Hold Steady

"Boys And Girls In America"
The Hold Steady
Vagrant Records
2006

With great anticipation, I rushed from class this afternoon to my local record shop to pick up the brand new Hold Steady CD. I hurried straight home and popped the disc into my computer to hear what I hoped would be my new favorite Hold Steady album.

For those uninitiated to the Hold Steady, their first two albums on French Kiss Records brought us the ongoing saga of Hallelujah and Charlemagne, two suburban kids with a healthy dose of rock and roll, party drugs, and sexual appetite. "Almost Killed Me" gave us an introduction to the world of Minnesota skaters and hood rats on a drug-fueled journey. "Separation Sunday" was the religious allegory that came as a follow-up to "Almost" in 2005. These two albums gave the world a new brand of culturally literate, guitar-driven rock and roll with a delightfully quotable lyric narrative. Craig Finn's raspy speak/singing delivered such lines as "Holly wore a cross to ward them off/She says 'If they think you're a christian, then they won't send in the dogs/and if they think you're a Catholic then they'll want to meet your boss.'"

But, just as the band moves from French Kiss to Vagrant Records, "Boys and Girls" is a departure for The Hold Steady as well. While the first two records were based on a paradigm of clever narrative lyrics backed by drums, guitars, and keyboards, "Boys and Girls" has a bit more complex, polished, and arranged sound. The album features many guest musicians on viola, violin, sax, trumpet, trombone, and lap steel guitar as well as a much larger role for the previously subdued organ/keyboard player. Another big change for the band is the addition of background vocals that were conspicuously absent from the first two albums. All this adds up to Craig Finn's voice sometimes getting buried under layers of instrumentation. But none of this additional production really improves upon The Hold Steady as a band. If anything, it obscures what were the best characteristics of the band. The clever narrative and the simple pounding drums and driving guitars were all that was needed to bring a fun rock and roll story to life in the first two albums.

While "Boys and Girls," to some extent continues the narrative of the first two albums, it can stand alone without the context of the band's back catalogue. "Chips Ahoy!" deliver's a fun punch with the chorus that asks, "How am I supposed to know that you're high if you won't even dance?" "Hot Soft Lights" and "Same Kooks" are the tracks that most sounds like the 'classic' Hold Steady. Furthermore, the song "Citrus" is an entertaining ode to mixed drinks, opening, "Hey Citrus, Hey Liquor, I love it when you touch each other," and concluding with my favorite line on the album, "I've had kisses that make Judas seem sincere." "Boys and Girls" also leaves many of the cultural references that formed some of the cleverness of the first two albums behind in favor of straight up narrative. This is a move that I think will make the new album a bit more accessible for listeners, as one no longer requires an extensive knowledge of music, tv, or biblical history to fully appreciate the Finn's lyrics.

Another feature that i think gives this album more mass appeal than the first two is that The Hold Steady sound, more than ever, like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. While the comparison has been made before, the added production on this album, combined with the addition of back-up vocals, bring a more E Street sound to the mix.

All in all, "Boys and Girls in America" is another fun and energetic album from The Hold Steady about sub-culture in suburbia. While the production is a dparture for the band, it is not necessarily worse or better than their previous efforts, just different. It will not stand as my favorite Hold Steady album, it will definitely remain in heavy rotation on my music player for a while.
I give "Boys and Girls in America" $18