The Hold Steady – Stay Positive

Stay Positive – The Hold Steady

By Chris Peken

The Hold Steady’s 2006 album Boys and Girls in America was a masterpiece, a zenith for a band who has eschewed fad and fashion for Thin Lizzy twin guitar attack and E Street band keyboards with smatterings of Zeppelin and Bob Mould Husker Du. Where Boys and Girls was the raw distillation of all their energy and influences and singer songwriter Craig Finn’s post Catholic guilt, Stay Positive is a more polished studio effort that like its title, can’t be faulted in concept, but remains a little too neat in execution. Constructive Summer kicks in with all the energy that Boys and Girls left us with, and Sequestered in Memphis is great middle American rock. Two songs in, so far, so very good. The faux harpsichord opening to One for the Cutters however alerts us to something amiss – The Stranglers Golden Brown it ain’t. When Navy Sheets washes us with Cars-like keyboards you can’t but help think “too much time, too much technology”. But when they then return to keeping it simple – be it the quiet Lord I’m Discouraged, or the loud Slapped Actress – it works. A mixed blessing from a still endearing band.

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