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Inside Tracks #1 - The Hold Steady : Lord I
In the first of an (ir)regular new series, FDM.com looks to highlight the gallant and unsung heroes of music; those criminally over-looked album tracks forever cast into the shadows by inferior singles. This week 'Lord I'm Discouraged' from The Hold Steady's recent record 'Stay Positive' gets showered in belated praise....
Artist: The Hold Steady (www.theholdsteady.com)
Album: 'Stay Positive' (Rough Trade, May 2008)
Song: Track 5: 'Lord I'm Discouraged'
Background to the album: The SW charms of The Hold Steady distilled into a concept album of sorts that trails the murder of two young boys, the self-destruction of a forgotten groupie and the midlife crises of a man on the wrong side of 30. By far The Hold Steady's most dynamic and rounded effort to date, 'Stay Positive' takes Craig Finn's familiar subject matters - disillusionment and frustration with life in America's hinterlands - and adds venom, bite and, ultimately, redemption. Big on fist-pumping bar-brawl anthems and bigger still on emotional narrative, this is The Hold Steady at their exhilarating best.
Why this song? 'Lord I'm Discouraged' sounds like nothing else on the album. Around it, short and sharp blasts of American blue-collar rock clash and vie for attention like screaming trailer-park brats. Then suddenly you find yourself confronted with this aching, country-stung ballad that seemingly stretches out for hours on end. Finn is also at his most wistful. His reflective and soft croon adds to the atmosphere as his lyrics talk helplessly around the album's central character (the aging groupie) as she falls into the inevitable spiral of self-destruction. So far, so epic, but then the gears are shifted. Exactly three minutes in and with Finn's vocals becoming more and more acerbic and his lyrics painting a darker and darker picture an almighty guitar solo suddenly unfurls its wings and the whole track (and album) goes through the roof. For 60 seconds Ted Kubler picks up the story and uses his six-string like a preacher uses a pulpit. The solo aches and weeps as it unwinds, adding a new level of emotion to the story that lyrics and a voice seemed incapable of doing. When Finn's bourbon-ravaged burr finally returns it's to make a final avowal that Uncut editor Allan Jones calls the "saddest things I've ever heard in a song". Quite.
What the critics said about 'Lord I'm Discouraged':
Uncut : "...Holly's errant descent into drugs, careless sex and life on the groupie fringes of rock'n'roll, is recalled from the points of view of friends, abusive lovers and, on the epic country-tinged ballad, "Lord, I'm Discouraged", a helplessly smitten witness to her self-destruction, whose final imploration is among the saddest things I've ever heard in a song, Kubler's heroic guitar here a torrent of undiminished pain."
http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/the_hold_steady/reviews/11826
There's Nothing Quite Like The Blinding Lights : "The band switches gears on 'Lord, I'm Discouraged' which sounds both like a southern rock anthem and an R&B confessional. Finn sings of a girl he's trying to reach that's way past arm's length. Complete with a long, winding guitar solo from Tad Kubler, the song ends with Finn seeking guidance and confessing that his faith is on shaky ground. When he sings "Wont you show me a sign?/Let me know that you're listening." he doesn't seem to be patient enough to wait and heads back into the chorus ("Excuses and half truths and fortified wine") and ends singing "I know it's unlikely she'll ever be mine/So I mostly just pray she don't die."
http://nothingquitelike.blogspot.com/2008/07/album-review-hold-steady.html
Consquence Of Sound: "Clocking in at just over five minutes, 'Lord I'm Discouraged' is a slowed down, particularly sentimental, even by The Hold Steady's standards, ballad that mixes musical brilliance with lyrical grace. Opening with the simplicity of the piano, a mellowed Finn soon enters. "Lord I'm Discouraged" are the first words echoed, the initial emotions of a moving tale of lost love. The song's midsection is taken over by an epic guitar solo, eventually transitioning to a near-halt, only to see the the band's story teller then once again enter, brilliantly singing "Lord, I'm sorry to question your wisdom/but my faith has been wavering/Won't you show me a sign/and let me know that you're listening?" But in words fitting of the album's title, Finn continues, "Don't know for sure if she's even alive/so I mostly just pray she don't die," an appropriate close to a song that is incredible in message as it is in music.
http://consequenceofsound.net/2008/05/31/album-review-stay-positive/
Listen to the album track version of 'Lord I'm Discouraged' here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMrCIUUtWHU&feature=related
Artist: The Hold Steady (www.theholdsteady.com)
Album: 'Stay Positive' (Rough Trade, May 2008)
Song: Track 5: 'Lord I'm Discouraged'
Background to the album: The SW charms of The Hold Steady distilled into a concept album of sorts that trails the murder of two young boys, the self-destruction of a forgotten groupie and the midlife crises of a man on the wrong side of 30. By far The Hold Steady's most dynamic and rounded effort to date, 'Stay Positive' takes Craig Finn's familiar subject matters - disillusionment and frustration with life in America's hinterlands - and adds venom, bite and, ultimately, redemption. Big on fist-pumping bar-brawl anthems and bigger still on emotional narrative, this is The Hold Steady at their exhilarating best.
Why this song? 'Lord I'm Discouraged' sounds like nothing else on the album. Around it, short and sharp blasts of American blue-collar rock clash and vie for attention like screaming trailer-park brats. Then suddenly you find yourself confronted with this aching, country-stung ballad that seemingly stretches out for hours on end. Finn is also at his most wistful. His reflective and soft croon adds to the atmosphere as his lyrics talk helplessly around the album's central character (the aging groupie) as she falls into the inevitable spiral of self-destruction. So far, so epic, but then the gears are shifted. Exactly three minutes in and with Finn's vocals becoming more and more acerbic and his lyrics painting a darker and darker picture an almighty guitar solo suddenly unfurls its wings and the whole track (and album) goes through the roof. For 60 seconds Ted Kubler picks up the story and uses his six-string like a preacher uses a pulpit. The solo aches and weeps as it unwinds, adding a new level of emotion to the story that lyrics and a voice seemed incapable of doing. When Finn's bourbon-ravaged burr finally returns it's to make a final avowal that Uncut editor Allan Jones calls the "saddest things I've ever heard in a song". Quite.
What the critics said about 'Lord I'm Discouraged':
Uncut : "...Holly's errant descent into drugs, careless sex and life on the groupie fringes of rock'n'roll, is recalled from the points of view of friends, abusive lovers and, on the epic country-tinged ballad, "Lord, I'm Discouraged", a helplessly smitten witness to her self-destruction, whose final imploration is among the saddest things I've ever heard in a song, Kubler's heroic guitar here a torrent of undiminished pain."
http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/the_hold_steady/reviews/11826
There's Nothing Quite Like The Blinding Lights : "The band switches gears on 'Lord, I'm Discouraged' which sounds both like a southern rock anthem and an R&B confessional. Finn sings of a girl he's trying to reach that's way past arm's length. Complete with a long, winding guitar solo from Tad Kubler, the song ends with Finn seeking guidance and confessing that his faith is on shaky ground. When he sings "Wont you show me a sign?/Let me know that you're listening." he doesn't seem to be patient enough to wait and heads back into the chorus ("Excuses and half truths and fortified wine") and ends singing "I know it's unlikely she'll ever be mine/So I mostly just pray she don't die."
http://nothingquitelike.blogspot.com/2008/07/album-review-hold-steady.html
Consquence Of Sound: "Clocking in at just over five minutes, 'Lord I'm Discouraged' is a slowed down, particularly sentimental, even by The Hold Steady's standards, ballad that mixes musical brilliance with lyrical grace. Opening with the simplicity of the piano, a mellowed Finn soon enters. "Lord I'm Discouraged" are the first words echoed, the initial emotions of a moving tale of lost love. The song's midsection is taken over by an epic guitar solo, eventually transitioning to a near-halt, only to see the the band's story teller then once again enter, brilliantly singing "Lord, I'm sorry to question your wisdom/but my faith has been wavering/Won't you show me a sign/and let me know that you're listening?" But in words fitting of the album's title, Finn continues, "Don't know for sure if she's even alive/so I mostly just pray she don't die," an appropriate close to a song that is incredible in message as it is in music.
http://consequenceofsound.net/2008/05/31/album-review-stay-positive/
Listen to the album track version of 'Lord I'm Discouraged' here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMrCIUUtWHU&feature=related
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