I know the local scenesters love love looooove The Hold Steady round these parts, but let me ask you a question. Do you have to be over 35 to love The Hold Steady? Also, do you have to be tone deaf and love speak-singing?
The Brooklyn-based rock band boasts four of five members calling the MSP-area home. One listen to the group’s new album, Stay Positive, and it’s easy to see why us Midwesterners get off on the hometown aesthetic of love, loss and E Street Band rockitude.
Stay Positive features 12 pop tracks that my mom could probably argue make use of excellent song structure, and she would probably note the poignant lyrics. But my mom is from Iowa. Maybe you have to be immersed in New York’s new wave revival or Oregon’s post-rock culture to “get” this band.
Maybe you have to know the band’s full back story, profess a love for Lifter Puller (and the good old days, naturally) to allow your ears to ignore that vocalist Craig Finn cannot sing. He sounds like my drunken uncle after a wedding. At least Bruce Springsteen could kind of sing.
Don’t get me wrong. The lyricism — on “Both Crosses” in particular — is admirable. The instrumentation — horns on “Sequestered in Memphis,” bow saw, banjo and mandolin on “Both Crosses” and harpsichord on “One for the Cutters” — is something modern pop bands would never even consider. The maturity throughout this album — restraint on guitar solo of “Joke About Jamaica” — is rich and acne free.
However, I’m not from Minnesota, I’m not 35, I like my vocalists to sing, and I’m afraid this album isn’t cutting the muster. So I’ll put this on a shelf and revisit it when my hearing aid battery dies.
"For Your Love"
Buy at 
Buy at 
6 responses so far ↓
1 Renee // Jul 16, 2008 at 3:40 am
Amen!
2 nick // Jul 16, 2008 at 8:43 pm
did anyone like the last album? I loved that record and still do. I’m not so sure about the new one. Ive been listening since the day it came out, and I’m not so sure yet. I am going to the show next week in Minneapolis and guess we’ll see if it comes across better live. I had high hopes for this one, but had a feeling when the record came our that they might have a hard time topping it.
3 drewchowen // Jul 17, 2008 at 12:40 pm
yeah, kinda’ feel the same. the approach was novel for a record (or two), but it wears thin…
4 Porridge // Jul 17, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Nick, be sure to let me know what you think of the show. I have a coworker who’s also going, but she’s already professed to being more of a longtime Lifter Puller fan that anything.
5 Nick // Jul 17, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I did however see them on Letterman last night, and it gave me hope for the show next week. I’ll keep everyone posted. Their performance was pretty good.
6 Nick // Jul 23, 2008 at 10:35 am
Alright. I went to the sold out show at First Avenue last night. I admit that I was excited for the show, but I saw them about 3 years ago at First Ave and didn’t really like it at all. The show far surpassed my expectations, and Craig Finn is (as he’s always been in my opinion) a great frontman. The show was great. It is so nice to see someone truly having fun while they are performing, feeding off of the audience, without any of the contrived drable and B.S. that we’ve all become so used to. I have forced myself to listen to the new record, and I am really starting to like it now. If there is anything I have figured out over the years, it is usually true that if you like something right away it won’t last long, but if it grows on you it will be a favorite for a long time. Springsteen references aside, these guys are a good band. They know how to write good songs. Finn knows how to make the most of his vocal abilities (or inabilities.) They have figured out how to work a sing along chorus into songs that really don’t have any traditional singing. Finn is a fantastic writer and if you know what he is saying it makes up the non traditional approach. Just remember, Lou Reed and Bob Dylan couldn’t really sing either. I think that if Finn could sing that Hold Steady would have been dismissed by most, because his characteristic vocals are what really set them apart from the other so called bar bands, along with his great knack for words.
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