The Hold Steady Stays Positive

Halfway through this year, and my fears of a weak music year have proved wrong. So far. The Kathleen Edwards "Asking for Flowers" is as good as music gets, and other albums from Tift Merritt and the new Frightened Rabbit are very solid.

This last week, I was pleased to find the new Hold Steady album available on Emusic, so I downloaded it immediately. I have mixed emotions about this band. As one of the reviewers noted,

Like all The Hold Steady's albums, this one is basically about young folks behaving badly (booze, sex, fights).

That is about right. But when you hear their guitar licks, the bizarre lyrics work. And this new album (Stay Positive) is no different. Stirring guitar licks with some great rock anthems. This album, more than the previous couple, reminds me of early Sprinsteen--when the Boss's songs were long and rambling stories. With the Hold Steady, those stories are usually about bad behavior or very odd people. Like "Your little Hoodrat Friend," or the "Chillout tent."

But they also have songs that build beautifully. I said to SOF the other day, as we were listening to my favorite off this new album "Slapped Actress" that this is the kind of music that Beethoven would have found intriguing. He would have loved the chord progressions and musical hooks. Not just your basic 1,4,5 progression, the song just keeps running through my head. Still not sure about the lyrics, though as I read them, it is not an endorsement of slapping, but the song is a great one, and the album a cinch for top 10 albums of the year.