When The Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay announced last fall that he would be leaving the band after five years and three impeccable studio albums, longtime fans couldn’t help but be apprehensive about how the next record would turn out.
In no way did this reflect any doubt in front man Craig Finn or any of the other spot-on band members, but it just seemed to be a fact of life that The Hold Steady couldn’t be the same without Nicolay and his nimble fingers.
Heaven Is Whenever, which dropped Tuesday, confirms this fact. Certainly, there is no proof that there is a causal relationship between Nicolay’s departure and the lackluster album. However, the band’s usually consistent spark, earnestness and joie de vivre only come through sporadically.
Lead track “The Sweet Part of the City” creaks open with a slow twang, a brief soundtrack to restless but peaceful summer evenings. It ambles forward with a sweet, solemn nostalgia.
“The Weekenders” echoes this tone. The track is reminiscent of classic The Hold Steady: heart-jerking tempo changes, undeniable sincerity from Finn and sharp-witted lyrics that teeter on a line between hopeful and pained. These two songs stand out above the other eight, a glimmer of excellence in what is generally an album of mediocrity.
The ballad “We Can Get Together,” which relies heavily on the repetition of “heaven is whenever we can get together,” drags on, sounding melodramatic rather than genuine. The band slows things down much more successfully on the album closer “Slight Discomfort.”
But here, too, the overzealous band doesn’t know when to stop. Although the first four minutes are lovely, the last three are entirely unnecessary. On the upbeat rock songs, the band sounds uninspired. It delivers weak excuses (“We’re good guys, but we can’t be good every night / We’re good guys, but we can’t be good our whole lives” on “Our Whole Lives”) and equally weak advice (“You won’t get every girl / You’ll love the ones you get the best” on “Soft in the Center”) over rather conventional riffs.
If you believe what Finn says on “We Can Get Together,” finding heaven is as easy as locking yourself in a bedroom with your sweetheart and the right records. Any music enthusiast will tell you that this is true — but also that Heaven Is Whenever probably shouldn’t be included on that particular playlist.