Album name: Heaven is Whenever Artist name: The Hold Steady Genre: Rock Released: 3 May 2010 Label: Vagrant/Rough Trade ZME Rating: 9/10 Website: theholdsteady.net A while back, I tweeted something to this effect: “If Craig Finn was a better singer, The Hold Steady would be a worse band.” In that respect, it would appear that Heaven is Whenever exists only to mock me. But more on that later. Here, for the hither-to uninitiated, is a…
Look. I’m sorry, but I make no apologies for this: due to a series of internal misunderstandings, my review of the Hold Steady’s Heaven Is Whenever (released – oh! – sometime in the last 24 hours) is unlikely to be ready until Thursday or Friday at the earliest. (“Not even a proper excuse!” I hear you wail. I sighingly look up from my other important duties to explain that I was accidentally killed while retrieving…
Quite a few quality releases this week. The obvious standout of the week is Hold Steady’s new record “Heaven is Whenever”, which aside from our obvious affection for the band is well on par with their previous material, making it a definite recommend! “Forgiveness Rock Record”, Broken Social Scene’s first record in five years, is also out this week. I’ve been sampling FRR for a few weeks now, since it leaked on the web, and…
The Hold Steady have been really pampering us lately, having offered two three new songs off their new album “Heaven is Whenever” for streaming, as of today. Hopefully they can show other bands a lesson on how proper previewing should be made. The latest track upped for sampling is the nostalgic anthem “Weekenders”, a massive song. Really, the scale of the sound is immense! Definitely like it more than “Hurricane J” or “Rock Problems”. All…
How have we not posted about this already? The Hold Steady’s new album, Heaven is Whenever, is all set for release in May (the 4th in America, 3rd in Europe), and to set tongues a-waggin’, they’ve been drip-feeding songs from the album around the internet like delicious little morsels of heroin – seemingly innocuous, but so very more-ish. So, to start with, our pretentious chums over at Pitchfork have been kindly streaming “Hurricane J”. Go…
Official cover art for “Heaven is Whenever” Another highly anticipated LP this year is the allegedly ‘less anthemic’ “Heaven Is Whenever”, Hold Steady’s follow-up to the band’s previous incredible effort, the 2008 “Stay Positive”. ‘Less anthemic’ as Craig Finn puts it, though, since if I were to judge the new album by its first single, “Hurricane J”, which calls back to a recurring character named Jessie, I’d say it’s a pretty big understatement. Just hit…
This post is part of our “Top Albums of The Decade” series. Follow the series to read about the best music to grace our ears in the 2000s. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty) At the beginning of the decade, one of the nation’s most talented songwriters Sufjan Stevens endeavored in a project as ambitious as it was preposterous, called The Fifty States project. Sufjan intended to share his vision on American life and culture…
This post is part of our “Top Albums of The Decade” series. Follow the series to read about the best music to grace our ears in the 2000s. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters (Polydor/Universal Records) Like seeing Barcelona play soccer in their homeground, listening to the Scissor Sisters’ eponymous debut album was all about experiencing a showy spectacle in Nu-Camp. Do you see? As much as it sounds like laxy journalism (Who, me? Never!!!) it…
Hope you’ve all had one hell of a crazy, yet responsible, good time this New Year’s Eve – after all, it was the last party of the year, of the decade for that matter. Oh, and it’s been such a sweet year for music, filled with some incredible scores on all fronts, hasn’t it? Rest assure, though, if you’re feeling a bit disheartened about 2009’s passing, since, from the look of it, 2010 is going…
Most rock n’ roll tour documentaries are fairly painful to endure, if we’re to be honest with ourselves, full of self-important man-children who think their philosophies on life, music and the laydeez are compelling viewing, and oh-so-artistic shots of the artists coming off stage (invariably with a towel wrapped around their head or neck) and collapsing into a chair. Rock stars are, generally, not people you want to spend a lot of time around. An…
Al Byrne
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