The Hold Steady – Teeth Dreams

Brooklyn’s The Hold Steady have been going strong for about ten years now and they are celebrating that milestone with the release of their sixth studio album, Teeth Dreams. This release has them on a new record label and with a new keyboardist. They sound fresh, aggressive, and ready to take on the world.

Teeth Dreams is pretty much a straight-up rock record. It is almost like a modern day E Street Band sound – big drums, guitars, and choruses etc. This time around they worked with producer Nick Raskulinecz who has worked with acts such as Mastodon, Foo Fighters, Deftones, and Alice In Chains to name a few. You can hear his harder rock influence on songs like “I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You” or “Runner’s High”. There is a great guitar solo on “Big Cig” as well. There are also some more down-tempo pieces, such as “The Ambassador” with its sparse guitars and passionate vocals by lead singer Craig Finn.

The Hold Steady seems somewhat sporadic in terms of how long they wait to release new material, so who knows how long it will be before we hear from them again. But that should be okay, because Teeth Dreams seems like a solid enough entry in their catalogue to leave listeners satisfied for a while. It is the perfect summer record. So as the weather warms up, crank it up, throw the top down on the car, and hit the road!