The inevitable question that comes up around solo albums from musicians who are still in active bands is: “Why?” How is this going to be different from the artist’s music with the group? Well, Craig Finn has a unique answer on Always Been: he’s joined a new band…kinda.
Finn’s sixth solo album finds the Hold Steady frontman in a new sonic space thanks to production from the War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel and backing by the rest of that band (plus well-deployed backing vocals from Kathleen Edwards and Sam Fender). Their trademark dreamy synths and guitars give Finn’s lyrics a new context. His narrative songwriting remains highly cinematic, but rather than the epic scope of the Hold Steady, the War on Drugs’ shimmering intimacy makes Always Been feel more like a small independent film. Or to put it another way, if the Hold Steady provides middle-aged dudes with rocking catharsis (and it does for this middle-aged man), Finn and Granduciel’s work here is for reflecting on the sober morning after.
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Thematically, Always Been is decidedly adult, exploring the weight of living with our choices, but from a perspective that only comes with time. To tackle this, it feels like Finn is finally writing the novel he’s always promised. It’s not new for Finn to create memorable characters or even revisit them—hell, there are Hold Steady songs that could use a “Previously On”—but he’s never followed them as fully before. Opener “Bethany” sets the scene, introducing our protagonist/narrator as he falls into and then out of a life in the church. From here, we follow the character’s attempts to start over in new places via his remarkably consistent voice: optimistic that each fresh start will be the one that sticks, yet self-aware enough to admit the last ones didn’t. He travels from Pennsylvania to the Pacific Northwest, periodically checking in with his sister Dana and introducing us along the way to a sometimes tragic, always colorful cast of characters also struggling to live with the lives they’ve chosen. Each song builds on the last, like when the reveal about Daniel in “Clayton” hits like a plot twist, or how the digital-only bonus track “Shamrock” feels like it’s about a pointedly absent character from “Crumbs.”
Taken together, Always Been presents a portrait of certain American constants, from younger generations repeating their parents’ circumstances (“Crumbs”), to the world moving on without you (“Postcards”), to the need for continuous reinvention (“The Man I’ve Always Been”). Finn even utilizes a folk structure at times, repeating the first verse at the end of “Luke & Leanna” and “Clayton” to reveal a new impact to the prior words. Despite these heavy subjects, though, the album always has a propulsive pulse thanks to Granduciel and friends. Much like the songs’ protagonist, they seem determined to keep moving on matter how dark things get. The one exception is the stark, haunting return to “God in Chicago”-style spoken word for the mid-album track “Fletcher’s,” granting it the same gravitas as a book’s stand-out chapter.
Ever since Finn’s former band Lifter Puller, a Craig Finn song has been instantly identifiable from his first syllable. He marries Westerberg-ian turns of phrase with Springsteen-ish milieus for emotional journeys with vivid characters via a voice that is Finn’s alone. Always Been is more of the same, yet also an evolution. This album is Finn’s take on the Great American Novel, largely living up to that adjective.
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