Hold Steady: Stay Positive

Hold Steady: Stay Positive Stay Positive is the Hold Steady's second album for Vagrant Records and fourth album overall. It's the follow up to 2006's Boys and Girls in America. Anyone who has heard the Hold Steady know their signature sound. Headed by Craig Finn who's vocals and lyrics are unmistakable. He spins tales about small town suburbia from the point of view of a group of friends. Musically the band fluctuates style. For the most part they have a riff-heavy classic rock style, but other times they go for a Bruce Springsteen power ballad sound. Stay Positive finds the Hold Steady still residing in rarefied air. Craig Finn has established himself as a troubadour for bored suburban teenagers everywhere. The album starts off with the perfect loud rock summer jam "Constructive Summer". The first line Finn sings is "me and my friends are like the drums on 'Lust for Life'". Instantly evoking strong mental images. The album's first single is the piano driven rocker “Sequestered In Memphis”. The sing-a-long chorus makes it one of the most accessible song the Hold Steady has ever recorded. They follow "Sequestered in Memphis" with one of their least accessible songs ever, "One for the Cutters". The songs main instrument is harpsichord and the lyrics are darker than the usual Hold Steady fare. The album has deliberate callbacks to previous Hold Steady albums with lines like “There’s gonna come a time when she’s gonna have to go with whoever’s gonna get her the highest” and “When the chaperon crowned us the king and the queen”. It also contains new themes like the idea of sing-a-long songs being the kids new psalms. Overall, the album is a real smashing success. The missteps are few and far between on the first listen. By the second or third listen the missteps seem non-existent. Rating: 9.1/10 MP3: Hold Steady "Both Crosses" Buy: iTunes, Insound