Hold Steady 320

1. The Hold Steady Stay Positive

At this point, new albums can no longer be taken for granted. After a proud run of six albums in 10 years, the one-time Brooklyn workhorses have settled into a more leisurely, part-time rhythm.

Age has cut down their time on the road; they now prefer weekend residencies to touring (“More of our time together is spent playing and performing music than setting up and taking down gear, driving it to the next place, setting it up again,” they wrote in, sounding like parents newly aware of how precious their time is.) And as either a symptom or a cause of the band’s reduced availability, frontman has been dedicating more time than ever to his solo career. His latest effort, dropped just this spring.So Thrashing Thru the Passion is the first Hold Steady album in more than five years, which would have been cause for more ceremony if the band hadn’t deflated expectations by releasing most of it in advance. Half the songs on the album were released as digital singles over the last few years; a couple of others were shared after the LP was announced. The result is a new Hold Steady album that, at least for the band’s most dedicated fans, won’t feel very new.And yet, despite coming from a band that seems to be winding down in many ways, Thrashing Thru The Passion is so alive and elated that, if not for Hold Steady’s well-documented track record, it could be mistaken for the work of a band just hitting its peak. It’s as joyous and rousing as the band’s best efforts, but also looser and utterly unforced.

The Hold Steady Stay Positive

Unceasingly uplifting, it makes almost no effort to shake up the group’s usual triumph rock, yet short of a completely unexpected reinvention or some left-field new muse, it’s a best-case scenario for what a seventh Hold Steady record could have sounded like.Passion is the band’s first LP with keyboardist Franz Nicolay since 2008’s, which could account for some of the renewed pep. But a just as likely explanation is the band’s relative absence.

The Hold Steady’s act demands too much commitment and perspiration for them to keep cranking out full-length shots of it every 18 months without diminishing returns. And especially after the time away, it’s a treat being submerged in Finn’s snapshots of rock’n’roll’s underachieving outsiders once again. “Denver Haircut” introduces a guy who, even at new restaurants, always orders the usual just to see what they’ll bring him. On “Star 18,” it’s a dude who claims he used to play with Peter Tosh, but never mentions it again once Finn says, “Man, I don't believe you.” That track also includes one of Finn’s great state-of-the-band nuggets: “Hold Steady at the Comfort Inn/Mick Jagger’s at The Mandarin.”Rest assured there are gems among the few unreleased tracks, too. “Blackout Sam,” with its Memphis horns, is the band’s take on -era, or the song equivalent of reassuringly drawing out the word “alright.” Those same horns drive “Traditional Village” to Blues Brothers revue-levels of razzle while Finn spitballs low-brow music theory: “Down at the rock’n’roll station they’re exhuming the bones/Maybe death’s just when you hang up the telephone? And the reason these people still listen to Zeppelin is it sounds really cool when you’re stoned.”As always, Finn’s vision of rock’n’roll is at once an utterly unglamorous and completely romantic.

The Hold Steady treat rock the way Penn & Teller treat magic: They deconstruct it, demystify it and expose it warts and all, but do so out of love and a belief that its behind-the-scenes machinations are every bit as beautiful and intriguing as the polished final product. Fifteen years after their debut, the Hold Steady are still passionately making the case that, while there may not be much dignity in rock’n’roll, that doesn’t make it any less noble of a pursuit.Buy:(Pitchfork may earn a commission from purchases made through affiliate links on our site.).

The Hold Steady – Almost Killed Me (2004/2016)FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz Time – 60:12 minutes 728 MB Genre: Rock, AlternativeStudio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: ProStudioMasters Front Cover © Frenchkiss RecordsAfter Lifter Puller, the long-running indie rock band he fronted, broke up, Craig Finn took his vocal declarations and lyrical twists and started the Hold Steady. He was joined by old bandmate Tad Kubler on lead guitar plus a crew of hard rocking, bar hopping dudes intent on taking the rambling indie rock of Lifter Puller and replacing it with scuffed-up AOR and swaggering hard rock. Their 2004 debut album, Almost Killed Me, sounds like the E Street Band after they slipped into the gutter, Thin Lizzy if they got fat and American, and a hundred other bands from Southside Johnny to the early-’70s Kinks that liked to party, but did it with the occasional tear-filled eyes and desperate hearts. Like the best of these classic rock staples, the Hold Steady can flat out rock. Kubler can rip off a fret-searing solo with bullfighter style, which he does quite frequently, and the rhythm section has enough muscle power to stop a speeding locomotive. On top of this vintage rock chassis, the band drop Finn’s vocals and vision. Without him, the music is straightforward enough to appeal to the AOR masses and backstreet fanatics; with him they are far too weird and wild.

His pop culture name-drops, knowing references to obscure musicians like Andre Cymone, real-sounding tales of the streets, and flights of knuckle-busting anger are far out in left field, and his bracing, eye-bulging delivery of said lyrics pushes it even further over the top. It’s a high-wire balancing act of sorts, and it would be easy for the band to topple over into boring mainstream rock cliches or veer into embarrassing drunken poetry territory but it never happens, not even once.

The group plays with intense energy at all times, propping Finn up and giving his words the dramatic backdrop they deserve. Finn holds up his end of the bargain by being hilarious and oddly touching as he rambles, coughs, and shouts his way through what sounds like a lifetime of journal entries, inside jokes, and record store soliloquies. Tracks like “The Swish” and “Knuckles” are endlessly quotable, the story songs don’t wear out after repeated listens, and at times, the words and music combine in such a thrilling manner that the Hold Steady feel like the best, most alive band in the world. It’s a brilliant debut, and the sense that Finn and friends viewed Almost Killed Me as a renewed lease on musical life is tangible throughout. The last-chance desperation and burning desire bleed out through the grooves and it’s impossible not to get swept up in the flood right along with them.Tracklist:1 Positive Jam 3:172 The Swish 4:083 Barfruit Blues 3:304 Most People Are DJs 5:515 Certain Songs 3:546 Knuckles 3:467 Hostile, Mass. 3:428 Sketchy Metal 4:169 Sweet Payne 4:3310 Killer Parties 5:4711 Milkcrate Mosh 5:5712 Hot Fries 3:4413 Curves And Nerves 2:4114 You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came To The Dance With) 2:0215 Modesto Is Not That Sweet 3:11Personnel:Craig Finn – lead vocals, guitarTad Kubler – lead guitar, backing vocalsGalen Polivka – bass guitarSteve Selvidge – guitarJudd Counsell – drumsDownload.