Craig Finn still holds steady
The Hold Steady front man, Craig Finn, presents an entirely different record. Throw away all preconceptions you may have based on The Hold Steady's previous work, because this is worlds apart from their raucous, explosive sound. Clear Heart Full Eyes is as though Craig Finn is ripping his songs straight from his throat. Rough and painfully honest, listening to it feels like not just reading someone's diary, but also listening to their psychiatrist's tapes.
What I'm trying to say is that Craig Finn has cracked himself open and is now pouring himself out. And it's beautiful. Sliding guitars create evocative sounds of dusty landscapes. Not all of the tracks are split between gentle or self-destructive, however. Terrified Eyes has a thrumming beat and toe-tapping melody that almost belies the narrative lyrics - Finn tells the story of Shannon, from the point of view of Sean - he loves her too much to let her go, and she's on medication and terrified of life.
There's a definite folk feel channelled throughout the album, but that's not a box to put it in. Finn takes folk influences and takes the strong lyrics that The Hold Steady are known for and manages to incorporate all of this into the album without losing sight of the record's own individual sense of identity. It's quite the creation.
Opening track, Apollo Bay, is howling and desolate. Finn doesn't make the mistake of trying to make it too elaborate - instead, he lets the music complement his brilliant song writing - the simple vocals and guitars show their individual strengths instead of hiding behind each other. Clear Heart Full Eyes runs the risk of being underwhelming but powers through each time, staying clean and simple and all the more effective because of that.
The pieces of the album fit together well - the differing tracks contrast without sounding out of place and, although Finn mostly seems to stick to the familiar tales of love, unrequited or otherwise, he provides a new point of view compared to the ones that we've heard before.
"We can't go back," Finn sings, on the closing track Not Much Left Of Us. But here's hoping this is one project that he ends up revisiting.