- I Need A New War is the third solo album from Craig Finn, lead singer of much-loved classic rock storytellers The Hold Steady. The Hold Steady these days are only an occasional concern - sporadically releasing online singles and playing gigs. Finn though remains prolific, as three solo albums in four years attests to.
The solo records are distinct in theme from those band albums. Back in 2015 when Faith In The Future came out, Finn said the epic music of The Hold Steady made him feel the lyrics had to be grand. He liked that solo records allowed him to be more vulnerable and more mundane.
This certainly seems to be the case on I Need A New War; as all the characters are middle aged and seeking something. Occasionally the tales recall the old Hold Steady songs of too many chemicals and the kinds of adventures you don't always want. Opening and closing tracks Blankets and Anne-Marie and Shane would be examples. But several of the tracks, particularly Holyoake and Her With The Blues, feature characters you suspect never would have made it into a Hold Steady song - when they were young they were studying and working hard for a future they now feel uneasy in.
The mundane solo Craig Finn is a bit more bleak really than the "massive highs and crushing lows" depicted in The Hold Steady. There at least seemed something heroic about those kids chasing impossible highs. There's something more depressing about the characters in these songs trying vainly to make the most of middle-aged ennui.
This progression in songwriting is comparable to Finn's obvious influence Bruce Springsteen, whose young dreamers in Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge Of Town became the broken battlers of Nebraska.
But while Springsteen's music became minimal and sombre, and stories zeroed in on forgotten small towns, Craig Finn's solo albums keep getting more polished sounding. This one has horn sections, pianos, vocal choirs and lounge jazz sax solos. His tales too are set in his adopted home of New York - the big urbane city of well-off professionals.
The title I Need A New War comes from the track Grant at Galena - its reference point is Ulysses Grant, the civil war general who became a much-maligned US President. In some ways this is Craig Finn's characters and probably a few of his fans too - getting older, no longer in the crazy adventures of youth and trying to still find a way to live lives of purpose.
The description can possibly be extended to Finn himself. I Need A New War is not the thrilling ride of those classic early Hold Steady albums, but at 47 years old; two decades and a dozen albums into writing music, he is still trying to tell stories relevant to the lives of his listeners and still making literate rock music that is worth exploring.
- Andy Paine.