The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

[Kevin McF]

Stay Positive:

01 Constructive Summer
02 Sequestered in Memphis
03 One for the Cutters
04 Navy Sheets
05 Lord, I'm Discouraged
06 Yeah Sapphire
07 Both Crosses
08 Stay Positive
09 Magazines
10 Joke About Jamaica
11 Slapped Actress


Leave it to Craig Finn to set up the new Hold Steady record better than anyone else ever could. As he says in a press release, "A great American philosopher named D. Boon once said 'our band could be your life.' I think that is true. But 'your life could be our band' is also a true statement. I know this because we have lived it. These are our lives. These are your lives. This is our fourth record. Stay Positive."

Stay Positive is due July 14 in the UK from new overseas home Rough Trade and July 15 in the States from Vagrant. The John Agnello-produced set, recorded in the greater New York metropolitan area this winter, sports both a wider array of instrumentation than past Hold Steady discs, and lyrics that concern themselves with "the attempt to age gracefully."

[Kevin McF]

likely a top 10 album for me

[Kevin McF]

summer time is here, likely time to start pumping GABIA in the car again

[Libertine4Life]

I was slightly dissapointed by their last album, as I only bought it due to the hype.

[Rob]

Best Live Band.

[SkortBrun]

Here's a Billboard.com article about it with some more quotes from the band. (http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003797341)

[blueone]

Might get this. Can't help but love me some Brucely lyrics.

[Rob]

Finn took singing lessons :wtf

[ewok.online]

Finn took singing lessons :wtf

Uh, weird.

I'm gonna go listen to Separation Sunday.

[llamalpacaemu]

craig finn is gonna sing?

sometimes i think i want a little more melody in the songs, but at the end of the day - i think his speak-sing type vocs are what echoe the subjects.

hm, i've only been listening to them for a year or so, maybe i shouldn't go supposin' what the new album will sound like before i hear it. ; )

[Kevin McF]

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/9198/theholdsteadystaypositiaa1.jpg

[Sydneyfan]

The Hold Steady: "Stay Positive"
2008-05-12 10:13:40

First, a couple of lyrics (and God knows, there are plenty to quote on the Hold Steady’s fourth album). From the opening song, “Constructive Summer”: “Let this be my annual reminder that we can all be something bigger.” From the last song, “Slapped Actress”, repeated by Craig Finn while the music swells and a rabble choir add “woah-oh”s: “Man, we make our own movies.”

I’ve spent the weekend, amongst other things, bewitched by “Stay Positive”, and a few details are starting to come into focus. On the second play, it becomes apparent that this is another superb and compelling album by The Hold Steady, one whose complexity and anthemic punch might yet surpass “Boys And Girls In America”. An initial hunch that this is a record about being in a band in your late thirties – a hunch backed up by some of Finn’s early pronouncements about the album – proves to be only partially true. “Stay Positive” is a whole lot more complicated than that.

As far as I can tell this morning, “Stay Positive” is a series of fragmented narratives that revisit old characters (though Holly and Charlemagne, for two, are never named) and generate new plots, involving one or maybe two murders, visions of the Virgin Mary, fights in the woods, something about crucifixions and so on. Fans of the first two Hold Steady albums will be pleased to see that Catholicism is forcibly back on Finn’s agenda, tangled up inexorably with sex: “If I cross myself when I come would you maybe receive me?” he pleads in “Yeah Sapphire”.

But the protagonists sometimes seem a bit older than they were. People are dying, people are starting to think they can be “something bigger”. There’s a suspicion, in “Joke About Jamaica”, that there are more dignified things to do with a life than hang around rock bands when you’re no longer the youngest ones on the scene. And juxtaposed with this, there’s Finn trying to find dignity in actually being in a band at 37, finally finding success at an age when most aspiring bands have given up trying. “The kids at our shows will have kids of their own,” he notes in the title track, “The singalong songs will be our scriptures.”

Consequently, it’s possible to pick multiple paths through this fascinating record, as Finn artfully mixes up the grimy narratives; the optimism, nostalgia and pathos; the religious, sexual and rock’n’roll documentary imagery. You sense, too, that he’s grappling with the obligation to be ‘real’ and to provide a great performance, to tell stories that have meaning but that aren’t always in some sense truthful – hence the denouement when he talks about making movies, shortly after noting, “Some nights it’s entertainment and some other nights it’s just work.”

I could write about this all day, and still struggle to unpick Finn’s thinking entirely. But anyway, it’s obviously not just the lyrics that make “Stay Positive” so rich. The anthems are bigger, the range wider, the cascading E-Street piano lines more prevalent and vivid. “Constructive Summer” might reference “St Joe Strummer”, but its clearest antecedents seem to be Husker Du and REM circa “Little America”. “Sequestered In Memphis” has a trumpet-led chorus that is the catchiest thing they’ve ever written.

The much-vaunted musical departures begin with “One For The Cutters”, kicked off by a florid harpsichord line, but more striking is “Navy Sheets”, where a niggling synth hook cuts through a dense spiel that harks back to “Separation Sunday”. Patterson Hood guests on this one, but the influence of The Drive-By Truckers seems to hover over “Both Crosses”, a bloodshot and twanging meditation that seems kin to something from “The Dirty South”.

My favourite this morning is “Joke About Jamaica”, something of a key to the meaning of the whole album I think, with flurries of grand piano and stuttery Hammond tracking Finn in a way that reminds me a lot of Elvis Costello & The Attractions circa “Trust” – “Clubland” specifically, perhaps. Eventually, the grandest and most preposterous of Tad Kubler’s mighty solos turns into a squalling talkbox workout.

And once “Slapped Actress” finishes off, “back in Ybor City again”, with its stirring chorale, it’s clear that The Hold Steady have made another record that is at once immediate and reflective, that can provide massive live celebrations and intimate close study. There’s a lot to get your teeth into here, trust me. . .

John Mulvey

http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=722&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more722

[Kevin McF]

Here at The Music Magazine we aim to get our thoughts to you as quickly as possible.

That’s why, when an unusually late postman turned up at our door with a copy of The Hold Steady’s new album, we decided to get a preview out to you as soon as possible.

If you didn’t catch any of the buzz surrounding the band’s previous release – the brilliant ‘Boys and Girls In America’ – then you’ve missed out. Critically acclaimed and respected, it established Craig Finn (who was 35 on the album’s UK release) as a master of the narrative. Each album tells its own story and, like your favourite TV show or film, each features a remarkable list of characters.

The band’s fourth effort, ‘Stay Positive’, sees them hit a rhythm and consistency not present on ‘Boys and Girls…’. Finn now tells his stories with a hint of a tune in his voice, and the band’s sound has evolved to an even bigger rock effort.

So, all in all, we have a band who appear to have reached their very best. That was on our first listen. This time, on our second, we’ll be giving your our impressions song-by-song.

Please note that this is NOT an in-depth review. This will be following closer to release date (July). This is simply us sharing with you our impressions of a listen-through.

Constructive Summer

Very much a case of starting as you mean to go on. A quick riff, burst of piano, and all systems are go. There’s a reference to St Joe Strummer in there, and Finn singing “we’re gonna build somethin’ this summer”. Two minutes in and it all breaks down for a piano-driven middle. Another minute later and we’re done - cracking introduction.

Sequestered In Memphis

Keeping that free, electric based sound, ‘Sequestered In Memphis’ is, as you’d expect from the Memphis reference, full of some gospel-styled keyboard. There’s some brass, and an overall happy sound coming from the band. Mass sing-a-long later, and we’re done.

One For The Cutters

This time the music sets a darker tone. Townies gather and smoke, and Finn is at his story-telling best. The background strings weave throughout, interlaced with some fuzzed out electric guitar and occasional bursts of piano. There’s no chorus as such, just big instrumental breaks. Our heroine gets interviewed by lawyers and cops, then “smokes and ponders this riddle”. Poignant Finn: “if one townie falls in the forest does anyone notice?” It ends with our protagonist getting “nailed against dumpsters”. Nice.

Navy Sheets

Funky effects on the guitar here, sounding more electronic than usual. Good stuff. “Everyone is reaching for the sharpest knife / legs wide apart on the opening night”. Well-placed power chords supplement the middle, and Finn appears to have moved well away from that almost spoken-word narrative of earlier albums. He can actually sing now.

Lord, I’m Discouraged

Our first ballad opens with the words in the track title, and there’s a sombre feel to the guitars on offer in the intro. The piano kicks in, and Finn mourns the loss of a love - “she ain’t come out dancin’ for some time”. Just under two minutes in and the music disappears whilst Finn delivers the last line of the chorus, a chorus which is as dramatic and melancholy as required. What follows after the second chorus is possibly the best guitar solo they’ve done. With finger-tapping aplenty, there’s almost a minute of pure indulgence before Finn chimes back in and the music moves up a beat. The drums speed up as our hero cries out “Lord won’t you show me a sign to prove that you’re listening”. Religion is high on the agenda here. Incredible.

Yeah Sapphire

Excuse the comparisons, but the intro to this one sounds a bit like something I’ve heard Ash produce. It only lasts a few seconds before we’re assured it’s the Hold Steady though. There’s a more reflective voice on offer here, breaking down to a fantastic middle when we’re two minutes in. More self-indulgent guitar for ten seconds, but it’s the piano that takes the prizes here - brilliant.

Both Crosses

A more solemn approach on this one. Jesus and Judas get namechecked in the first minute, with Finn growling over the top of some blues-tinged acoustic guitar. “Baby let’s transverberate” he mutters…we’re not sure if that’s actually a word (although some checking establishes that it means “to beat or strike through”.

Stay Positive

So, the title track. I’ve found that these normally tend to be the worst tracks on the album, for whatever reason. More gospel-influenced keyboard, and a lot of “woah-oh-oh”s from the band who, vocally, have been quiet this time out. A simple cymbal and muted guitar is all that provide the backing for Finn’s spat-out vocals. The impression is a man on the edge, until the choruses when the band continue their “woah-oh-oh” efforts and Finn shouts “we gotta stay positive”. “When the chaperone crowned us the king and the queen / I knew that we had arrived at a unified scene” - similar lyrics to ‘Boys and Girls In America’ (the song escapes us at present, answers on a postcard), but this album couldn’t be more different. There’s an unseen focus, and more well-crafted songs.

Magazines

The upbeat piano song. “She’s always funny in the morning / she ain’t always funny in the night” - Finn’s tale of a drunken girlfriend. The chorus is a variation on those words. An unknown gruff voice jumps in two minutes in to echo Finn’s words on an earlier chorus. “I hope you’ll still let me kiss you” he croons. More good work from the brass section, and we end on a high.

Joke About Jamaica

We don’t get told whether it’s any good or not, but judging by the intro it didn’t tickle too many people’s funny bones. The piano sets the tone, and it’s not a happy one. Bass dances around in the background, before a reflective chorus a minute-and-a-half in. The second verse contains some occasional piano chimes, and we also get the first overt drug reference that we’ve noted so far - “cocaine blues”. This reminds us more of ‘Boys and Girls…’. A bit more fancy-handed guitar work follows - surely destined to be a favourite live moment. The bass then turns to sound more sinister, before we get a bit of wah-wah work. “Man we had some massive nights” is Finn’s parting shot here.

Slapped Actress

To conclude, we have more of the palm-muted guitar that has been a bit of a fixture here. There’s also a hint of a big band finale coming up…we’ll find out in approximately three minutes’ time. At five minutes in it’s by far the longest effort on show here. “We are the actors / the cameras are rolling”. Contrary to earlier hints of a big finish, there’s a bit of reflective piano: “sometimes actresses get slapped”. The band decided that more “woah-woah-oh”s are needed, and duly oblige. There’s a build up of guitar…louder cheers from the band…then the guitar quietens down so that the only thing that can be heard is the band’s cheers. We end with everything going quiet, before a final “woah-woah-oh”…and that’s it.

And that’s ‘Stay Positive’. A casual glance over the songs on show here reveal an album more involved with religion than their previous effort - although they’ve always dabbled with it a bit.

We hope you’ve enjoyed following us throughout this. Apologies if some of the posts seem slightly out-of-sorts - writing these things straight away can do that to you.

We’ll be back with a full review closer to release date, so stay tuned.
http://blog.themusicmagazine.co.uk/

[Rob]

This one has leaked.

[FrigidRoses]

Top 10 easy.

[ewok.online]

Wooo, new Hold Steady. :upyours

[Rob]

http://www.myspace.com/theholdsteady

Full album now up for streaming.

[ewok.online]

dammit.

i still need this for my drive home.
time to put on my internet searchin' hat.

[jumpshipmusic]

I have their latest CD. It's the one with "You Can Make Them Like You" on it. I must admit I don't know much about them. Jesse Malin does a cool cover of that song on his covers CD. I think it's good at least.

[Rob]

Rating 8.4

The Hold Steady weren't the likeliest candidates for success. Pulling together after the demise of the imaginative, verbose, and mostly overlooked indie act Lifter Puller, Craig Finn relocated to New York to start a new band. Holding to his distinctive poet-lost-at-karaoke delivery, Finn-- like the Replacements and Hüsker Dü before him-- began unashamedly mining classic rock radio for inspiration. Surprisingly, it's the latter group you can hear on opening track "Constructive Summer", and not just in its title's resemblance to one of Hüsker Dü's most celebrated songs.
One of the Hold Steady's most direct and thrilling tracks, "Constructive Summer"'s tempo and edge are borrowed from punk artists like Iggy Pop, Joe Strummer, and Finn's friends in Dillinger Four (in a lyrical reference that will reward all the close Hold Steady readers out there). Here, the Hold Steady retain the successful balance struck by Boys and Girls in America, with Finn again avoiding crowding the band as it continues to grow musically: the ballads are weepier, the rock songs more immediate, the attempts to diversify more striking. While they continue to prove themselves a more convincing classic rock act then should be possible in 2008, there's a tension in this album's lyrics between old-fashioned storytelling and breaking down the fourth wall. Stay Positive is their mostly successful bid to have it both ways.

Stay Positive also returns to the narrative threads that marked 2005's Separation Sunday and Finn's work in Lifter Puller, with murder and mayhem creeping back into the lyrical picture. The polite horn interjections and laid-back blooze licks of "Sequestered in Memphis" are musically joyous, though lyrically the narrator sounds inconvenienced to tell his story-- then hints before the chorus that he's retelling it in a station-house interview, as if he only returns to the chorus a second time at the behest of an interrogator. On one of the band's more ambitious musical diversions, "One for the Cutters", the guitars follow the lead of (no joke) a harpsichord while Finn relates the tale of a college girl who gets high a little too often and starts to party with townies-- no new subject matter there, until she finds out the difference between them and her freshman hookups is a proclivity to stab people.

Songs like "Navy Sheets" or "Lord, I'm Discouraged" are mostly notable for adding new elements to the band's palette, be it new-wave keyboards or uncanny Slash-worthy solos, respectively. Meanwhile, "Both Crosses" adds busy acoustics (with J Mascis on banjo, no less), organ, and whispers of theremin to wrap murky atmosphere around one of the record's central mysteries: The girl haunted by visions of the future (referenced and romanced in the song before, "Yeah Sapphire") overdoes the self-medication for her condition and talks about seeing two crucifixions, one being Jesus Christ. The narrator gets understandably nervous over who will be the second.

Stay Positive's other stories are a little less heavy: The band stretches its comfort zone on tracks like "Joke About Jamaica", adding a little talk-box while nodding to Zeppelin and offering sympathy to girls snubbed by music snobs in its lyrics. Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood shows up to sing a bit on "Navy Sheets", but somehow seems lost. Even as the band grows out of its quirks, their universe seems too impermeable yet to accommodate just any guest vocalist, whether the collaboration looks completely natural on paper or not.

Every Hold Steady record heeds the importance of a killer closing track, but even so, "Slapped Actress" is something special. The band navigates one of its trickier compositions here, with churning, dirge-like guitar chords and a restrained piano performance that complements the song's changes in tone. As his protagonists beat a hasty retreat (to where else but Ybor City again), Finn manages to tie up the lyrical seeds he's planted on the record, and more: In an allusion to John Cassavetes' Opening Night, Finn nods to the fact that being in a touring band can be drudgery ("some nights it's just entertainment, and some other nights it's work"), but finds some new metaphors and new inspiration with Jumbotron-ready lines ("We are the theater," "we make our own movies") that acknowledge these songs belong to the listeners as much as the band.
While its title and lyrics often make Stay Positive sound like a darkest-before-the-dawn kind of record, the themes Finn keeps returning to-- skipping town, starting over clean, resurrection-- all speak to the redemptive power of second chances. When the Hold Steady plead with you to "stay positive," and you consider their unlikely and continued ascendancy, you could do worse than take them at their word.



- Jason Crock, July 14, 2008


http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/node/141879