New Hold Steady, "Sequestered in Memphis"
If you haven’t seen this elsewhere, the Hold Steady have a new song called “Sequestered in Memphis” up at their MySpace page.
I just finished listening to it for the first time… it’s OK. Love the guitars, but I’m not sure whether I like Craig’s continued effort to actually sing. It just sounds weird to me, and I’m not sure whether it’s because (a) I’m not used to it, or (b) he’s just not that good a singer.
And even more important than Craig’s vocals is the fact that it just doesn’t seem like that compelling a song. The chorus is pretty uninteresting, and the horns just sound forced to me.
I’ll definitely listen to it a lot more. I may even end up loving the song, who knows. But my first impression is just so-so.
Edited to add: I was able to find a streaming version using SeeqPod. Not sure if the source blog is authorized to post it, so it might get pulled at some point. But for now it seems to be working:
No, it’s Craig. He sounds exhausted and his phrasing is way off, dragging the tune down, esp. since his voice is mixed so high.
Good tune, esp. for those who miss Summerteeth-ear Wilco (I am not one of those, but …). -E
You know, as I listen to it again, it really just sounds like two different songs to me. There’s the instrumental portion of the song, which is really good, and then there’s the vocal track, which is just really off.
I’d like to see them play this song to see if it fits together any better live.
I like the music a lot, but it seems like they may have outgrown Craig’s (li)abilities as a vocalist. Maybe.