The Hold Steady, a band BYT both loves to love and loves to hate, has a new album, physically out today. Matthew is here to let you know what’s up with it.

Rating system
0 stars - Complete and utter garbage
1 star - Best just not to ever press play, save your ears for another day
2 stars - Not completely atrocious, but one you’ll probably forget about as soon as it’s over
3 stars - Good, but not great, likely with some excellent songs and others you’ll skip right through
4 stars - Damn good album, one you’ll definitely want to enjoy again and again
5 stars - Instant Classic

If you’ve ever heard the Hold Steady before, you’ve probably already made up your mind about their new album, Stay Positive. The Hold Steady are an extremely polarizing band, and their speak-sing barroom rock seems to either inspire worship or make people go running for the hills, with very little middle ground. Stay Positive is unlikely to find the band many new fans, but it won’t lose them any of the ones they already had either.

With the seemingly sudden success that The Hold Steady has come across in the last few years, this was the first time in their short career where the next step didn’t seem like an obvious one.
Their debut, Almost Killed Me, was the sound of a band crafting a sound, while its follow-up, Separation Sunday, nearly perfected that sound. Then, on their commercial break-though Boys and Girls in America, they hit upon something that few bands are able to succeed at. They managed to add beefed-up production and poppy hooks to their music without making it seem contrived. Their sound was suddenly more accessible to the mainstream, yet their old fans still loved and respected them at the same time, and the end result was one of the best albums of the last few years.

So how does a band follow up such a massive hit? Well, on Stay Positive, the band takes the safe route and sticks with what’s worked for them in the past. Sure, there are some new tricks here and there, a harpsichord carries the somber “One for the Cutters,” and “Navy Sheets” is driven by a ridiculously catchy synth-pop keyboard riff, but at their core, these are just Hold Steady songs with slightly different instrumentation. And Hold Steady songs are largely fantastic, as Craig Finn and company have turned themselves into masterful songwriters over the last few albums. Listening to their music has the inexplicable ability to make listeners feel nostalgic for growing up in the Midwest, even if they’ve never been west of Virginia in their lives.

“Yeah Sapphire” is a perfect example of the punk rock-meets-Bruce Springsteen sound that has come to define the band, and even without a true chorus it’s just as infectious as anything the band’s written to date. The title track seems like a tribute to their older songs, loud, driving, full of “whoa-ho-hos” and borrowing lines from Hold Steady songs gone-by like, “there’s gonna come a time when she’s gonna have to go with whoever’s gonna get her the highest.” The album closes with “Slapped Actress” which pairs a grunge-y guitar riff with a gorgeous piano part to create an epic finale.

Stay Positive may not blaze any new trails, and it may not be as good as Separation Sunday or Boys and Girls in America, but taken on its own, apart from those albums, it’s an excellent collection of songs from a band who can seemingly do no wrong. The Hold Steady may never achieve Coldplay or Radiohead-like superstardom, but these guys seem like they’re quite happy where they are and are poised to stay there for a hell of a lot longer.

4 Stars

^{lower image: ryan mcginley}

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