“Craig Finn has characterized his last two albums with the Hold Steady–2010’s Heaven is Whenever and 2014’s Teeth Dreams–as creative low-points. Despite their bright spots, those records sometimes felt as though the group was suffering from the age-old rock & roll problem: how does a band grow up and still maintain its sense of self? On Thrashing Thru the Passion, the Hold Steady’s first record in ”
“After four good-to-fantastic records, the Hold Steady returned in 2010 with Heaven Is Whenever, a too-sleek, cliche-mottled shrug of a record. From its opening line on, the band's sixth album, Teeth Dreams, tries to position itself as a return to form.”
