Album Review: The Hold Steady - Teeth Dreams

From the very first line of Teeth Dreams' opening track, I Hope This Whole Thing Didn't Frighten You – which finds frontman Craig Finn proffering a typically conversational “I heard the Cityscape Skins are kinda kicking it again,” referring to his old gangland protagonists – it's clear that Brooklyn-based rockers The Hold Steady are venturing back (at least in part) to the interrelated narratives that made their initial burst of three albums so compelling.

While Finn's lyrical web is as intoxicating as ever, the more considered approach of their last two long-players (2008's Stay Positive and 2010's Heaven Is Whenever) has been largely eschewed for a more rock-heavy musical bed. The “woah-oh” choruses of yore are still largely absent but their propulsive bar-room aesthetic has been strengthened by the addition of ex-Lucero guitarist Steve Selvidge to the ranks, who locks in with fellow six-stringer Tad Kubler to illuminate tracks like super-catchy single, Spinners, the barbed Big Cig and the acerbic On With The Business. Semi-ballad The Ambassador is classy and brings a welcome change of pace, while epic drug-addled closer, Oaks is possibly the band's most intense moment to date.

So much has changed with the passing of time that it will inherently be difficult for The Hold Steady to ever again replicate the heady rush of that early material, but Teeth Dreams is a pretty decent stab and by dint of this their best album in quite some time.