Author: Michael
The Hold Steady – The Price of Progress (2023)
It all starts with a guitar riff then 80s styled synths pop into the mix on “Grand Junction”. A song about a couple driving out west where the girl is scared then amazed by the size of the sky. Singer Craig Finn tackles other relationships on The Hold Steady’s ninth studio album, The Price of Progress. “Perdido” captures a break up while on vacations. “Says she’s got a couple lovers, yeah, you’re not the only one/You’re just the only one that wants to spend the week with me.”
The boys are having a crisis after softball on “Carlos is Crying” where Carlos has not told his girlfriend he has not worked in weeks. “Flyover Halftime” has a significant pregaming session before one of the boys runs on the field. At times, the stories and songs are not that significant, “City at Eleven” doesn’t leave much of an impression. But on The Price of Progress, the band cranks out several middle aged delights that a lot of us can relate to.
7/10
Q4 2022 + Q1 2023 Read It
Discipline is Destiny is Ryan Holiday’s second in a planned four part series following the four stoic virtues of Courage/Temperance/Justice/Wisdom. It follows his familiar style of a general theme broken up into short chapters about historical figures. The themes include The Body, The Temperament, and The Soul. Some of those figures here include Marcus Aurelius, Queen Elizabeth, Lou Gehrig, and Angela Merkel. It’s another inspiring achievement for the author who has dedicated his life to the stoic one. 9/10
A classic re-read of an all-time favourite, A Catcher in the Rye. J.D. Salinger’s novel from 1951 follows protagonist Holden Caulfield around New York City after he gets kicked out of yet another boarding school. Meeting up with former school mates, girls he’s dated, a few scoundrels and best of all, his sister Phoebe. Young Phoebe is the voice of reason in Holden’s troubled life and one of the most endearing relationships in popular reading. She’s not enough to save him from himself as he makes mistake after mistake. One of the best novels of all time, Catcher in the Rye remains a must read. 10/10
Steven Pressfield’s latest book, Put Your Ass [Where Your Heart Wants To Be] has a straightforward concept – if you want to get stronger, go to the gym. If you want to write, get up early and write. If you want to be in the movies, move to Hollywood. It is a swift kick for a lot of us that put things off and never seem to get to them, for one reason or another. The chapters are short, often less than a page long so easy to fly through the book. My favourite part was the story about James Patterson who would go into work two hours early to his advertising job and work on his books/writing. If you focus, and put the time in, it’s amazing what can be accomplished in just a few months or a year. 8/10
Psychology of Money is one of those books that frequently appears on Instagram pages as a must read business book. Written by former Wall Street Journal columnist, Morgan Housel, his first book covers a lot of topics and uses stories throughout to help make his point. He talks about various financial crises, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Amazon. Housel writes that we all bring different ideas to money depending on who we are, our beliefs, life experiences and the era we grew up in. The basic tenants of the book are to invest early, invest often, don’t be distracted by outside noise, and stay the course. It is boring advice but Housel shows that slow and steady more often that not wins the race. 10/10
The National – Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers (2003)
Nearly 20 years ago The National released their second album, Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers. It was their first time working with co-producer Peter Katis who would produce their next two discs and the first to include Bryce Dessner as a full member. The band grows their sound from the first release with chiming guitars on “Slipping Husband” and halfway through “90-Mile Water Wall” where the song changes direction with an extended instrumental passage.
Matt Berninger is still trying to find his voice on many wordy songs. “Available” has an anthemic feel that Berninger struggles to keep up with. Better are the tracks where he takes a more minimalist approach such as the guitar driven “Murder Me Rachael” and the lyrically simpler “Sugar Wife”. The album closes with the country tinged “Lucky You”. Like the first album, this has the sound of the city’s best bar band who would have been blinding to have stumbled across across one night.
7/10
The Light Appears 