The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

There is something undeniably 80s about this single. It could be the fist pumping nature of its guitar riffs. It could also be the fact that the vocals, should you choose to close your eyes, would bring only one word to mind – Springsteen. Well, early day Bruce Springsteen. It could also be the fact that there’s a lot of ‘woah-oh oh’s’ to the song, which although don’t sound too cool when you write it down actually sounds a lot more fun when you’re listening to it. And this is where the single is at its strongest.

The Hold Steady are a straight up rock n roll band, and what they have managed to squeeze in here is a deceptively bleak take on the perils of a rock n roll lifestyle. Musically it equates to watching your alcoholic friend fall off the wagon. It’s clichéd but on the whole, when the track is as ballsy as this, it works. Lines like ‘There’s going to come a time when she’s gonna have to go / With whoever can get her the highest’ flow easily from a band that sound so much at home with what they do, seemingly effortlessly in tunes such as this. Marvellous stuff.