{"id":42032,"date":"2010-07-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/boys-and-girls-in-america\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:11","slug":"boys-and-girls-in-america","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/boys-and-girls-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Boys And Girls In America"},"content":{"rendered":"

From two years ago, I still remember reading former staff writer Julia Skochko\u2019s glowing review<\/a> of The Hold Steady\u2019s Stay Positive. <\/i>I\u2019d never heard a Hold Steady song at that point, and wouldn\u2019t until \u2013 oh, two weeks ago \u2013 when I snatched a copy from a friend to pad my recently destructed iTunes. And now I understand what that effusive praise was all about. And their third album, 2006\u2019s much-loved Boys And Girls In America, <\/i>is a pretty solid introduction to The Hold Steady universe, full of Craig Finn\u2019s unparalleled, prose-y lyricism, guitar riffs that shake the risers, and a bluesy\/boozy heart steeped in classic rock but with a wink and a twist all their own.<\/p>\n

Though The Hold Steady are often touted as America\u2019s greatest bar band, that\u2019s a pretty reductive tag for a band that has far more flair \u2013 they\u2019re more of an Okkervil River mixed with Bruce Springsteen (twisted, vivid lyrics and soul-piercing anthems) than a dusty jukebox playing \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019.\u201d \u00a0Every minute of this near-flawless disc is jammed with rollicking pianos, sparkling wordsmithery, and Finn\u2019s strangely endearing brand of speak-singing. Opener \u201cStuck Between Stations\u201d immediately pulls you in, no slow buildup, just the burning immediacy of this group\u2019s tunes. \u201cWe drink and we dry and we crumble into dust \/ We get wet and we corrode and now we\u2019re covered up in rust,\u201d Finn repeats, but it doesn\u2019t sound so bad a fate when paired with such a dynamic combo of squealing guitars and plaintive piano.<\/p>\n

Boys And Girls In America <\/i>inhabits a world jammed with horse races (\u201cChips Ahoy!\u201d), neverending highs, and ever-flowing drinks (surprise hit single \u201cParty Pit,\u201d for one). There\u2019s not really ever a comedown, just a swirl of soaring hooks and lines that stick in your head like a good buzz.\u00a0 When every cut is a knockout, it\u2019s hard to pick favorites, but moments such as \u201cCitrus\u201d and \u201cSame Kooks\u201d do stand out. The former is probably the calmest the album ever hits, thrumming on mostly restrained acoustic guitars, but lines like \u201cI\u2019ve had kisses that make Judas seem sincere\u201d are understatedly lovely. \u00a0Meanwhile, \u201cSome Kooks\u201d jams with unflinching speed, illustrating a gloriously sinful set of, well, kooks (\u201cGideon\u2019s got a pipe made from a Pringles can,\u201d \u201cShe said it\u2019s hard to feel holy when you can\u2019t get clean\u201d). And of course, on each and every track, the big swirls of Tad Kubler\u2019s guitars, Bobby Drake\u2019s singing drums, and the anchoring bass of Galen Polivka are an integral part of The Hold Steady\u2019s heart-tugging, vivid, to-the-cheap-seats sound.<\/p>\n

Still, for a band so wrapped up in telling stories, rendering scenes in all their colorful grit, it\u2019s the experience of listening to these songs as a whole that trumps any cunning wordplay. You can analyze the lyrics all you want, but as Finn writes on \u201cStations\u201d \u2013 \u00e0 la fallen poet John Berryman (who Okkervil River also immortalizes on The Stage Names)<\/i> \u2013 \u201cYou\u2019re pretty good with words, but words won\u2019t save your life.\u201d This is music to drink to, to live to, and that is what ultimately emerges in this complicated, catchy, crazed disc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":30372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8202],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-42032","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-hold-steady","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42032"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}