The Hold Steady Heaven Is Whenever 2LP

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the April 2021 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

The Hold Steady's Heaven Is Whenever 10 Year Anniversary Deluxe Edition includes the original album plus 9 bonus tracks and new liner notes by Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood.

The fifth studio album by The Hold Steady was released May 4, 2010 on Vagrant Records in the U.S. and May 3, 2010 on Rough Trade in Europe. It debuted at #26 on The Billboard 200, becoming the highest charting album by the group.

Marking a distinct shift, their fifth album traded the group's previous rock swagger for more varied sounds and muted textures. Singer/songwriter Craig Finn began to sing more and rely less on his talk-rants. Another major change was the departure of keyboardist Franz Nicolay, who played a key role in the band's earlier records. The keyboards were mostly replaced by Tad Kubler's bruising guitar, with his Les Paul chug and twin harmony leads launching songs like 'Rock Problems.' Some nice-sounding acoustic slide dobro opens 'The Sweet Part of the City' before the band kicks in with a brooding electric groove. Craig Finn's lyric obsessions are still vividly intact, including his affection for damaged street characters, Catholic saints, and hyper-literate tales of gritty misadventure. The anniversary edition also includes ... 'Beer on the Bedstand'... Here Finn more or less rewrites Warren Zevon's 'Carmelita,' fusing melody and a dead-end romanticism that tears at your heart.