The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (Dig) (CD)

All Music Guide

If the Hold Steady quit after 2007's magnificent Boys and Girls in America, no one could have blamed them. After all, they had recorded three brilliant records. In 2004, THS issued the guttersnipe punk meets classic rock Almost Killed Me recorded mostly live since the band had little wherewithal in using a studio. They upped the ante with Separation Sunday, where songwriter Craig Finn's post Catholic guilt and confusion led to lyric lines that were pregnant with selfmythologizing. The melodies were more intricate, the guitars referenced Led Zeppelin and Cheap Trick, and the stories about himself with busted heroines and drunken heroes all fallen former Catholic angels were as memorable as the Beat Generation icons rock roll immortalized. Finally, 2007's Boys and Girls in America added new studio savvy along with the same crazy energy and chanted refrains that referenced more than just rock roll clichés (they hinted at the confused selfmirroring universe Finn was trying to figure ...out) and an expanded band sound (with keyboards no less) drawing from Thin Lizzy's dual lead guitars, the Replacements, Led Zeppelin, and, of course, Bruce Springsteen of the '70s. Over three records, they'd done almost everything. To boot, they had a smoking live show that captured everything they did on record even better.and musical sophistication all come together in two songs that are less studied and calculated. There is an uneasy balance between "finished" bigtime rock and the wily, playful freedom of "arena rock in my basement"; humor is maintained amid the darkness and Finn's selfreferential mythology unwinds itself into even greater insight. Irony abounds, finally, in that even if it's the Hold Steady's least enjoyable recording, Stay Positive will break this band nationally. - Thom Jurek, All Music Guide Read more Less