I have been listening to almost nothing but Lifter Puller's Fiestas + Fiascos for the last two weeks. I've listened to another album here and there, for sure, but I made a choice at least two or three weeks ago that instead of carrying my iPod around like normal, I'd switch over to burning CDs like I used to. In the past, if I wanted something new to listen to, I'd burn it to a CD and swap it out of my car's stereo. So, to start it off, I felt like listening to this Lifter Puller album.

I'm not much of a fan of The Hold Steady (for those not in the know: Lifter Puller's vocalist and songwritier, Craig Finn's other less-broken-up band). I loved Separation Sunday, up until some of the songs started to grate on me ("Charlemagne's got something in his sweatpants!" I think might be the most annoying lyric in history). I saw Hold Steady in person, playing on the Jimmy Kimmel show, during the promotion of that album and it stays in my mind as one of the tightest and most professional performances I have ever seen performed. Even after the cameras were off, they were fantastic. That said, not a fan of any of their other work. I got curious about Lifter Puller somehow, some internet stumbling got me to them.

A funny thing happened with that CD of Fiestas + Fiascos: it never left my CD player. I haven't felt like listening to anything else in my car since putting it in, much to the chagrin of other people in my car who find Lifter Puller's brand of sing-speak indie rock particularly annoying. Though I love F+F, I've since listened to the other two Lifter Puller albums and I feel kind of feh about them. F+F is special, the subjects of the songs almost feel dear to me, like friends.

I don't know much about the crazy Lifter Puller fans that exist out there. I've never met one. I don't know exactly how they feel about Lifter Puller, but the rumor is that you'd use the word passionate to describe how they come across. I think a lot of this comes from the fact Craig Finn's characters and writing can remind a lot of people of people we've known, or do know, or would even like to know. Sure, they're all miscreants, scumbags, and junkies... but how many good times have we had with miscreants, scumbags, and junkies? Finn's telling us about the people he's known (or fictionally known) in the way we'd like to tell others about the people we've known, and he shoots straight from the id.

I guess you'd call me a true believer.

Even though Finn doesn't sing, I can't help but find myself but sing-shouting the lyrics along with him. There's so many moments and lyrics across the record that resonate with me in weird ways. I love the imagery of the line "i can see all the stains in your white tights / when you stand in the black lights down at the nice nice", it seems like such a genuine scummy druggy thing. You can't even hear the poetry in "remember jenny back from i like the lights she said / well i like you dwight but i don't like the pipe / and the things that you put in your pipe, like your life" when you write it like that, because sometimes it's the way Finn delivers words that really makes them shine.

And even then it's not just Finn's delivery, it's the music behind him. Sometimes it's startling how they do so much with so little. Lifter Puller is capable of some moments of subtle beauty, where the lyrics, Finn's delivery, and the music all come together perfectly and you're punched through with a moment. It's that resonance I spoke of, where you're whisked away to some other point in someone else's life and it's suddenly easy what it's like to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes.

If you're listening to this album and have no idea what the hell is going on, there's a whole Wikipedia page on the Lifter Puller folklore that might be helpful. I don't know if I would enjoy the album as much as I do if I didn't understand what was happening across it.

I love love love love love the closing track. The theatrics of it are splendid---the way the door slams and you feel you're in some backroom somewhere. Then the devil opens his mouth and tells you how you already know the story is going to end. In my case, the album just loops over and starts again and I'm presented with my second favorite song: this one. It was, like some other songs I have loved, my least favorite for quite some time, but now I feel like it sums up the album nicely.

I love almost every moment of this song. It's full of those things I said in the third to last paragraph, where you feel all the excitement and the dread and the drama of a life you've never known. That's Lifter Puller's genius on this album. That's why I love it. Now that I've got that off my chest maybe I can go listen to something else now.