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Right now, no band displays the ranting soul, haunted heart or diseased liver of the American rock myth with more truth and empathy than the Hold Steady. The Brooklyn band’s fourth set — their most adventurous yet — shows their loser-outlaw storytelling and classic riff propulsion in full flower. It’s a punk-weaned, 21st-century version of The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle.Per the title, Stay Positive is remarkably optimistic. Of course, the Hold Steady’s optimism is usually stoned and unreliable. “We’re gonna build something this summer!” Craig Finn hollers on the jet-engine opener, “Constructive Summer.” But when the mob-chorus shouts, “Get hammered!” it’s clear the season may not be so constructive after all. By “Sequestered in Memphis,” the singer is in trouble Read the rest of this entry »

From the beginning, U2 aspired to profound ecstasy. But it took Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. a while to get there. Two of U2’s first three albums are undeniable classics: 1980’s precociously magnificent Boy for its proudly spiritual optimism in the thick of post-punk nihilism and for the Edge’s reveille-treble guitar; 1983’s War for its arena-rock muscle tone (honed over three years of touring) and the matured blend of soldier’s ardor and pop wile in the singles “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day.” But those albums were transitional achievements on the way to the complete victory of The Joshua Tree and U2’s brassy Berlin-techno makeover on Achtung Baby, and the second discs in these deluxe reissues — including the rushed, middle runt of the litter, 1981’s October — are honest, Read the rest of this entry »

When you’ve made your name and fortune on fierce weirdness, the most drastic thing you can do is flaunt some restraint. In System of a Down, singer-guitarist Daron Malakian’s bright yelp was already the more normal voice next to Serj Tankian’s operatic harangue. But as Scars on Broadway, with System drummer John Dolmayan, Malakian shaves System’s punk-dervish and metallic-vengeance extremes into straight-on rock glazed with New Wave keyboards and impish-angel harmonies. It is a cleverly barbed normality. “Funny” is a catchy death wish that somehow evokes Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” amid burbling Eighties synthesizer. “Insane” is steady, rolling darkness with a Who-ish Read the rest of this entry »

Randy Newman has earned a nice living in recent years as a film composer, but connoisseurs covet his Seventies work, when he emerged as one of the most cutting and empathic of American singer-songwriters. So his return to political-minded material on Harps and Angels is reason to wrap yourself in the flag and cheer.Newman works with piano, an orchestra and a Dixieland-style combo, using American musical tradition to amplify irony and yank heartstrings. The best moments echo classics like “Sail Away” and “Louisiana 1927,” songs that mixed pathos and bruised patriotism with brutal wit. The set’s keystone is “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country,” released on iTunes last year. A state- Read the rest of this entry »