Heaven Is Whenever Rough Trade * * *

From classic rock underdog to playing large venues alongside Kings of Leon, Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen, Craig Finn’s everyman storytelling with an

OC

twist has multiplied crowds since

Girls and Boys of America

.

After the departure of moustachioed Franz Nicolay, The Hold Steady press on with

Heaven Is Whenever

, an album intended to be “less anthemic”. Here Finn grapples with familiar themes of faith, love, and hope, his divisive voice sounding best when its craggy edges lie in relief to Heaven’s more melodic tracks.

Heaven

highlights what The Hold Steady do well – radio-literate songs that are part muscle, part pathos, with lashings of . . . anthem. A game of two halves, it portrays them as a band at a crossroads: lighters aloft at one fork, at the other a formlessness where frenzied light rock calls the shots. theholdsteady.net

Download Tracks: The Weekenders, Barely Breathing