Considering how straight-ahead/major key/easily accessible the Hold Steady's third album, Boys and Girls in America, is, I have to say that is was for some reason a grower for me. It was the first disc that Fresh and I reviewed for the Chicken Dinner Newspaper, and maybe I was just trying too hard to listen like a critic. But no matter, once this record got its hooks in me, it never really let go. In December 2006 I was giving a bit of a shrug; in February 2007 I found myself humming "You Can Make Him Like You" while Mrs. Q was looking at picture frames at Ikea. By the time spring had rolled around I was listening to it on repeat in the car for days on end. Since then I've seen the group twice, which is purt-near a Herculean feat for a guy who doesn't make it to 10:30 p.m. all that much anymore. Sure, by the time Boys and Girls came around, the Hold Steady had introduced enough bar-band big beat into their act that it was sure to resonate with an old-timey guy like me. But even so, Craig Finn brings a novelist's touch to his tales of teenage wastelandery and pill-fueled mayhem. He's become one of the smartest lyricists in rock, and I find his efforts to sing a bit more (rather than just make like a Midwestern Mark E. Smith) to be more than welcome.
Is the group's preceding Separation Sunday a "better" album? Hard to say, and it was certainly a contender for this list, but I'm giving the advantage to Boys and Girls in America if for no other reason than it's the disc that yanked me out of my vintage vinyl comfort zone and back into the modern age. It might not have been that far of a trip, but it was just what a guy who was looking at the wrong side of forty needed.
03 Hot Soft Light.mp3
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