Review – Craig Finn "Clear Heart Full Eyes"

Album: “Clear Heart Full Eyes”

Label: Vagrant Records

Release Date: Tuesday, Jan 24 

After the Hold Steady’s fifth LP, the forgettable “Heaven is Whenever,” it seemed like front man Craig Finn’s beer-drenched melodrama had finally run its course.

With the arrival of his first solo album “Clear Heart Full Eyes,” indie’s most beloved back-alley poet has discovered a new pulpit for his nostalgic, Christ-laden tirades, returning with 11 tracks of mid-tempo pop rock.

It’s evident that Finn’s finally woken up from his booze-induced slumber, but does the Minneapolis transplant still, well, have it?

There’s an understated quality coursing through the entirety of “Clear Heart Full Eyes.” The Hold Steady diehards won’t be treated to any rip-roaring guitar solos or barroom anthems, but Finn’s nervous-slacker persona is as realized as ever. While the album might tread some less ambitious sonic territory, Finn’s lyrics explore tired themes, offering new tales of lost love, betrayal and old friends.

And Finn doesn’t shy from being self-referential either, oftentimes recycling familiar lines from his own personal tableau. The record’s strewn with narratives that include back halves of theaters and nods to ’70’s icons like Johnny Rotten and Freddie Mercury.

On the album’s highlight track “Jackson,” listeners get quintessential Finn as he sings: “Stephanie was long on looks but short on mental health / said depression is an ocean and it’s prone to tides and swells / anxiety’s persistent it’s an ambitious politician / it keeps knocking on your door until you come and let it in.”

From the Bible-thumping country rock of “New Friend Jesus” to the airtight machismo of “Honolulu Blues,” Finn proves that he can take the wheel without the help of his bar-hopping cohorts.

While there are some memorable moments on “Clear Heart Full Eyes,” overall, the album is too bland and unimaginative to consider it on par with even the most mediocre of the Hold Steady’s material. The timid “When no one’s Watching” finds Finn at his dullest lyrically, collapsing in a din of anti-climactic rattle as he sings, “She told me what you told her about how you really loved her / that you’re the hero when no one’s watching.”

Overall, “Clear Heart Full Eyes” just sounds undeveloped, phoned-in even. While it’s unreasonable to expect the album to deliver the same kind of punch as the Hold Steady, it does little to compel or entice. And when it does, it’s all over far too soon.

2.5 out of 4 stars