Customer Reviews

Stay Positive

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

News of the new Hold Steady album raised a lot of questions. Could it possibly live up to the escalating expectations their first three albums produced? Will the familiar characters of the past be back? Can Craig Finn keep writing the wittiest lyrics in rock music? Will every review make a Springsteen comparison? The answer to all of these questions is yes.

Stay Positive was released in digital form last month and like it's predecessors gets off to a rocking start with "Constructive Summer" which revisits Boys and Girls in America's theme of partying with friends while tossing in a toast to "St. Joe Strummer" who "might have been our only decent teacher". "Sequestered in Memphis" keeps the rocking party going but throws some shadows in the lyrics. There are subpoenas and sequesters, and the lyrics seem to be the response to an interrogation. In Craig Finn's addled world you don't go back to her place when you leave the bar, you go to "someplace where she cat sits".

When a harpsicord leads off the third song "One for the Cutters" you start to realize you may not be in Minnesota anymore. Kids are being killed, suspects are on the run, and every townie is being paraded to the police station. What follows in the album are the consequences to the partying. Characters are older but not wiser, and aging but not gracefully. Holly (who like Gideon and Charlemagne are never named) may be in worse shape than where she was left in the song "First Night" from BAGIA. "Lord I'm Discouraged", a heartbreaking ballad with a monster guitar solo finds the singer pining away for her and praying "she don't die".

Even the title track "Stay Positive" warns "There's gonna time a time when the scene'll seem less sunny." and begins a great four song sequence that culminates with "Slapped Actress" which may be the best song The Hold Steady has ever released. The song, influenced by the John Cassavetes movie "Opening Night" sways back and forth between re-examining the events in previous albums "Don't tell them Ybor City almost killed us again" and exploring the relationship between the performer and the fans "Some nights, it's just entertainment and some other nights it's work".

If you are a Hold Steady fan "Stay Positive" has the comforting themes, name and song dropping, intertwined lyrics and explosive sound you are used to. If not "Stay Positive" may be the album that will make you go back to find out what happened before this, as BAGIA was for me. In any event it is The Hold Steady's most musically diverse album to date, with a storyline that can stand up to the brilliant "Separation Sunday", something even the most positive Hold Steady fan may be surprised by.

This excellent record deserves to be played loud. Unfortunately, it's been so aggressively mastered, that I haven't been able to turn it up without distorting.
I'll gladly pay twice if somebody can tell me that the vinyl was treated differently.
Musically, this is the best album of the year.
Sonically, the wrong mastering for what should be a loud, dynamic rock masterpiece.

I have to admit that I came pretty late to The Hold Steady party but better late than never. I picked up their 2006 release Boys and Girls in America about 6 months ago and quickly followed it up with Separation Sunday and Almost Killed Me. After fully immersing myself in those albums I was more than ready for this release. Stay Positive could be The Hold Steady's masterpiece, but somehow I think that album is still to come. What it is, however, is one of the finest albums in a year of fine albums.

In the rock press The Hold Steady is often referred to as a unique blending of The Replacements and Bruce Springsteen, but they'r much more than that. In the opening track "Constructive Summer" they mine the ground formerly occupied by another Minneapolis band, Husker Du and name drops Joe Strummer opining that "I think he might have been our only decent teacher". The song is similar to many of their earlier works except that the characters are older and a bit more damaged a world of dashed hopes and diminishing expectations. Craig Finn writes abotu these scenes as if he's not only lived them, but breathed them and drank them down. Never is this more in evidence than on the second track, and obvious single "Sequestered in Memphis" a rollicking account of a one night stand. If your not singing along by the second chorus of this one then this band is not for you.

Despite it's title Stay Positive is a fairly dark album in content. On Boys and Girls in America the characters were young hard partiers who still had their optimism. Now they're older and more beaten up by life. On "One for the Cutters" with it's murder mystery theme and harpsichord (!) tones this is in particular evidence. The beautiful "Lord I'm Discouraged" takes a similar tone and features a nuanced vocal by Finn far outside of his usual sing/speak style. The album's weakest cut, "Navy Sheets", references the synth tones of the Cars in a rather unfortunate manner but still features a brilliant lyric. Rounding out the album are standout cuts like the title track, "Joke about Jamaica" and the magnificent closing cut "Slapped Actress". The literate lyrics throughout and the inspired guitar of Tad Kubler tie them all together with a shiny bow on top.

The bottom line for any album review is should you buy this album? Well I have to admit The Hold Steady are not for everyone. If you're not a fan of unusual singing styles and lyrics about hard living, then this band is not for you. On the other hand if you love honest songs, with complexity, ingenuity, pop culture reference and a strong tip of the hat to great artists of the past pick up Stay Positive. You won't regret it.

It is another Hold Steady album and another set of songs about scenes, parties, drugs, and drinking played over classic rock music. On the surface it may seem like that formula would be getting stale 4 albums into the bands career, but there are enough new wrinkles added this time around to keep things fresh.

The base sound is very similar to "Boys and Girls In America", it's more rocking, fist-pumping, and arena-ready than "Separation Sunday", another step in the bands sonic path that is to be expected based on their last album. What they've added are some subtle musical touches (a harpsichord and banjo, most notably) and a shift in lyrical subject matter. Where as their previous albums were all about the parties themselves, "Stay Positive" focuses on the aftermath, including a murder mystery that plays out over a few of the tracks.

"Constructive Summer" is the best anthem they've written, it has a definite punk influence and will probably be a huge hit in a live setting. There are a few other anthems throughout the album, "Sequestered In Memphis" and "Stay Positive" are notable standouts. I think this album really succeeds on the slower songs. Where as on "Boys & Girls" the slower songs dragged the album down in my opinion, here they really take the album to a whole other level. "One for the Cutters" is slower track, but it is also an excellent track that stands up amongst the bands best.

The trademark Craig Finn wit is all over the album, as expected, my personal favorite gem this time around is from "Sequestered In Memphis": "In the barlight, she looked alright/In the daylight, she looked desperate/That's alright, I was desperate too." My favorite part about his lyrics is that he always seems to add that extra line that takes an average lyric and turns it into a memorable lyric. I could fill a couple more paragraphs with quotes from the album, but I'll let you discover them for yourselves.

To sum up, another solid album from a band that is climbing my personal list of favorites each time they release something new. There isn't much that you wouldn't expect here, but there are enough new wrinkles here to keep things interesting and avoid becoming "Boys & Girls In America Part 2". Oh, I almost forgot, Finn actually sings a few times on the album, that's worth the price of admission alone!

(The three bonus songs on the first printing of the album are very good, they lump them into one track on the CD which is a little annoying, but I respect the idea that they are taking special care to make sure the listener knows they aren't part of the proper album).

Amazon reviewers are very keen to note when a band "jumps the shark" or loses the magical touch that initially drew in their fans. And I am glad to say that is not the case with "Stay Positive." The Hold Steady has done a fairly amazing thing. They managed to keep their roots, sound, edge, and lovable oddball lyrics intact while also maturing up the songwriting and instrumentation. You just don't see many bands who can do that. I try to characterize their sound for people who have never heard of them as "Old Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with a more youthful, tragic, poetic version of Randy Newman singing but mildly influenced by the truly good post-punk bands of the 90's." And then they look at me befuddled. In essence, it's just truly good rock and roll (which seems to be going the way of the dodo). Even the three bonus cd songs are great and could make the grade as album cuts.

The Hold Steady are continuing to play lots of great music with this follow-up to their fantastic 2006 album, Boys and Girls in America. The sound has stayed quite the same from the previous record, so fans of Boys and Girls in America will not be disappointed. This record has a little more of a positive vibe (hence the name) and the fact that this album came out in the middle of the summer is no accident, as the opening track especially works as a great summer anthem. The band has done a little to alter the texture of their sound, most notably and most talked about are the use of a banjo on "Both Crosses" and the harpsichord sound on "One for the Cutters" (at a time when I started wondering why more bands didn't throw a little harpsichord in the mix). There are little things too like strumming the strings inside the piano, little vibraphone accents and the choral vocals on the closing track, "Slapped Actress." Also, we hear more lead work from guitarist, Tad Kubler, including some great solos including the sandpapery Wah-Wah in "Magazines" and among other things Van Halen esque tapping in the ballad "Lord, I'm Discouraged" which may be the album's strongest track. It's also nice to hear Craig Finn's lyrics in a more melodic way without sacrificing his signature spoken word delivery. The album really works nicely, just enough consistency with earlier material to keep people from whining about how their old stuff was better, but enough new stuff to keep this one from being Boys and Girls in America rev. 2. So, this summer, Stay Cool, Stay Classy, and Stay Positive.

As a long time (since 2004!) Hold Steady fan, Stay Positive just seems like the natural progression of the band into the mainstream. Not as self-referential as Almost Killed Me or Separation Sunday, even more commercial than Boys and Girls in America. They spread out a little bit with some imaginative instrumentation. (Banjo and Harpsichord!?)

If this is your introduction to The Hold Steady, enjoy. Even better, listen to the first three albums first to see their impressive development.

when near the end of "Constructive Summer" we're asked to "raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer" Indeed, many of the cultural landmarks will be familiar to those of us who experienced the late seventies and early eighties-- Led Zeppelin ("Joke About Jamaica" referencing "D'yer Maker"), Billy Joel ("Catholic Girls" in "Both Crosses"), and even the movie "Breaking Away" ("One For The Cutters"). Despite this the songs are rooted in the present with the references helping us to identify the characters, as in "Joke About Jamaica" the pretty girl who mispronounced the title of the Zeppelin song, but always had plenty of company back when "we were all invincible". Now she's a bit older but still hanging out, competing with the "new girls coming up like some white unopened flowers". The stories are told in a realistic fashion, sometimes hilariously as in "Sequestered In Memphis" where a businessman gets questioned by a lawyer about a one night stand, or tragically in "Lord, I'm Discouraged" about a friend in an abusive relationship. The title track "Stay Positive" is a nice tribute to the band's early fans. "Slapped Actresses" is my favorite track and seems to tie everything together and end on a strong note. In the end I think they have given us some good advice for negotiating these times: Hold Steady. Stay Positive.

If you are familiar with this band at all you have probably heard all of the comparisons from "The Replacements" to "Springsteen" and most of them are apt comparisons in their own little ways, but the sum of the parts is much better than the individial pieces here.

Musically they have never been in finer form. This is an album that you just want to crank the volume on your stereo or while in your car...yet you can also dial it down and listen to Craig Finn's lyrics which like Springsteens are often about those who fall between the cracks, where Springsteen's visions may be more poetic...Finn's are more harsh and demanding. Top all of that with his unique voice and delivery which demands the casual listener to give them a repeated listen when they forst come across the band and when you put it together you have one of the finest albums of 2008.

I bought this cd as soon as it was released and could never really get into it. Although professional reviewers loved it universally my repeated playings never revealed to me what everyone else appreciated so much. Finally, tonight, three years after its release, I gave it one more try, this time through headphones. After the first few tracks my head hurt. I like the voice; I like the style; I like the instrumentation. I just didn't enjoy what I heard. It was all so, I don't know, call it muddy. I prefer my music played louder rather than quieter - not mind numbing loud (I'm 62 and left that behind in the early 70's!) - just loud. Anyway, after track 5, the very excellent Lord I'm Discouraged, I turned the volume way down. Lo and behold the instruments became a little more distinctive and the vocals clearer. After reading the other reviews here I realized that it wasn't just me. This cd is simply and horribly over-compressed. My question is - don't the engineers listen to what they are doing before they say "that's a rap" or whatever it is they say? It really is a great pity that big music like this, intended to be played loud, can only be enjoyed at low volume. Anyway, at least, finally, I now understand what all the fuss was about. This is a great cd from the first to the last.