For a band whose songs fully and frequently encompass the unholy trinity of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, The Hold Steady has somehow evolved into something of a musical father-figure. Maybe it’s front man Craig Finn’s unassuming, record-store-clerk looks. Or it could be his penchant for turning barroom tragedies and basement overdoses into uplifting hipster anthems.
Anyone who has been to a Hold Steady live show can attest to the rabid loyalty of the band’s fan base – they don’t just drink, jump and sing along but genuinely appear to look up to Finn and company for an everyday mantra to live by.
It may sound extreme, but even the most cynical and discerning of listeners could not deny the brilliance of the band’s previous album, the universally acclaimed, fist-pumping Boys and Girls in America.
On the band’s fourth and most recent album, Stay Positive, The Hold Steady moves forward with a similar formula: Bruce Springsteen-ian classic rock populism with a dose of punk – without making any complete transitions to newer horizons.
The album does not truly suffer from comparison to its predecessor, though it does not quite achieve the definitive statement Boys and Girls delivers. Song for song, Stay Positive just barely falls short. The best moments are as good as anything The Hold Steady has put to record. Finn sounds more comfortable singing than half-speaking his rich stories.
With odes to an endless summer, run-ins with the law and casualties fallen by the wayside, Stay Positive has all the usual signs of The Hold Steady. Thanks to the loose-lips and busy hands around the Internet, the hard-rocking opener “Constructive Summer” and slightly sappy torch song “Lord, I’m Discouraged” are already well-circulated fan favorites.
Name checking “Saint” Joe Strummer toward the end of the former, Finn sings, “I think he might’ve been our only decent teacher,” and the band jumps out of the gates, power chords blaring. The adrenaline carries through most of the album, peaking at the show-stopping title track.
There are a few let downs along the race to the finish line, not enough to amount to the dreaded mid-album slump, but the shoddier material sticks out against superbly crafted pieces like lead single “Sequestered in Memphis.”
Raising a glass to carnality on “Navy Sheets,” Finn goes a bit too far with the refrain, “Everybody’s coming on their navy sheets.” Shock value for shock value’s sake is forgivable; lifeless synthesizers, however, are not.
Even when The Hold Steady goes out on a limb a bit – Franz Nicolay’s harpsichord gives “One for the Cutters” a really nice touch – the band has an incredibly distinct sound, which unfortunately translates to a few overly familiar moments. “Magazines” and “Yeah Sapphire” are hardly terrible songs. Neither disrupts the album flow too much, but both feel shrugged-off, unimpressive and all too predictable.
After hearing Finn deliver the searing line, “There’s gonna come a time when she’s gonna have to go/ With who ever is gonna get her the highest” on “Stay Positive,” the refrain on “Magazines” comes across as slightly juvenile: “Magazines and Daddy issues/ I know you’re pretty pissed/ I hope you’ll still let me kiss you.”
Every great storyteller has his weakness. Finn is certainly not the most subtle writer, but at least he’s honest. On Stay Positive, he simultaneously confronts and embraces friends, idols, lovers and supporters.
Like the troubled lot from the street poetry Lou Reed once yielded so effortlessly, Stay Positive’s cast of characters is a bruised bunch. They drink, smoke and screw like there’s no tomorrow, because for many of them, there may not be.
Amid all the excitement surrounding The Hold Steady (seriously, the fans treat Finn like a prophet), the characters still feel real and the songs earnest. Stay Positive is hardly a perfect album, but it is a sign of longevity.
The Hold Steady may never deliver anything as fine-tuned as Boys and Girls ever again. But the band will continue to expand musically, and Finn’s pen gets sharper with age. And that is something to be pretty damn positive about.
zherrm@umd.edu
RATING: 3 1?2 out of 5 stars
