First thing: it\u2019s not Boys And Girls In America<\/i>. It\u2019ll never be Boys And Girls In America<\/i>. So stop comparing them, okay? You could pine for Boys And Girls<\/i>\u2018 bad-boy charms, or you could surrender to the older, wiser embrace of Stay Positive<\/i>. This isn\u2019t to say it doesn\u2019t rock — that it does, and with all due hardness. But beneath the balls-out gusto is some serious contemplation. The kids have been places, seen things, given testimony. Their hands are still eager\u2026 but they\u2019re also a little shakier and a lot dirtier. 2006\u2019s Boys And Girls<\/i> was a joyous cacophony — lauded, loved and, like, totally loaded. Its recurring cast of miscreants couldn\u2019t walk upright, but B&G<\/i> deftly strode the line between wry and wide-eyed. It was philosophical fist-pumping, equally comfortable on critics\u2019 year-end lists and puke-splattered jukeboxes\u2026 bar rock about rocking out to bar rock, man.<\/p>\n
Stay Positive<\/i>\u2019s a different little baggie entirely.<\/p>\n
If the last disc was an upper-fueled super ball bouncing from glitter to gutter, this one\u2019s a stolen Camaro crashing into the local reservoir. It\u2019s deeper, darker and less easily-accessible. Its inhabitants are older, more reflective\u2026 although not necessarily sobered up quite yet.<\/p>\n
It is (per Craig Finn) a meditation on aging. It\u2019s a concept album with a loose, noir-ish storyline. However, its focus isn\u2019t on the blood but the guts – the killer parties\u2019 existential aftermath. There\u2019s romance, then there\u2019s reckoning. The opener, \u201cConstructive Summer\u201d is a quarter-stick of pumped-up, propulsive guitar rock. The content, though, is more white-knuckle than middle finger (\u201cgetting older only makes it harder to remember \/ we are our only saviors\u201d). Never has grim determination been so likely to result in simultaneous pogoing.<\/p>\n
Determination — desperate or otherwise — is the album\u2019s linchpin (Stay Positive<\/i> is both title and edict). It\u2019s about struggling to maintain creative control of one\u2019s existence\u2026 whether as a hoodrat, a townie or (just maybe) a member of a rock \u2018n roll band. And while Finn still riffs on the joys of this process, sadness gets equal billing. \u201cBuy the ticket, take the ride\u201d was Hunter S. Thompson\u2019s favorite maxim. \u201cSometimes actresses get slapped\u201d (from the powerhouse closing track) is a worthy, weary variant\u2026 four words that sum up both late-night ballsiness and the harsh light of morning.<\/p>\n
The Hold Steadiverse is a distinctly American place, as is the band\u2019s sound. However, it\u2019s never been particularly easy to pin down. Attempting to describe Separation Sunday<\/i> to a friend, the best I could muster was, \u201cIt sounds kinda like The E Street Band and the Dead Kennedys got into a fight at the top of a staircase, tumbled to the bottom while clutching their respective instruments and managed to sound really fucking good while doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Call it Tarantino syndrome — being so in love with so many influences that you can\u2019t resist incorporating each and every one. At best, it results in genius. At worst? An embarrassment. It\u2019s certainly in full force on Positive<\/i>, and while it results in the band\u2019s most diverse effort to date, it\u2019s also the disc\u2019s greatest liability. \u201cJoke About Jamaica\u201d pays tribute to Zeppelin, Frampton and quite possibly Skynyrd — and that\u2019s just the breaks. \u201cNavy Sheet\u201d\u2019s New Wave synths never really hang right on the song\u2019s far-harder frame. You\u2019ve gotta admire an album ambitious enough to go from Moog to mandolin in four tracks. But as many of its characters could attest, experimentation and excess don\u2019t always mix.<\/p>\n
The \u201cten pounds of song in a five-pound bag\u201d phenomena is most evident on \u201cOne For The Cutters.\u201d\u00a0 The Gypsy-fied saga of class warfare and culpability could\u2019ve been fantastic (imagine the Decembrists binging on cock-rock and CourtTV). But no matter how great the material, there\u2019s only so much one song can accommodate. The coda in particular (with its disillusioned uptown girl \u201cgetting nailed against Dumpsters behind townie bars\u201d) is terrific, but occurs well after the song\u2019s grown overblown and overlong.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tough to fault the band for an excess of sonic zeal, though. The wide-eyed enthusiasm responsible for \u201cCutters\u201d\u2019s clunkiness also prevents the album from ever feeling formulaic. There are few things sadder than bored rock stars (attention, Interpol — cracking a smile or two won\u2019t annihilate your street cred). The subject matter on Positive<\/i> may be fairly somber, but the album\u2019s still suffused with a sense of inventiveness and, well, fun. \u201cBoth Crosses\u201d updates \u201cThe Battle of Evermore\u201d with blood, cacti and a theremin\u2026 and damned if it doesn\u2019t work. It slowly fades\u2026 and you\u2019re catapulted into the anthemic, rip-roaring title track. After the hypnotic \u201cCrosses,\u201d it\u2019s more like a visit from an old (and ruckus-raising) friend. A tossed-off line from \u201cNavy Sheets\u201d sums it up perfectly\u2026 after four albums, Finn and Co. are still blessedly like \u201cclever kids screwing with some new device.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cleverness alone does not an album make (see special clause, \u201cexcepting Mssrs. Timbaland and Yankovic\u201d). But as anyone who\u2019s attended a Hold Steady show can attest, this isn\u2019t your average bar band. You arrive expecting the bastard children of Paul Westerberg and Robert Pollard; you leave floored by their professionalism and talent. While the detours, departures and Frampton make Stay Positive<\/i> interesting, the musicianship makes it a Hold Steady record. The lower end\u2019s a bit muddy, but the overall mix is big, brash and tight. Each member\u2019s chops are impeccable — at times, overly so. TadKubler\u2019s always-slick guitars might benefit from a touch of grit. Multi-instrumentalist Franz Nikolai (who resembles the world\u2019s most bad-ass organ grinder) has added a harpsichord to his arsenal of the esoteric. Finn\u2019s vocals are still mouthy and manic\u2026 for the most part. On several tracks (\u201dLord, I\u2019m Discouraged\u201d and \u201cSlapped Actress\u201d), his delivery\u2019s slower, finer-grit\u2026 nay, damned near melodic. Be itcorrelation or coincidence, they\u2019re also the album\u2019s best. They might not make your ass shake\u2026 but they may make your jaw drop.<\/p>\n
“Discouraged\u201d is structurally similar to \u201cCutters\u201d — sad story, amped-up reprise. However, its clarity and focus make for a far different (and stronger) track. It\u2019s a slow, blues-tinged piano ballad whose flourishes only contribute to its strength. Even the Slash-ified guitar solo shows some modesty; it\u2019s grand sans grandstanding. Finn\u2019s not a fan of lyrical subtlety – and as few do bombast better, let\u2019s hope he never becomes one. Every so often, though, he trades the circuitous for the straightforward. The results — B&G<\/i>\u2019s \u201cCitrus\u201d and now \u201cDiscouraged\u201d – have been soft, sweet heartbreakers. The tale\u2019s common enough (pretty girl slides down the wrong rabbit hole on the wrong side of the tracks). Its impact comes from how it\u2019s told\u2026 with both simplicity and aching poignancy.<\/p>\n
It starts in Ybor City. It ends in epiphany. It\u2019s bigger, rougher and more frantically intense than anything preceding it. \u201cSlapped Actress\u201d is one hell of a closer\u2026 less of a backhand than a karate chop to the solar plexus. Over a high-torque guitar and piano line, Finn delves into the perilous pleasures of grabbing the reins and holding the mic\u2026 night after night after night. The City of Tampa, Ben Gazzara and mystic visions all make appearances. And shortly after John Cassavettes is name-checked, the choir shows up. The final thirty seconds are a shiver-delivering blend of celestial hymn and chanting crowd. They\u2019re less than sacred, more than secular\u2026 the perfect coda for an album which declares, \u201cthe sing-along songs will be our scriptures.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Hold Steady mythology\u2019s bruised-up heart is the possibility (not the promise) of redemption, whether via the songs, the scene or \u201cthe clumsiness of young and awkward lovers.\u201d No prior album has featured a cast as hungry for redemption as Stay Positive<\/i>. The perils of being whacked-out and cracked-out have been joined by those of bloody jackets, disturbing visions and burgeoning self-awareness. The houselights have flipped on. The Hold Steady\u2019s looking heavenward.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":29440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8202],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41018","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-hold-steady","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41018"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}