CD Review: The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America
There is a distinct subset of music fans who grew up listening to Bruce Springsteen, graduated to punk and grunge in high school, and spent their 20s getting just a little bit too wasted. For that discerning generation, there is The Hold Steady.
At its most basic, the New York-by-way-of-Minneapolis band plays pure, triumphant rock with a steady beat and the occasional piano bludgeoning. What sets The Hold Steady's rock apart is the band's ability to capture the drastic highs and lows of youth, lust, and indulgence. On the band's third full-length, Boys and Girls in America (Vagrant), the music makes you want to join the party one minute, and the next thing you know, you're being dragged into the dark and eerie comedown.
Last year's Separation Sunday, with its lapsed Catholic melodrama, is arguably the better album. But Boys and Girls in America is the by far best showcase for the band's stellar lyrics, delivered in frontman Craig Finn's unique hybrid of singing, shouting, and slurring, so read more
The album's first song, "Stuck Between Stations," opens with a line from Kerouac, which Finn taped to his wall for inspiration while writing the album: "Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together." Between tearing arena-rock guitars and cymbals, the twisted poetry progresses: "Crushing one another with colossal expectations / dependent, undisciplined, sleeping late."
This is a world of so-called "massive nights" and outdoor festivals, where real connections are foiled by chaperones or substances. On the slightly funky "Hot Soft Light," Finn sings: "We started recreational / It ended kinda medical / It came on hot and soft and then / it tightened up its tentacles." Later, in "Chillout Tent"—a boy-girl duet featuring Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner and Elizabeth Elmore from Sarge—a couple of kids overdo it at a concert but still "started kissing when the nurses took off their IVs."
But as great as Finn's lyrics are, the band doesn't depend solely on words: One standout track, "Chips Ahoy," draws its energy from a careening organ and a multi-voice chorus of "whoa-ho-hos." On Boys and Girls in America, the momentum is coming from all sides, and it's a wild ride.
