Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 4) At its best, the Hold Steady is a romanticized version of a great bar band: Guys resembling office clerks transformed into drunken poets who riff on Thin Lizzy, the Clash and “Rosalita”-era Bruce Springsteen.
Their rambling songs were shaped into robust anthems on their third and best album, the 2006 release
“Boys and Girls in America.” It was followed up by the ambitious
“Stay Positive” (2008), which put keyboards on equal footing with the guitars, and adopted a more polished, fussy production style that blunted the band’s shaggy charm.
“Heaven is Whenever” (Vagrant) tries to fine-tune the balance, reuniting the band with producer Dean Baltulonis, who worked on its first two albums. Keyboardist Franz Nicolay has departed, and singer Craig Finn, guitarist Tad Kubler, drummer Bobby Drake and bassist Galen Polivka split the difference between the previous album’s pop overtures and the guitar smackdowns of their earlier work. It adds up to another transitional effort rather than a major statement.