The Hold Steady
Teeth Dreams
The Hold Steady wear ambition well. Their latest album Teeth Dreams features songs that take place in bars and clubs, much like they’ve done in the past. The difference is they now sound powerful enough to reach the cheap seats in arenas, thanks in part to the addition of guitarist Steve Selvidge. When keyboardist Franz Nicolay left in 2010, he took his E Street piano stylings (and modern hipster-Rollie Fingers moustache) with him. His departure left a sonic void that Selvidge and longtime guitarist Tad Kubler fill with punchy riffs and leads that breath new life into the band.
“I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You” kicks off Teeth Dreams with an R.E.M. circa Life’s Rich Pageant thumping drums/guitar arpeggio combo. In keeping with their new wide-screen scope, these Brooklyn by way of Minnesota dudes see fit to include a chorus that’s more Barclays Center than Knitting Factory.
“Spinners” is about a woman who likes to go dancing in clubs by herself, drunkenly grooving to catchy rock tunes much like this one. But the words in this particular ditty describe the underlying darkness of this scenario. Singer/lyricist Craig Finn conveys how life can be simultaneously too long and too short with “The same guy buys another round to let her know he’s interested. The nights go on forever now, but the morning comes up quick.” It brilliantly combines the milieu from a Hopper painting with the poppy contagiousness of 80’s one-hit wonder Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny.”
Teeth Dreams may be The Hold Steady’s most axe-heavy record, but it still doesn’t skimp on the ballads, containing perhaps three of their best. The first, “The Ambassador” has the memorable line “A Bay City tire shop. It’s just a temporary stop. A touchdown on a trip that was mostly undefined.” It’s as if Purgatory was a Stephen Shore 70’s road trip photograph.
“On With the Business” continues the theme of disappointment and dashed hopes with the first line to end all first lines; “I’m really sorry about that prick in the parking lot. I wanted this to be our year.” That could’ve been Albert Brooks in Lost In America, which would’ve made an apt alternate title for this record.
“Wait A While” is a microcosm of Teeth Dreams, an up-tempo rocker layering acoustic guitars on top of electric, making for an epic, classic rock feel. Back when rock’n’roll radio still had some sway over the mainstream, this was the kind of song that could define a summer.
“Almost Everything” is a pensive acoustic ballad akin to Chris Cornell’s immortal “Seasons” from the film Singles. Finn is like your old pal who pulls up a stool at the bar and tells you about how “The bus it rolled up into Franklin at dawn and everything seemed super slo-mo. The Waffle House waitress that asked us if we were Pink Floyd. Sat in the back of the theater just drinking and talking about movies and Krishna and hardcore and Jesus and joy.”
The album ends on a major high with the almost ten minute ballad “Oaks.” This could be a future encore, the kind that demands cell phone lights beaming from a swaying audience. It mixes Neil Young and Crazy Horse guitar thunder with the gentle strains of organ fading in and out, like the vanishing dreams of the people represented on this album.
The irony is, in depicting the diminished, lowered expectations of these burnt out characters, Teeth Dreams shows off a re-invigorated Hold Steady. They’ve never strived higher.
Originally published by DAEP Media.
http://daepnyc.com/culture/review-hold-steadys-teeth-dreams/