No Future

In early 2011 Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn challenged himself to write a new song every day in his Brooklyn apartment for his first solo album. "I had written a bunch of songs that were outside of the norm for The Hold Steady, a little quieter and perhaps more narrative," he said. "I wanted to gain some experience and insight into the process of making a record by working with new people." Finn enlisted producer Mike McCarthy (Spoon) and traveled to an Austin, Texas studio far away from his New York comfort zone. He hooked up with some local musicians there, including members of Phosphorescent and White Denim and sang his vocals live, keeping takes to a minimum and completed recording in a few days. The Hold Steady singer admitted to Spinner that one of the most difficult things about the project "was just to come in and meet musicians that I didn't know well." He explained: " I literally met them on a Monday morning and we jumped into recording the songs. That was something that was intimidating for me at first and in the end brought me a lot more confidence and happiness. In some ways, that's what I was after. That was a really cool thing." The resulting album, Clear Heart Full Eyes was released on January 24, 2012 on Vagrant Records.

"No Future" was the original song title of The Sex Pistols' single "God Save The Queen" and this track namechecks the Punk band's lead singer ("The best advice I've ever gotten was from good ol' Johnny Rotten") as well as another '70s rock icon Freddie Mercury ("Good ol' Freddie Mercury is the only guy that advises me"). Finn's Catholic upbringing also comes into play as we also hear him singing about the Crucifixion and the Devil.

Regarding the album title, Finn explained: "It's a juxtaposed reference to Friday Night Lights a TV show that excited and moved me and also happened in Texas. Further, 'Clear Heart' signifies honesty and transparency, and 'Full Eyes' suggests experience."