Stay Positive by the Hold Steady
Most critics are calling this the best album of the year and you know what, they may be right. Just a little over halfway into the year it's hard to definitely declare one album the best of the year, but I know this one will be in the list for the top ten. The Hold Steady are a rock fan's dream come true; the band where all in the early thirties and pretty much given up on any type of career in music when they came together to form the Hold Steady. At first the purpose of the group was to just have fun playing music and not record a album or tour. Before long the group was doing both and after 2006's Boys and Girls In America the group was touring the world and opening for the Rolling Stones.
The lead singer Craig Finn has loosened up his singing style from what was more of a talking type style to actually singing on the new album. The songs are stories from our lives, they write of people struggling to come to grips with their failures and shortcomings and celebrating their joy at being alive. Within their songs they tell stories of ordinary people and what they are experiencing. The lead singer says he considers this album about aging gracefully.
"Raise a toast to Saint Joe Strummer
I think he might have been our only decent teacher
Getting older makes it harder to remember
We are our only saviours."
The Hold Steady still believe in the miracle of music to transform lives. There is a lot of religious imagery on this album, but in the end they hold onto the fact that while God might not be able to save us, music still can.
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