Posts tagged ‘album’
The Hold Steady Premiere First Single From Heaven is Whenever, “Hurricane J”
The Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn recently set the record straight in an interview with Entertainment Weekly on those who were concerned that when he said their new album, Heaven is Whenever (due May 4th), would be “less anthemic” than its predecessors, that the band was going in a completely new direction:
There’s a fair amount of songs that didn’t make the record, and that’s always a heartbreaking thing, choosing between your favorite children. But in the end, it is a little different. Franz’s departure is a part of that. It’s also kind of where our heads are at. I said it’s “less anthemic” somewhere, and that was on Pitchfork, and a lot of people were like, “What??!?! It’s less anthemic??!!!?” So I don’t know if I should say that again. But that’s sort of one way of thinking about it. I think it’s a little more mature. More laid back. It might be a little less [he thrashes his fist in the air], you know? Maybe it’s more age-appropriate for a 38 year old.
If the first single, “Hurricane J,” is any indication, then Finn’s latest explanation rings true. It’s a more streamlined, melodic and laid-back version of The Hold Steady, perhaps more so than they’ve ever been. But what remains intact are Tad Kubler’s compelling guitar riffs and Finn’s vivid lyrical work. He’s noticeably better at singing than he’s been at any point in his career, and it can only benefit the band going forward. Perhaps this is the album where the rest of the world learns of this excellent band’s presence in the music world…
Check out the single at Consequence of Sound.
The Hold Steady’s “Heaven is Whenever” Cover Art: Simple But Beautiful
http://www.flickr.com/photos/feinsteinbandpics/ / CC BY 2.0
In today’s age of digital downloads and evaporating record sales, everything we know about the album is going by the wayside.
Track order used to be a daunting and precise task, CD booklets offered as much in the way of supplementary entertainment as the band desired to eager fans, and album covers were often the iconic image associated with classic collections of music. Case in point: who can’t think of Dark Side of the Moon without picturing that rainbow-crossed prism with the black background?
While Brooklyn-based rockers The Hold Steady may be known much more for their riff-heavy classic rock stylings and frontman Craig Finn’s massively dense lyrical tales, they know how to convey thoughts about their albums through the covers. Their last release, 2008′s highly acclaimed (they’ve actually been highly acclaimed since their debut) Stay Positive, presented a rough, brown, dirty image of a small, dumpy, and utterly soulless town that Finn sang about on tracks like “Constructive Summer” and “Sequestered in Memphis.”
The cover art for their latest album, Heaven is Whenever (due in stores May 4) is probably the simplest album cover they’ve released to date, and perhaps their most powerful. The titles are in text that is decorated only slightly, giving us a clear indication of who we’re getting into, and reaching for the text is the hand of a young boy or girl.
Lead guitarist Tad Kubler described the music of Heaven is Whenever in a press release announcing the album as “evocative,” adding that “There’s a lot more melody. It’s more sonically diverse and dynamically expansive than any of our previous records.”
Finn described his lyrics as being about “embracing suffering and understanding its place in a joyful life.” He explained the significance of the album’s title as referencing “the way that love can help us rise above our modern struggles.” Man does that guy ever know how to express himself!
With dozens of tour dates already lined up, appearances scheduled at several summer festivals such as Lollapalooza and the Isle of Wight Festival, and an as-of-this-writing opening between May 30 and June 12, I am hoping as a Bonnaroo ticket holder that The Hold Steady will be added to the four-day Manchester, Tenn. festival as a second-tier headliner.
MGMT Release “Flash Delirium,” the First Track From New Album, “Congratulations”
Those wondering whether Brooklyn-based pop duo MGMT will follow the success of smash singles like “Kids” and “Time to Pretend” with another album like debut LP Oracular Spectacular- one full of danceable beats, thick bass grooves, and hummable hooks- will be floored when they hear “Flash Delirium,” the first “single” from sophomore album Congratulations to be released to the public through the group’s website.
“Flash Delirium” is far, far away from the pop sensibilities of MGMT’s most popular tracks. It’s a shape-shifting, chorus-less, homage-laden psych-rock odyssey- or should I say “oddity?” The song is a little over four minutes long but features at least seven distinct parts. Don’t bother asking me every single form of music that MGMT is referencing here- Pitchfork Media took care of that for us.
Here’s a video of the entire track, complete with the lyrics, which when described as “cryptic” or “bizarre” would be an understatement.
From the outset, MGMT have made it apparent that they were not interested in presenting Congratulations as a collection of three pop singles surrounded by forgettable filler material. Co-member Ben Goldwasser told New Musical Express last month:
“There definitely isn’t a ‘Time To Pretend’ or a ‘Kids’ on the album. We’ve been talking about ways to make sure people hear the album as an album in order and not just figure out what are the best three tracks, download those and not listen to the rest of it.”
Instead, Goldwasser and other permanent member Andrew VanWyngarden have crafted an album that they described to NME as “nine individual musical tours de force sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence.” It’s clearly an attempt to counteract the current music trend of disregarding albums as complete works and only downloading the tracks one deems worthy of a spot in his or her music library, which I admire.
The cover art for MGMT's "Congratulations."
The very idea of an album as a complete work has pretty much gone by the wayside in today’s world of MP3s and digital downloads. Fans no longer need to go buy the entire album in CD form and hear it from start to finish to determine their favorite tracks. Individual songs can be downloaded and the rest can be ignored entirely.
It used to almost be a science determining the order of songs on an album. When vinyl was still on top, the major concern was which song opened side one and side two, respectively, and the same general structure applied to CDs. The digital age has all but destroyed the concept, but it’s refreshing to see a forward-thinking group like MGMT keeping it alive.
Green Day tried reinforcing the same idea with their latest album, 21st Century Breakdown, but still couldn’t resist releasing standout singles like “21 Guns” and “Know Your Enemy.” MGMT have gone the complete opposite direction, and instead have created a free-form musical journey through American’s psychedelic roots. Congratulations officially hits stores April 13.
The Hold Steady Announce New Album, “Heaven is Whenever,” Track Listing
Source: David Shankbone
The Hold Steady remain one of America’s most acclaimed and hard-working rock bands. They have yet to miss with the critics, with their 2008 album, “Stay Positive,” earning a composite score of 85 on Metacritic, constituting “universal acclaim,” and have steadily rose in popularity since their inception due to their dense, arena-ready rock aesthetic and frontman Craig Finn’s complex yet powerfully vivid lyrics. The Brooklyn-based group is now set to release their highly anticipated fifth album, “Heaven is Whenever,” on May 4 from Vagrant Records.
The album will be the band’s first without keyboardist Franz Nicolay, who suddenly left the band in January to get a fresh start and explore other career interests such as vaudeville acting and tap dancing.
Finn and lead guitarist Tad Kubler said in a press release interview that the album will be a departure from their previous two LPs, “Stay Positive” and “Boys and Girls in America.” Kubler described the music as “spacial” and “sonically more diverse” than their previous work, noting shifts and expansions of his guitar style that haven’t been heard before.
Finn said that the stories in his songs- a mandatory topic to cover when discussing a Hold Steady album- will be more about expressing a cohesive overall theme than spinning tales of the characters he’s created, particularly “Gideon,” “Charlemagne” and “Holly,” who have become very familiar to fans. Finn said in the interview of the album’s themes:
“The lyrics speak a lot about struggle and reward. It’s about embracing suffering and understanding its place in a joyful life. I think that some of the characters from old records are there, but I don’t name them by name. I think it continues to examine the highs and lows that we’ve looked at on previous records.”
The elements of the Hold Steady’s work that remain constant throughout their discography are the intense, verbose wordplay of Finn’s lyrics and the consistently exhilarating music accompanying them. From their descriptions, it sounds like fans will get more of the same plus an expansion and maturity of their musical palette. It seems almost impossible for them to disappoint us at this point.
Here is the track listing for “Heaven is Whenever”:
1. The Sweet Part of the City
2. Soft in the Center
3. The Weekenders
4. The Smidge
5. Rock Problems
6. We Can Get Together
7. Hurricane J
8. Barely Breathing
9. Our Whole Lives
10. A Slight Discomfort
Here’s a video from back in September of the band playing an early version of one of the new tracks- called “Heaven is Whenever” here, but likely actually track six, “We Can Get Together.”
Billy Corgan Releases New Smashing Pumpkins Song, ‘Widow Wake My Mind’
As part of his bold new venture in releasing each song from his 44-song epic Teargarden by Kaleidyscope individually month-by-month, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has released the second song from the album, “Widow Wake My Mind,” to the public on Monday. The track is downloadable for free at the official Smashing Pumpkins website.
Corgan told MTV.com back in December of the album:
“The average consumer can download it for free, as much or as little of it as they want…At the end, the whole thing will be brought together in a special package that isn’t for the average consumer. In a way, it’s a work in progress, but at the same time people can share in it and participate in it in the normal ways.”
The Wall Street Journal blog compared the feel of the track to “mid-career Beatles.” D. Patrick Rodgers (pretentious much?) of the Nashville Scene is clearly a Pumpkins purist, and likely a charter member of Generation X, who ripped the new song and Corgan himself with the opening line, “What happened to you, Billy?”
Regardless of how it sounds compared to earlier releases, or the first released track, the Stairway to Heaven-inspired “Song for a Son,” “Widow Wake My Mind” features a bouncy melody with shifting time signatures, minimalist guitar work and background synths that add a radio-friendly layer. Based on the sharp contrasts that found between the first two tracks of Corgan’s epic, it can be assumed that the entire album will feature shifts in tone, style and structure.
