Brooklyn’s answer to the E Street Band is back for another round of
indie anthems. But on the follow-up to 2006’s critically dry-humped
Boys and Girls in America, Craig Finn and company take a step
back from the outright Springsteen-isms of that record (though lead
single “Sequestered in Memphis” certainly pumps the horns and gang
vocals to those same anthemic heights). On Stay Positive, their
fifth record, the Hold Steady pushes out its boundaries without
collapsing the overall formula completely. That is to say it’s trying
on different influences — Springsteen and the Replacements are
still obvious touchstones, but there’s more old-school punk-rock, and
maybe even some Billy Joel in there.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Stay Positive is a
better record than the rather one-note Boys and Girls. There’s
more nuance here, with different instrumentations and sparser
arrangements scattered between the fist-pumpers; tracks like “One for
the Cutters” and “Both Crosses” take on a darker tone than we’ve heard
from the band thus far, and it suits them. Of course Finn is still a
manic and unrepentant lyricist — how the man remembers all those
words from night to night is beyond me — but even he shows some
restraint this time out, particularly on the wistful “Yeah Sapphire,”
which favors stanzas over paragraphs. But back to the punk: It’s called
on often here, no more directly than in the title track, where Finn
spits, The Youth of Today and the early 7 Seconds taught me some of
life’s most valuable lessons. One of those lessons might be “Don’t
forget your roots.” Finn wears his like merit badges, much to our
benefit.
