Vagrant Records
2008
Stay Positive
About This Album
If the Hold Steady quit after 2006'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 self-mythologizing. 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 self-mirroring 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.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9)

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