The Hold Steady’s sixth album, Teeth Dreams, has held an unusual place in the hearts & minds of their audience since its release in 2014. There is a small contingent that love it, but the general attitude is that it doesn’t fully work, it feels a bit off, and doesn’t really sound like a normal album from them.
I had long sensed this attitude among fans but I was surprised to see that the band also shares it.
“This is the last song on our album, Teeth Dreams. Mixed feelings about that one. You love all your records like your children. It’s just that some are never likely to leave the basement. You love the ones who go to Ivy League colleges a little more.”
This is how Craig Finn, lead singer of The Hold Steady, introduced “Oaks” at a soundcheck in London in 2023. It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for the album though I do appreciate his honesty. Likewise, in their book release from last year, The Gospel of The Hold Steady: How A Resurrection Really Feels, there are multiple quotes from the band about feeling underwhelmed by Teeth Dreams and the recording of it.
Galen Polivka (Bass): Every record isn’t everybody’s best record. If you put out nine records, they’re not all going to be mind-blowing, and Teeth Dreams is not a mind-blowing record.
Tad Kubler (Guitar): [Our idea for writing was] we keep working on songs and send [Craig] the demos. So we did, and, well, we all know how that turned out.
Dave Gottlieb (Manager): I think the songs are there. I think the record sounds pretty good. I think there is something missing. I can’t tell you what that is.
But Teeth Dreams has always been a favorite of mine and in honor of its tenth anniversary, I thought it was time to revisit the most divisive album that The Hold Steady has ever released.
The thesis here is very simple: Teeth Dreams is a much stronger part of The Hold Steady’s catalog than what both the audience (& the band) may think and it is worthy of everyone’s time. Case in point, a friend was recently doing a deep dive on The Hold Steady (that is, listening to every album sequentially) and messaged me this:
“Why do I feel like I wasn't supposed to like Teeth Dreams? I thought it was cool! Relatively VERY different sound for them. Almost… prettier? At times? Spacious, atmospheric guitar patterns… I totally got what they were going for.”
There are several things worth talking about in relation to this album. I’ll be discussing its strengths and hopefully give a new perspective on what many think are its weaknesses.
Let’s start in the most obvious place.
The Sound
The first, and most noticeable, change in direction on Teeth Dreams is just simply the sound. I’ll state now that I am not a producer, mixer, and know very little about the job of putting an album together. But even to my untrained ear there is a definite sonic shift from their previous albums. This is largely due to the hiring of Nick Raskulinecz as producer. Though he’s worked with a wide array of artists, one genre jumps out when looking at his credits: hard rock. This is mainly from his work with Rush, Deftones, Stone Sour, Alice In Chains, Korn, even Mastodon. There is nothing wrong with any of these bands (and I like several) but they’re not ones that would likely be mentioned in the same conversation as The Hold Steady. As such, it brought on some very interesting changes for them: Craig’s voice with reverb, two guitars cranked virtually all the way up, layers of atmosphere, and then more reverb mixed in. These were all new additions to a Hold Steady album, at least to the degree that they were used, and Craig acknowledges this in The Gospel of The Hold Steady.
“[Nick] had a very specific way to make records, and I don’t think he exactly understood what we were doing. I think he put us into his thing. Really nice guy, really enthusiastic guy, but there’s very little variation of tone throughout [Teeth Dreams].”
He does have a point. The variation is minimal and the album could have used a bit more of it. Despite this, all of the songs still standout, are unique, and don’t blend together despite the lack of range. “Spinners” does not sound like “The Ambassador” which does not sound like “On With The Business” and nothing sounds like “Oaks”.
Something else that Nick’s hard rock background likely contributed to is a much louder and very present rhythm section. Drummer Bobby Drake and bassist Galen Polivka have been turned up enough in the mix that they are now both as noticeable as everything else being played.
Interviewer: Let's talk about the drum sound. I got taken aback. I put the record on and the drums sounded like an avalanche.
Tad: Yeah, Bobby had an old Gretsch kit and Nick really wanted him to play that… I don't think they ever touched it, they didn't tune it, they didn't change the heads, they didn't do anything. They just set it up and put mics on it. And it sounds pretty fantastic.
- Indie88 (CIND-FM), “Chatting With The Hold Steady,” April 29th, 2014
I am sure something similar happened with the bass as well. This is not meant as a slight against Galen, but I can’t remember an album from The Hold Steady where I didn’t have to strain to try and hear what he's playing. On Teeth Dreams, though, he is practically front and center on several songs. As I write this I’m listening to “Spinners” and his bass notes are clear as day in my left ear and if I turn on “Big Cig” there will be moments when it’s practically just him playing. This is as much of a testament to Galen & Bobby as it is to Nick Raskulinecz’s production and arranging.
Nick’s thing, the hard rock thing, is indeed a departure but I’d argue it’s a natural one. Steve Selvidge joined as a second guitarist in 2010 and Teeth Dreams is their first album with both him & Tad on lead. This addition alone means that the sound will get bigger and things will be louder. They were also not a quiet band to begin with. Someone can love or hate this kind of sound subjectively, but when a rock and roll band decides to take a chance with their sound, especially a big one, I do believe they should be applauded for it, regardless of how the listener feels.
The Lack of Keyboard
This one is hard for me to look past, even as a defender of the album.
This is, in my mind, the only real flaw that Teeth Dreams has. The keyboard is an irreplaceable part of The Hold Steady’s sound and there is a noticeable hole without it on both this and Heaven Is Whenever.
I can recall feeling very surprised by how calm the band seemed about keyboardist Franz Nicolay’s departure in 2010 and then being absolutely perplexed when they seemed to make it known that they had no interest in hiring a replacement. While the guitars really add atmosphere and melody to Teeth Dreams (as I’ll dive into later), the lack of such an important part of their sound is evident.
Franz returned to the band in 2016 and they have since incorporated keyboard to these songs, quite seamlessly, when they’re played live. Should the band ever do a re-release of Teeth Dreams, whether in physical form or on Bandcamp, I would think/hope there would be a re-recorded version featuring Franz. It would solve the most obvious (and arguably only) issue with the album. To quote Craig from the These Miracles Work podcast: “To be honest, to me, Teeth Dreams just lacks a piano.”
Two Lead Guitars
If Teeth Dreams is lacking in one aspect of The Hold Steady’s sound, it is thriving in another: guitars. Again, this is their first album with two on lead and it is also their loudest. Where the keyboards would add atmosphere on previous albums, here the guitars have done so. The echoing, melodic, borderline ethereal sound going on in the background of “Runner’s High” (for example) have added a whole new dimension to their sound. There’s still melody, but it’s rougher around the edges.
Loud & defined guitar sounds are one of the main things that continues to draw me to The Hold Steady. It is one of the first things that grabbed me when I was driving home late one night in 2006 and happened to hear them on a college radio station. The song playing was “Stevie Nix” - still my favorite of theirs - and the guitars were so loud and present that they were virtually kicking the listener in the face. Teeth Dreams has this on every song, even the slower ones somehow. When any of the songs are on, they are impossible to ignore and extremely difficult to just have on in the background.
At times, Tad and Steve are playing two different things that complement one another, and at other times they seem to be playing the exact same parts for maximum effect. “Spinners” is a great example of the latter and “Oaks” is a gorgeous example of the former.
Ultimately, isn’t this how we all want a rock and roll band to sound: loud and uncompromising with layers of interesting atmosphere behind it? The last way I would ever want this band to sound is tame. And if there is a fan of The Hold Steady that does not like a big guitar sound, I would wonder how they started listening to the band in the first place.
Less Joyous
One thing that I’ve never heard expressed about Teeth Dreams explicitly, but have always sensed, is that it has less fanfare because there is decidedly less joy on it than every prior album from The Hold Steady. Some of this is because two loud guitars can make things sound harder edged. But it’s also because the band was in a fairly dark headspace at the time.
Craig: It was a struggle. My mother was sick, and she ended up dying in 2013, which is when we finally made the record, that summer. So what I brought to the record, I don’t know… but I wasn't in a great headspace.
Galen: Teeth Dreams was not a hugely fun record to make. I don’t think the material is as strong as it could have been.
Bobby: The recording of it was kinda strange. Tad was pretty freaked out by it.
One of the reasons I suspect that the band has mixed feelings about Teeth Dreams is that they remember the recording of it, how unpleasant it was, and have a hard time separating that from the music. This is understandable. But while they’re the best judges of their music on one hand they’re also the worst critics on another. This is mainly because they are so close to the material and any unpleasantness experienced during the recording may be coloring their reactions. I’m sure they can separate it to a degree, and that there are things they would objectively change, but it is worth considering that their view is influenced because of this.
And it should be noted that there is, in fact, much less joy on Teeth Dreams than their other albums. But so what? They have joy for days on earlier releases and Boys And Girls In America has enough for a lifetime. Let’s embrace the grit for once. And if anyone wants real joy with The Hold Steady, all it requires is buying a ticket to see them.
The Lyrics
As always with an album from The Hold Steady, one of the most notable things about Teeth Dreams are Craig’s lyrics. This is obvious to any fan of the band. Saying that Craig’s lyrics are strong on an album is like saying the sky is blue - it’s something that’s a given. They’re often sharp, clever, rhythmic, funny, and immediately recognizable as being written by him. I have yet to hear an album from The Hold Steady or from Craig as a solo artist that did not have this as one of its very obvious strengths. In fact, I’m not sure I can even think of a truly weak line he’s put out in his whole career. This output is largely unmatched by anyone in music and it is on full display with Teeth Dreams.
Here are some of my favorites:
“And the room filled with dudes
and they cranked up the tunes
and I could tell this whole thing kinda frightened you.”
“The nights were hot and hissin'
like an iron.
Days spent climbin' walls
like a vine.”
“Blood on carpet
mud on the mattress
waking up with that American sadness.”
“The doctors said that it was all in his head
then they discovered the blood.
Tried to duck out but we still got stuck
like a sneaker in the Mississippi mud.”
It’s lines like these, in this style, that always jump out at me as decidedly Craig Finn - rhyming “dudes” with “tunes” and then with “you,” “mattress” with “sadness,” and so on. It’s not a shoe, it’s a sneaker, it’s not mud, it’s Mississippi mud. The sadness is American. One could easily spend 10 minutes unpacking what would make sadness uniquely American (and indeed, I have) and the fact that so much food-for-thought is a part of a single line is a testament to Craig’s ability.
Apart from just being well-written - the lyrics of Teeth Dreams are important for their catalog because they advance the overarching narrative that has been going on since their first album …Almost Killed Me. It’s less obvious here than on Separation Sunday or Boys And Girls In America but a close listen reveals that many of these songs are about the continued lives of Gideon, Charlemagne, Holly, & others. Their drug-induced antics have now died down (a bit) and here they are looking back, revisiting, reflecting, and dealing with the consequences of all that happened before this.
The narrative is not delivered in a linear fashion. It’s not always immediately clear what is happening in a song, who it is happening to, or if it even connects to anything at all. This is likely by design. I once asked Craig if he knew the full story of these characters in his head. He said that he did and that he “thinks of the narrative in skeletal sense, like a big Christmas tree, and every once in a while I hang an ornament that illuminates a specific part of the tree.”
There are a lot of ornaments on Teeth Dreams. I won’t go into what they all mean, but here are a few samples and other songs that they connect to.
1. “1. “I heard the Cityscape Skins are kinda kicking it again/Heard they finally got some discipline.” - I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You, connects to “Barely Breathing,” “Curves And Nerves,” “Slapped Actress,” “Sweet Payne,” “You Gotta Dance”.
2. “She’s sleeping at a storage space by the airport.” - “The Only Thing,” connects Lifter Puller's “Nassau Coliseum” (a song from Craig & Tad’s earlier band).
3. “First she’s down in Texas/then she went back to Tennessee.” - “The Only Thing,” connects to “Sequestered In Memphis”.
4. “A Bay City tire shop/Is just a temporary stop/A touch-down on a trip that was mostly undefined.” - “The Ambassador,” very likely narrated by Gideon, the protagonist of “I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You” and a character in many other songs.
5. “I guess your friend can really move things with his mind.” “The Ambassador,” which advances a theory that there are characters in The Hold Steady’s universe that have the power of telekinesis.
6. “I remember a dream about you/getting hit on the head/and left to bleed to death in the vestibule./And then it came true” - “Runner’s High,” connects to “Hot Soft Light” and all other songs featuring Charlemange.
7. “So call for a taxi, slide into the backseat./It rolls like a glass bottomed boat./The kids/on the corner when they reach in the window,/their arms look like limbs from an oak.” - “Oaks,” connects to Lifter Puller’s “Nice, Nice” and possibly “I Like The Lights”.
In the interest of brevity, these are all that I will mention. But if one is seeking to learn more about the narrative and world that Craig has slowly built with his writing, then a very necessary stop on that journey is Teeth Dreams. It’s not always immediately apparent, but it is a rewarding venture and one that I highly encourage. It is well worth a close listen, analysis, or even just a scroll through the lyrics on Clicks And Hisses.
Outtakes
As usual with The Hold Steady, the quality of the outtakes left off of Teeth Dreams is striking, even egregious. They are not unique in this regard - most great artists have songs left off of albums that are so strong it makes their fans scratch their heads. Stay Positive probably has their greatest collection of outtakes but Teeth Dreams has their most overlooked. This is because there are only three and their release was very limited. “Records & Tapes” & “Look Alive” made it to a UK iTunes release and “Saddle Shoes” is strangely part of the album’s sequence only on the vinyl release. None are available on any streaming platform.
If reading about Teeth Dreams has peaked anyone’s interest, I would strongly encourage a search on YouTube of these three songs. As far as I know, this is the only spot to hear all three in one place. They fit right in with the rest of the collection in terms of sound, scope, and theme. Moreover, and to put it simply, they just rock too.
And if there is ever a re-release or revisiting of the album I would hope that these songs each find a way onto vinyl, a streaming platform, or Bandcamp. They deserve the attention that has evaded them.
Bands need to grow and artists need to evolve - the trappings of not doing so are deadly to a career and to creativity. If the audience senses that you no longer have new information for them, they lose interest, or even worse, they’ll lose trust. At this point in The Hold Steady’s career, it would have been awfully easy to continue writing songs about partying, drugs, and the like. But instead, Teeth Dreams is an example of something else: moving forward while maintaining their identity. They’ve taken the sound of The Hold Steady forward into new areas but still fundamentally sound like the band that they are at their core. Dylan went electric, U2 chopped down The Joshua Tree with Achtung Baby, and Springsteen brought in new musicians for two full band albums. Some people absolutely hated these changes, but according to the artists, they were chances that needed to be taken, for good or ill. I’d argue Teeth Dreams belongs in this category.
And I have sensed a shift in the fans recently (note the “Justice For Teeth Dreams” movement which pops up online and at shows). And more of these songs have started showing up in the band’s set, “The Only Thing” has been played frequently, “Oaks” opened Massive Nights last year, and the night before Positive Jam Fest they played “The Ambassador”. I do hope I’m correct and Teeth Dreams is getting a reexamination among the audience and I hope that this essay can help inspire a few that are still on the fence to play it with an open mind and an open ear. But for all I’ve attempted to describe, analyze, and discuss, nothing can adequately convey what listening to a great album in the moment is like. As Bruce Springsteen once said, “talking about music is like talking about sex. It’s better when demonstrated.”
Now that you’re done reading, it is time to demonstrate. Go to your turntable, CD player, or streaming service, put the album on, and make sure to turn it up loud enough to finally give Teeth Dreams justice.
Great read!