MOG

Dear Fellow Hold Steady Fan:

Have you heard The Hold Steady’s new album? Yeah? Yeah, it’s pretty good. I mean, it’s no Separation Sunday, that’s for sure. But it still rocks—it’s a good summer record. They’ve lightened up, don’t you think? Yeah, I guess the Stay Positive album title implies that. It just seems like Craig Finn got it out of his system a few years ago and now he and his mates are just having a good time. Did you hear the new lighthearted kind of sounds they worked in—the harpsichord and the mandolin and the different keyboard style? It makes it feel a little like a ‘60s rock record. I like the subtle change—they really are great musicians, they can pull it off. But, yeah, it’ll never hit me like Separation Sunday. No, no, I didn’t expect it to (I didn’t expect last year’s Boys & Girls In America to either). I know, such awesomeness can’t be repeated. Did I ever tell you about how addicted I was to that album? Man, I could not get enough. I listened to it so many times—I listened to it like it was Thriller and it was 1982. I listened to it so much it kept me awake at night. Finn’s killer lines would lodge themselves inside some deep crevice in my brain and then just as I was trying to get to sleep, they would start playing over and over and over again without relent. It was torture, seriously. It wasn’t like: I can’t get that stupid song out of me head. It was like: Make it stop, make it stop, please dear God make it stop. Oh Jesus, is that the sun? It was terrible. But, in a way, I also think it was a sign of some sort of greatness. I think truly great music knows how to tuck itself inside you and, in a way, become a part of you. In some ways, I think those songs from Separation Sunday will always be with me. And because of that, I will always hear The Hold Steady—no matter which album or which song—with a lot of fondness and respect. It’s as if we’ve some sort of special bond; some special unspoken relationship—that’s what great music gives you, don’t you think? This special inexplicable kind of connection? It doesn’t come along too often. I can’t listen to Stay Positive without feeling it. But then again I can’t listen to Stay Positive without thinking about Separation Sunday ‘cause that’s where they hooked me. I mean, I think Finn did some pretty deep and genuine exploration back when he was writing for Separation Sunday. There was a lot of fervency and intensity and revelation in the way he made sense of his past and, in a way, made sense of our past. He made a lot of powerful connections and spit them back at us with massive energy and wit, like nothing I’ve ever heard. Their first album, Almost Killed Me, seemed to get him there and the albums that came after seemed to just sort of bask in its glow as if they were descending from some sort of grand climax (and becoming a bit more pop and polished on the descent). I mean, the new album’s title song is even a kind of reflection on what’s come before: "There’s gonna come a time when the scene will become less sunny, it’ll probably get druggy and the kids will get too skinny. There’s gonna come a time when she’s gonna have to go with whoever’s gonna get her the highest." You can just feel the crowd going wild at this song—and mainly because of what it reminds of them of. And I think it’s great that Finn and company are acknowledging where they’ve been and how they arrived to where they are, don’t you? You see this with a lot of great rock bands--this sort of burning intensity and revelation that cools into good times and nostalgia. I have to say though, Stay Positive is a Hold Steady album, know what I mean? It’s a solid rock 'n' roll album built on totally original, smartly crafted rock 'n' roll songs that could only be made and played by The Hold Steady. I mean, the new songs aren’t going to keep me awake at night.  But I know they, like the band itself, will be with me, in some ways, forever.  The Hold Steady may have peaked on a Sunday but they’re not going out without a positive jam. God bless this band.