The Hold Steady
Stay Positive
2008

If you download one song, download: "Lord, I'm Discouraged"

Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn is a lyricist and a storyteller. When I saw them live at Pizza Lucé back in '05, I stood up front as Finn leaned forward into the relatively sparse crowd, shouting rather than singing, and his words more stories than songs. You couldn't dance to it, and it was hard to follow, standing there in a boozy pizzeria clutching a PBR tallboy. But shit, did it rock.

The Hold Steady is most frequently compared to Bruce Springsteen, and it's easy to see why. But Finn also lists John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats as a major influence. Two of the Hold Steady's four albums are bar-rock concept albums about three drugged-out Minneapolis kids named Charlemagne, Gideon, and Holly. The new album, Stay Positive, explores similar themes in a less structured way.

While I do love the rocked-out title track as well as the first single, "Sequestered in Memphis," I'm finding myself drawn mostly to the ballads. I'm tied for favorites between "Lord, I'm Discouraged" and the aptly titled "One for the Cutters." "Discouraged" is more attractive musically, the keyboard of choice being a piano as opposed to "Cutters'" harpsichord. It walks on familiar Hold Steady territory, as it's a love song for a girl who's spent a little too much time in the party pit:

She says that she's sick, but she won't get specific The sutures and bruises are none of my business This guy from the north side comes down to visit His visits, they only take five or six minutes

But while "Discouraged" is easier to listen to, "One for the Cutters" tells a more fascinating story about a well-to-do college girl with a dirty secret -- "When there weren't any parties, sometimes she'd party with townies." It's a downward-spiral situation somewhat similar to Looking for Mr. Goodbar. She never tells anyone about the townies, even her roommates, who remain clueless, until one night things when go horribly wrong. There's a fight, a killing, a cover-up. She lies in court and testifies as an alibi. The song ends with the verse:

Sniffing that crystal in cute, little cars Getting nailed against Dumpsters behind townie bars. It's a cute little town, boutiques and cafes Her friends all seemed nice, she was getting good grades But when she came home for Christmas, she just seemed distant and different.

Stay Positive won't be released in the U.S. until July 15, but the majority of the songs can be streamed on the Hold Steady's MySpace page (they had the whole album up for awhile, as of this writing, there's six songs up).