Artist: The Hold Steady
Album: Heaven Is Whenever
Label: Vagrant
Genre: Indie Rock
Released: May 2010
Rating: 2.5 of 5
The Hold Steady return with another straight forward rock album. They have shown a few improvements over the last album that I would like to go over.
The monotonous vocals were my nemesis before. Although not much has changed in the lead vocals, they have tried a bit of fancy studio work to lessen the damage. I found that there were some nice background vocals in many spots that drowned out the lead at points. They also turned up the level on many of the instruments (mostly the guitars). Some songs had brass and keyboards and "Barely Breathing" was particularly good on that front.
There were a few tracks with particularly nice guitars. The opening song, "The Sweet Part of the City", had some really nice deep south guitars, complete with slide. I also found that a few songs had a nice Matt Mays feel to them such as "The Smidge". I suppose a better comparison would be the Stone's "Honky Tonk Woman", well almost.
Despite some good steps forward for the Hold Steady, I still had a hard time feeling engaged. Their music just doesn't have that punk edge that I truly enjoy in rock music.
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