The Hold Steady, Heaven Is Whenever. Photo / Supplied
Rating: 3/5
Verdict: Good, but not great like their previous records.
The title of this fifth album by the Brooklyn five-piece is a loose tribute to the late US guitar outfit Husker Du, a band that the Hold Steady sound a lot like at times. That's when they're not also sounding like a cross between REM and, er, Bruce Hornsby and
the Range.
On the song We Can Get Together - a title track of sorts since it includes the lovely line "heaven is whenever" - vocalist Craig Finn sings about a girl on Heaven Hill (like the Husker Du song), then makes a direct reference to the band before inviting us to "lock your bedroom door and listen to your records". And you won't be able to refuse, because it's a beautifully meandering song that sums up the band's storytelling sentiment. They can lilt and glide and then rark things up with their slightly geeky riff rock. Their sound is both adorable and uplifting because of its old-fashioned passion and openness, which includes stories about "rock'n'roll problems", teenage memories ("we used to lie to each other about using computers"), and the trials of American 20-somethings on Hurricane J.
However, Heaven Is Whenever, doesn't quite have the unbridled coolness of debut Almost Killed Me and the band's 2006 classic Boys and Girls In America. Then again, considering this is their fifth album in six years, they're allowed to have one good album instead of a great one. But tracks like drinking song The Weekenders and We Can Get Together are musts.
