is overcome with worrying about whatever. And the lines "In the middle of the day, she mostly feels okay. When nighttime comes, she just feels terrified" come to me. I fall back asleep, and, sure enough, when I wake up in the morning, all is good again. Enjoying the thread.
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bigontheinside
Midnight Hauler
If you don't know the words, don't sing along
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Post by bigontheinside on Jun 10, 2022 5:36:00 GMT -5
On the topic of Terrified Eyes, I saw Craig perform it at one of the solo shows he was doing on the living room tour. He asked if anyone had any questions and someone asked where Terrified Eyes came from. He said that it was, unfortunately, largely autobiographical, and about his ex-wife and her struggles with alcoholism. He then played it, and hearing him perform it after what he'd just said, and without all the fun goofy riffs of the album version, was very moving.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Jun 15, 2022 13:20:05 GMT -5
#33: ST. PETER UPSIDE DOWN (Faith In The Future) ** “Upper 20s, 7th avenue, just south of the Garden” - We’ve been used to think of 7th Avenue as the one in Minneapolis, but it’s pretty obvious that this is in New York City, with the reference to Madison Square Garden. I think back on Heavy Covenant, with its hockey references, before “...in the garden with a day to spare”. ** “Mustang Sallys, Monday mornings” - “I think she drove a new Mustang” + plenty of references of a party lasting throughout the weekend, and into a new week (think Joke About Jamaica, and the Saturdays being a runway into Sunday - sometimes Monday). I apologize if this is common knowledge or at least has been mentioned already. But there really was a bar called Mustang Sallys on 7th Avenue in the upper 20s, just south of the Garden. There were two bars there that must have been related, Mustang Sallys and Mustang Harrys. Mustang Sallys closed, but I'm pretty sure that Mustang Harrys is still open. In my younger days, I visited one/both of them a couple of times. They were popular places to pre-game if you were going to something at Madison Square Garden. Any re: Terrified Eyes. I'm a little older, and as you get older you tend to not sleep as well and worry about things more. At least that's how it's going for me. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night and I can't fall back asleep, and my brain is overcome with worrying about whatever. And the lines "In the middle of the day, she mostly feels okay. When nighttime comes, she just feels terrified" come to me. I fall back asleep, and, sure enough, when I wake up in the morning, all is good again. Enjoying the thread. Now that you say it, I think I might have read that somewhere. Thanks for refreshing my memory! I've been diving deep and long enough in Craig's lyrics that I've came to peace with a word, phrase or reference meaning at least two things at the same time. That reference to New York is pretty solid, though! I'm glad you enjoy it!
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Post by muzzleofbees on Jun 15, 2022 13:21:15 GMT -5
#20: SARAH I'M SURROUNDED (7" single, b/w Some Guns)
We’ve been through Some Guns, Rented Room and Jeremiah’s Blues in pretty quick succession now, all of them pretty straight, folky, country-inspired, mainly acoustic songs from the early days of Craig’s solo career. They’re all songs that very much fits the bill of what we (or at least, I) would expect when he went solo, like this felt like a natural succession of, but also a flipside to the hectic rock’n’roll of Hold Steady.
It’s weird to look back on the past ten years, and what his solo output has turned into. And while I love the sparkling and poppy sounds of Ninety Bucks or Birds Trapped in The Airport, and adore the minimal, drum machine-driven, dreamlike world of A Legacy Of Rentals, I can fully understand that some are longing back for a more dusty, earthy and classic version of Craig Finn.
In some ways, Sarah I’m Surrounded is in the same group as the songs mentioned above. It doesn’t sound very different to it’s b/w Some Guns, the divorce hymn in Rented Room or the country-ish story of Jeremiah. It’s firmly midtempo, sweet, sentimental and (at least if we adjust for the fact that Craig is one of the best lyricist ever) quite predictable lyric wise.
But listening back to the song in 2022, I hear plenty of signs of what was about to come. On a thematically level, the whole thing about feeling surrounded, imprisoned, caught in patterns that’s really hard to break, sounds very familiar. It’s not straight up heartbreak or suffering, there’s something a little more existential than that. A claustrophobic, hopeless despair, not always screamed from the top of the narrator's lungs, but often lurking in the tonation or the space between the lines.
But also musically. Cause even if this is mainly acoustic and pretty softly played, there’s these thrilling chord shifts in the bridge, where the song drops into something spookier, a lot like Criminal Fingers does in its verses. The main theme of the song sounds dusty and warm, but those little changes bring a chill, a sign of a storm coming in. And if you listen closely to the drums, they have a similarity to the drums in Never Any Horses or This Is What It Looks like. In those two songs, the real-life drums play a sort of counterpart to the drum machine, while here they play up against the static and soft rhythm of the guitars.
It’s these little idiosyncrasies that make me come back to Sarah I’m Surrounded again and again, the ambivalence in the sound, the peek behind the curtain. It’s a beautiful song at its very core too, but this is what makes it pretty much the gold standard of that era to me.
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Post by somethingvague on Jun 16, 2022 7:39:02 GMT -5
On the topic of Terrified Eyes, I saw Craig perform it at one of the solo shows he was doing on the living room tour. He asked if anyone had any questions and someone asked where Terrified Eyes came from. He said that it was, unfortunately, largely autobiographical, and about his ex-wife and her struggles with alcoholism. He then played it, and hearing him perform it after what he'd just said, and without all the fun goofy riffs of the album version, was very moving. Think you must've been at the show at my place in SE London - and that was my mate Joe (who I actually met through the band) asking the question. Agree that was quite the moment. He doesn't usually open up about personal stuff much in the context of his music.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Jun 19, 2022 1:07:46 GMT -5
#19: A BATHTUB IN THE KITCHEN (I Need A New War)
With the release of A Legacy Of Rentals, it seems Craig has set his solo career on a new thematic path. For a while there, I thought he would keep on evolving his songs more and more in the directions of vignettes, short stories, with named characters in defined scenes. At this point in time it seems like I Need A New War was the peak of that style. And A Bathtub In The Kitchen might be the song where I think he did that certain thing at his absolute best.
A Bathtub In The Kitchen is both very specific and tastefully subtle. Right there in the title of the song is the striking metaphor for how Francis’ life isn’t going anywhere. The dryness in the remark about “23 years is a while” living in a place without a separate bathroom, is pretty devastating. And along with the advice about befriending bartenders, and the money issue (this time, it’s $200, for those who keep score about various amounts in Craig’s lyrics), it paints a pretty precise portrait of who this Francis guy really is. We all know the answer to the question about whether he has a plan or not.
Maybe the song is just as much about the narrator, he’s the agent in the story, and how he moves to the city, and - with Francis as a contrast - gets on with his life. He needed that couch in a crucial moment in time, but he’s at a different place now. And the sadness in “I can’t keep saying thank you” isn’t so much in the line itself, but in the implied conversation that statement must be a part of.
Musically, the song is as lush and sweeping as many of the other songs on I Need A New War. But just as in Holyoke, there’s a subtle shift in there that gets me everytime: The part where the melody hits its sweet spot just when Craig says “I was waiting for New York to ask me out”. There’s a deep romanticism in that exact moment, a sign of love and affection, or maybe even some relief due to the fact that the narrator didn’t get stuck in the same path as Francis. Where other songs on the album stray a bit off, meandering and contemplative, I think this has a lot of movement and momentum to it. And that makes it quite easy to slide it into the top #20 too.
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bigontheinside
Midnight Hauler
If you don't know the words, don't sing along
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Post by bigontheinside on Jun 20, 2022 5:28:28 GMT -5
On the topic of Terrified Eyes, I saw Craig perform it at one of the solo shows he was doing on the living room tour. He asked if anyone had any questions and someone asked where Terrified Eyes came from. He said that it was, unfortunately, largely autobiographical, and about his ex-wife and her struggles with alcoholism. He then played it, and hearing him perform it after what he'd just said, and without all the fun goofy riffs of the album version, was very moving. Think you must've been at the show at my place in SE London - and that was my mate Joe (who I actually met through the band) asking the question. Agree that was quite the moment. He doesn't usually open up about personal stuff much in the context of his music. Yes, it was definitely a special moment. That was a great evening, thank you for hosting!
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Post by thehudsonsteady on Jun 20, 2022 5:35:16 GMT -5
Re bathtub in the kitchen. I read somewhere that when housing regulations came in regarding inside washing facilities (no idea when, maybe 1920s/30s?) in New York, some landlords plumbed the bath right into the kitchen as there was already a water supply there. Does anyone know if this is true? It makes me think that having a bathtub in the kitchen would also suggest a home that hasn't been updated for a long time, a failure to keep up, all of which fit the song.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Jun 21, 2022 4:44:21 GMT -5
Re bathtub in the kitchen. I read somewhere that when housing regulations came in regarding inside washing facilities (no idea when, maybe 1920s/30s?) in New York, some landlords plumbed the bath right into the kitchen as there was already a water supply there. Does anyone know if this is true? It makes me think that having a bathtub in the kitchen would also suggest a home that hasn't been updated for a long time, a failure to keep up, all of which fit the song. I know very little about housing in NYC, but back when I was a student in Bergen, Norway, in the early 00s, there were still appartments around with a shower in the kitchen. I would guess the historical reason for this was that water supply were installed in the kitchen in these appartments back in the day, before each appartment had a separate bathroom. And when they upgraded the appartments with separate toilets and a system for draining, and not full bathrooms, to save space - and that this is the reason why some kitchen's still have bathtubs/showers inside them. And for what it's worth: In Craig's lyrical world, a bathtub fits perfectly nice into the kitchen. They're both usually associated with meth production/distribution
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Post by muzzleofbees on Aug 16, 2022 13:19:26 GMT -5
#18: ALL THESE PERFECT CROSSES (All These Perfect Crosses)
I guess I’m not the only one who keeps on getting stunned by what Craig does with his lyrics. The most fascinating part about him as a lyricist is how many layers there are to his writing, and how many different ways I’m able to enjoy it. Lately, I’ve been pretty into hearing the darker edges of his songs, and going back through the THS catalog, it’s amazing how many dark corners there potentially are in there, often hidden in plain sight, in a joyous and euphoric song about partying.
There’s room for contemplation in Hold Steady too, but I think it’s fair to say it’s still pretty limited. Craig’s solo career feels like a precious gift in the sense that it gives his lyrics a different environment to breathe and live in. It’s not that it’s qualitatively better, it’s just different. Just think about how the sound of I Need A New War gives a new, bleaker, a lot more hopeless backdrop to the tales of the characters he creates. I’m not saying the exact same lyrics could be applied to a Hold Steady song, and there’s obviously a reasoning behind what lyrics fit to what music. But a lot of the overarching themes, places and situations, are pretty similar. They just lend themself to different music.
All These Perfect Crosses stick out for me because of the seemingly non-layered, singular relationship between the music and the lyrics. This isn’t a sad lyric disguised as euphoria set to blistering rock music. It’s not deliberately mundane lyrics, with some real depth to it, put to a sweeping and croony pop song. It’s a bleak and depressing little song set to bleak and depressing piano chords. There’s no hiding here, it is what it is - stripped for the romanticism that is all over Separation Sunday, for the playfulness in the similar bleak Preludes (I’m guessing it’s the same Cindy), for the bright and sparkling production that makes songs like Birds Trapped In The Airport or Ninety Bucks appealing pop songs, regardless of the story told. The only thing close to this for me is another song with a taxi prominent in the picture: Oaks.
It’s not an easy listen, and its placement on this list is maybe more out of admiration than pure pleasure. But I think this little song is important in the grander sense, in the story of who Craig Finn really is as an artist.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Aug 23, 2022 23:27:14 GMT -5
#17: BALCONY (Clear Heart Full Eyes)
Yet another of these soft, country-esque songs that I’ve written so much about in previous posts. I might be repeating myself, but damn, it’s nice to hear Craig nail these. And the reason why I put this so high up on the list, is because it feels like one of the purest, most accomplished versions of that type of song.
It’s a beautiful melody, simple at first, but with lots of depth. The steel guitar is incorporated in a flawless way here, pushing the sentimental vibe to all the right places. It genuinely feels like a classic song, sweet and simple, with lots of emotion packed into every word, every chord. This is a type of song that easily could be perceived as formalistic or pastiche-like. Like it’s the easy way out for a singer-songwriter operating in this kind of landscape. I actually think it’s the other way around: Succeeding with songs like this is incredibly hard. It takes a lot of fingerspitzgefühl and artistic power to really make it stand out - and Balcony does stand out.
I’m also really fond of Craig’s singing here. I guess it’s close to fifteen years since him actually singing had any news value, but there’s not that many songs where he does it so effortlessly and with character and finesse. There’s a nearness to his vocals here, a softness too, but there’s the ever-present defeat and hints of bitterness just beneath the surface. His voice, along with the melody, transmits this sort of part romantic, part sentimental feeling of something lost, and I find it really moving.
The lyrics also help. Again, there’s these vivid imagery: Seeing someone up on the balcony, the long fingernails, the cigarettes, the bags, the taxi. It’s a small but significant scene, emblematic of something bigger, as a symbol of what once was, and how he’s felt about it ever since. It’s not his most mind-blowing, tounge-twisting lyric in any way, but it’s damn effective in what it sets out to do.
All this considered, I think this is one of Craig’s best songs. I’m still glad he hooked up with Kaufman and expanded the horizon, but of all the little, sweet and country inspired songs he has done over the years, this is one of the absolutely best.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Aug 25, 2022 4:31:37 GMT -5
#16: ROMAN GUITARS (Faith In The Future)
I tend to think of We All Want The Same Things as the album where Craig really found his artistic voice as a solo artist. That’s kinda where he steps a little bit outside of his own universe, and into a more contemporary, more poppy sound.
But going back to Faith In The Future, and especially Roman Guitars, I realized that this was sort of already happening on that album too. Roman Guitars isn’t as sparkling bright and, eh, contemporary sound as, say, Birds Trapped In The Airport, but it’s surely a step in that direction. There’s lots of air and room in the song, but it’s also packed with small details and musical twists - the seasick part after “...and now he points at every kid” is one example. It’s kinda stumbling along, but still has a sense of rhythm and groove, and Craig seems carefree and comfortable crooning over it all.
I’ve always loved how he seemingly references Lifter Puller in the opening lyric (Touch My Stuff), and I’ve always wondered if it’s just a little easter egg, or if it has some narrative importance. But there’s definitely a lot of familiar images and scenes here, even without taking that line into consideration. It seems romantic, sentimental and sort of blissful, though. Like he’s remembering something pretty frightening in the kind light that distance in time tends to give.
The part that really makes this a top tier Craig song to me, is the beautiful, sprawling ending, the part where he repeats “All your little molecules” over that beautiful music. Such an inspired, breathing and living song.
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tbob
True Scene Leader
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Post by tbob on Aug 25, 2022 21:46:02 GMT -5
#16: ROMAN GUITARS (Faith In The Future) I tend to think of We All Want The Same Things as the album where Craig really found his artistic voice as a solo artist. That’s kinda where he steps a little bit outside of his own universe, and into a more contemporary, more poppy sound. But going back to Faith In The Future, and especially Roman Guitars, I realized that this was sort of already happening on that album too. Roman Guitars isn’t as sparkling bright and, eh, contemporary sound as, say, Birds Trapped In The Airport, but it’s surely a step in that direction. There’s lots of air and room in the song, but it’s also packed with small details and musical twists - the seasick part after “...and now he points at every kid” is one example. It’s kinda stumbling along, but still has a sense of rhythm and groove, and Craig seems carefree and comfortable crooning over it all. I’ve always loved how he seemingly references Lifter Puller in the opening lyric (Touch My Stuff), and I’ve always wondered if it’s just a little easter egg, or if it has some narrative importance. But there’s definitely a lot of familiar images and scenes here, even without taking that line into consideration. It seems romantic, sentimental and sort of blissful, though. Like he’s remembering something pretty frightening in the kind light that distance in time tends to give. The part that really makes this a top tier Craig song to me, is the beautiful, sprawling ending, the part where he repeats “All your little molecules” over that beautiful music. Such an inspired, breathing and living song. I’ve missed this thread Muzz, great to have you back. Time to dig out Faith in the Future again. I remember loving Roman Guitars when the record came out but I haven’t listened to it for so long. I’ve been listening to the new record a lot and Clear Heart Full Eyes quite a bit but shit, this song is class. Also nice to notice God in Chicago is still holding out! You said it’s not gonna be number one but it’s got to be close dude?
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Post by muzzleofbees on Aug 26, 2022 13:46:05 GMT -5
I’ve missed this thread Muzz, great to have you back. Time to dig out Faith in the Future again. I remember loving Roman Guitars when the record came out but I haven’t listened to it for so long. I’ve been listening to the new record a lot and Clear Heart Full Eyes quite a bit but shit, this song is class. Also nice to notice God in Chicago is still holding out! You said it’s not gonna be number one but it’s got to be close dude? Good to see you around here too! I like Clear Heart Full Eyes, and maybe better now than, say, six or seven years ago. But Craig did a pretty big leap into Faith In The Future, and that one still might be my favourite CF solo album. Been listening a lot to the new one myself, and I think it's amazing. Are you going to the London show on the 24th? Haha, we'll see when God In Chicago shows up. It might be the toughest song to rank of them all, and I'm kinda glad I made this list before A Legacy Of Rentals, because the existence of it actually makes ranking God In Chicago even harder.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Aug 26, 2022 13:47:54 GMT -5
#15: MAGIC MARKER (I Need A New War)
I’ve given I Need A New War plenty of heat throughout this thread, and I hope you all understand that it’s within this context: The catalog of one of my all time favorite singers and - eventually - songwriters. It’s really hard to find the right words to describe a work by such a favorite that is good, but not perfect. And sometimes it’s easier to do it through its counterpoint: The songs that really works.
And Magic Markers works. It works really well. This is Craig in his Springsteen corner, but still with a very distinct identity. Another tale of someone falling a bit on the side of the society, both culturally and financially, but described with such a simple depth and nuance. Craig tells us a lot about him, but still keeps things open to interpretation, to fill inn the blanks. We never really understand whose name being written in random places, and in fact, it’s a little bit unclear if the narrator writes his own name, or someone else’s name. The crushing line for me is the one about the president. Imagine singing something alluding Donald Trump in 2019, and still come off as subtle and elegant.
What REALLY does it for me, though, is the melody and the arrangement. It’s a beautiful song, not unlike other songs from the same era, but it’s more than that. It has this unsettled urgency that adds drama in a low key way. It’s free-flowing, elegant and quite big, but also near and soft. Where so many other songs on I Need A New War is drenched in this sentimental/romantic swoosh from long gone times, this feels contemporary, but also classic.
It’s not a song that blows my mind, or get my heart pumping, but I have this silent and pretty huge admiration for everything it does. And as a final sidenote: The first time I heard it, was when Craig did it in Munich in February 2019, a couple of months before the album came out. I think hearing it in that setting, just Craig, his guitar and his words, made me appreciate the final version of the song too.
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tbob
True Scene Leader
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Post by tbob on Aug 27, 2022 12:15:30 GMT -5
I’ve missed this thread Muzz, great to have you back. Time to dig out Faith in the Future again. I remember loving Roman Guitars when the record came out but I haven’t listened to it for so long. I’ve been listening to the new record a lot and Clear Heart Full Eyes quite a bit but shit, this song is class. Also nice to notice God in Chicago is still holding out! You said it’s not gonna be number one but it’s got to be close dude? Good to see you around here too! I like Clear Heart Full Eyes, and maybe better now than, say, six or seven years ago. But Craig did a pretty big leap into Faith In The Future, and that one still might be my favourite CF solo album. Been listening a lot to the new one myself, and I think it's amazing. Are you going to the London show on the 24th? Haha, we'll see when God In Chicago shows up. It might be the toughest song to rank of them all, and I'm kinda glad I made this list before A Legacy Of Rentals, because the existence of it actually makes ranking God In Chicago even harder. No, not doing London this time. Going up to Newcastle and Manchester for the tour instead. Was tempted to do the Moth Club / Vikings game on the Sunday after Manchester but would have been a long rush in the morning so I’m staying in Manchester for an extra night instead now. By chance the Manchester derby is that afternoon so will have a scout about for that instead of the NFL. Enjoy London!
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Post by muzzleofbees on Sept 5, 2022 1:05:07 GMT -5
#14: PRELUDES (We All Want The Same Things)
Preludes never sat right with me when I first heard it. It felt a bit cold and detached, like it was unable to break through, like it came from a dream.The main theme who runs through the song, from the intro and throughout, didn’t grab me. It sounded smart and well thought out, but it didn’t connect with me emotionally.
I can’t remember when it changed, or why it did, but slowly Preludes grew on me. I think some of it had to do with me going back to read what Crag said about it upon release, how this song (which at some point was titled 1994) was crossing over to something autobiographical. And then it started to give some emotional resonance as well - this tale about coming home from college, and not feeling all that at home in your hometown anymore, losing touch with both the old you and the new you at the same time. Suddenly it felt like a really bittersweet and focused song about feeling disconnected, and how that feeling makes things slowly fall apart.
I’ve used the word “defeated” many times in this thread, and I think it sums up how I hear Craig in some of his best songs: Not beaten or broken, but certainly on a losing streak, channeled so beautifully through the words, but also his vocal performance. Some of these tales about defeat are attributed to characters, who don’t have any obvious resemblance with Craig. But others - like Preludes - feel strangely close and personal. Not line by line, but taken as a whole. And that’s also where themes like redemption and salvation creeps in. In this instance, directed against a God, but also with the echo of Constructive Summer lingering in the background.
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Post by thehudsonsteady on Sept 5, 2022 12:17:44 GMT -5
Beautifully put as always, Muzzle. I love the line "And the writing on the walls in the stalls in the bathroom says "Cindy's so easy" But I've never met Cindy, besides it might be a joke", possibly my favourite solo CF lyric. I like the way it sums up a lot about the song, a description of someone who doesn't quite get things, isn't quite sure how literally to take stuff. Like the character in 'magic marker' who's never sure just what to say. It's all hotting up!
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Post by muzzleofbees on Sept 6, 2022 7:31:50 GMT -5
Beautifully put as always, Muzzle. I love the line "And the writing on the walls in the stalls in the bathroom says "Cindy's so easy" But I've never met Cindy, besides it might be a joke", possibly my favourite solo CF lyric. I like the way it sums up a lot about the song, a description of someone who doesn't quite get things, isn't quite sure how literally to take stuff. Like the character in 'magic marker' who's never sure just what to say. It's all hotting up! I love that lyric too! It's so ambiguous, yet so definitive sad. And it fits the weary outlook of the song so good. I find it amusing how the bathroom stalls here serve this one purpose: To tell us what's written on them. When the bathroom stalls play such a massive role in so many Lifter Puller and Hold Steady lyrics. Just to name the most striking to me: "The bathroom stalls they're speaking volumes of your ethical slips".
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Post by muzzleofbees on Sept 6, 2022 7:33:23 GMT -5
#13: BE HONEST (Faith In The Future)
Some songs are all vibe to me, and Be Honest might just be one of them. It’s a song that kinda disappeared for me when Faith In The Future arrived, I just think I was more hung up on the first half of the album, and listening to it a lot with a newborn around, I rarely made it to the end of it. But coming back to the catalog for this ranking, I fell pretty hard for it. And that has a lot to do with something as vague and abstract as the vibe of it.
There’s so many conflicting emotions on display here. It’s a pretty, well, happy song. Both Craig and the narrator he inhabits, sounds at ease, comfortable, not in any major turmoil. But that’s a feeling that exists in the present time of the song, because through the lyrics, and then again through the subtle musical twists and turns, we soon discover that these characters have a history, and that it might not be so straight-forward. That’s when the sentimentality creeps in. Yes, the narrator seems at peace with his life at this point, but there’s a romantic longing after something that disappeared here. And that makes the pretty light an easy-going facade of the song seem more sad than joyful.
Again, I keep coming back to the subtle inventiveness in the arrangements. The second half of the song isn’t exactly exploding, but it has so many sweet details who both make the song come to life, while also filling out the bigger picture. I’m not gonna call it unique, cause there’s plenty of songs and albums who dig into a sound like this, but it’s certainly done with identity and character.
So, yeah, lots of vibes, and a bit hard to pinpoint why this feels important, layered and very, very pleasant. But I think it means something to Craig, and it sure does to me too.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Sept 7, 2022 23:47:33 GMT -5
#12: BIRDS TRAPPED IN THE AIRPORT (We All Want The Same Things)
Way back before Craig released his solo debut, I kinda wondered about the inner dynamic in Hold Steady. These things don’t really matter, but being such a big fan of a band, usually ends up in thoughts on stuff like that. How did that magic materialize in the writing process, in the studio, in the interplay between the band members? How much did each bring to the table? Was the melodies and the songs pretty much all Tad (with some explicit exceptions), or did the songs evolve with input from the others? I know (and knew) that there’s no definitive answers to these kind of things, but it’s natural to reflect over it.
When Craig went solo, and Clear Heart Full Eyes was released, I felt I got some answers. It feels a little condescending writing this, but it made me appreciate Tad, Franz, Bobby and Galen even more. It was evident that Craig, completely on his own, wasn’t quite able to create that same kind of magic. And just to be clear: That’s totally fine! I really liked Clear Heart Full Eyes, it offered a different take on the same strain of music that Hold Steady perfected, and it showed Craig from a different side too. But I have to admit I felt it was a big step down musically, it felt less ambitious. Good, interesting, certainly pleasant - but still a side project, something a little inferior.
This backdrop feels important to describe how enormously impressed I was by We All Want The Same Things in general, and Birds Trapped In The Airport specifically. Faith In The Future felt like a giant leap forward - still very grounded in a singer/songwriter kinda mood, with folk, rock, pop and some drops of country blending together in a very strong and very American album. Two years later, Craig made another giant leap or two. WAWTS felt like a vision I didn’t really knew was there, blossomed into something sparkly, clean and huge. Craig had gone pop, in a very unique and Craig-like way, and the collaboration with Josh Kaufman hit a peak.
And Birds… is pretty much the pinnacle of this. It sounds like a minor hit, something you’d hear on the radio, but with a really strong og and pure identity. Those synths and the drum machine blends in with the backing vocals, creating a dream-like and glossy universe where it suddenly feels like the music - not Craig’s voice or stories - are the main point. That’s not necessarily a qualitative judgment, I love all those Separation Sunday songs where Craig’s rambling are in the center of everything. It’s just different, and it’s done in a very successful way.
If Clear Heart Full Eyes made Craig seem human, We All Want The Same Things made him seem… I don’t know, like a complete artist? Someone with a vision, able to push his ideas into new directions, while still keeping the main core of his appeal. Like this album, and this song in particular, gave his entire production a whole new level, a new depth. To be able to feel that way when an artist you love release his third solo album, 20 years deep into his career, are truly wonderful.
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Post by kayfaberaven on Sept 8, 2022 11:30:02 GMT -5
Craig had gone pop, in a very unique and Craig-like way, and the collaboration with Josh Kaufman hit a peak. I think Josh Kaufman has become the "special sauce" for Craig's recent albums, as well as for TTTP and ODP (especially ODP). I don't really know anything about music production, but whatever they're doing is really working for me. I reference it all the time, but the last part of Heavy Covenant sounds almost impossible, especially on headphones. There are so many things going on that it almost devolves into chaos, but not quite. Kaufman's production on Craig's solo work never sounds that stuffed and busy, but it still hits just right almost every time.
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Post by muzzleofbees on Sept 8, 2022 13:40:28 GMT -5
Craig had gone pop, in a very unique and Craig-like way, and the collaboration with Josh Kaufman hit a peak. I think Josh Kaufman has become the "special sauce" for Craig's recent albums, as well as for TTTP and ODP (especially ODP). I don't really know anything about music production, but whatever they're doing is really working for me. I reference it all the time, but the last part of Heavy Covenant sounds almost impossible, especially on headphones. There are so many things going on that it almost devolves into chaos, but not quite. Kaufman's production on Craig's solo work never sounds that stuffed and busy, but it still hits just right almost every time. I couldn't agree more. I'm pretty sure the THS evolution through Trashing and into Open Door Policy has something to do with things in the band itself too - the lineup with both Franz and Steve, and with Tad being less protective of his role in the band. But there's no doubt in my mind that Kaufman play a really big part in that too. And the "proof" is how Craig's record evolved all the way to We All Want The Same Things. Heavy Covenant is the prime example for me as well, and the way you describe it ("so many things going on that it almost devolves into chaos") is perfect. Despite that, Heavy Covenant is one of the smoothest, most pretty-sounding (soundwise) Hold Steady song there is. And that controlled chaos thing is so present in Faith in The Future and parts of We All Want The Same Things too. In a more ramshackle and maybe even organic way, but still a lot of stuff going on, but everything still kept very well together. Kaufman for president!
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