The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis (Rough Trade)
4/5
BUY DOWNLOADFollowing the breakthrough success of Boys and Girls in America, The Hold Steady return with not only the first single from their first album for Rough Trade, Stay Positive, but also, apparently, with a song that is the first to feature the word "sequestered". And there's likely a good reason for that. As tenuous as that final claim may be (who exactly records this kind of thing?), that's pretty much where the virgin outings end.
'Sequestered in Memphis' is the de facto Hold Steady song; Blue Collar bar room philosophy meets woman done wrong, done right, done far too much of something she shouldn't. It's familiar territory, if a little less Sal Paradise and a little more glossy CBS drama. Anthony LaPaglia is surely one phone call away from a cameo. And the production remains as slick as those same Brylcreem-ed locks, with hooks, honky tonk horns and Springsteen heartland drive positioning it just the right side of American Heartbeat infamy.
Less a retread as a refining of aesthetic, the narrative scans like a companion piece to "Hot Soft Light" from the aforementioned last album; a morning after the night before recount, with added Bonnie and Clyde 'us against the world' bathos. But Craig Finn's adroit enough to avoid self - parody, his pithy raconteur schtick savvy enough to make the same story worth hearing over and over again.
Drunks maybe wanton to repeat themselves, but for all their alleged party boy status, The Hold Steady are sharp, tight and focused enough to fit the role of the sober(er) sage with aplomb. Stay Positive can't come soon enough.
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