Boys and Girls in America was an incredibly formative album for me. I was maybe a month in to my freshman year of college when the album dropped, and after previously falling in love with The Hold Steady’s concept album Separation Sunday, which is quite honestly a must-listen as well for any fan of rich storytelling and sublime bar rock, I was hooked on everything the band was putting out. If I didn’t have a self-imposed embargo of one album per artist this year both albums would be on here, hard stop.
The Hold Steady ditched that dense interconnected narrative for their third album Boys and Girls in America, opting instead for a more straightforward approach to songwriting. This isn’t to say the band’s storytelling chops fall apart in this effort– quite frankly I think they improve in exploring a wider variety of themes without being beholden to the five or so main characters in Separation Sunday. And goddamn when that story gets retold in “First Night” on this album it was quite the magical moment.
You’re either gonna love or loathe lead vocalist Craig Finn– his monotone delivery and academic-heavy approach to lyric writing will feel overwrought to some, but by my taste, it hits the right mix of frank honesty and “everyman” appeal in a way a lot of lead singers attempt to find but never really achieve. I’m also an easy mark for Finn considering the deluge oof references to the Twin Cities (where I was born) layered into all of the stories. The fact that it’s accompanied with a distinctly Indie version of classic rock, filled with perfectly overdriven guitars and sentimental-sounding pianos, makes everything sound all the better.
In other words, this was a band almost perfectly crafted to hit my tastes, with an added dash of nostalgic appeal considering the moment when they entered my life.
I hope you manage to fall in love with them too.
Standout Songs: “Stuck Between Stations”, “South Town Girls”, “First Night”, “Same Kooks”
