Tuesday, August 09, 2016

The Hold Steady: Stay Positive (2008)

Untitled
Me and my friends are like the drums on "Lust for Life"
We pound it out on floor toms
Our psalms are sing-along songs
- Constructive Summer

At the time, I felt that The Hold Steady's fourth record was something of a disappointment. Happily,  the intervening years have changed my opinion. After all, it contains one of my favourite Hold Steady tunes, Slapped Actress, which is in my top five tunes from this band. Stay Positive was released after the wonderful Boys and Girls in America and the truly amazing Separation Sunday, which just might be my favourite record of all time. As such, I may have been hoping for too much.

This record has a bunch of great tunes: Stay Positive, Sequestered in Memphis (wait, I might list them all if I do that). There are simply no bad tracks on this double LP.

This record was released in 2008 in the US and Europe. I have the American pressing. My understanding is that this LP will be repressed soon. In the meantime, finding a copy of this record will probably be challenging. Right now, there are two copies for sale on Discogs, one for $50.84 and the other for $231.28 (The UK pressing is about $55.00). If you think that is expensive, just have a look at amazon.ca! At the time of writing, there were three vinyl copies for sale for $5284.00, $5782.78, and $7005.29! These re-sellers must think we are all idiots.



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