15th anniversary review: The Hold Steady – “Boys and Girls in America”

This review is part of a series looking back at significant albums on their anniversaries. Through the benefit of hindsight we will be viewing the album not just as it was released, but how it stands the test of time, as well as its place in the band’s discography and the genre in general.

Vagrant Records – 3 Oct 2006

The Hold Steady’s holds on to its legacy of debauchery.

If you’re into hard drugs and 20^th century American literature, boy have I got an album for you! For the 15^thanniversary of The Hold Steady’s absolute masterpiece, let’s take a look at why this album works so well: First of all there’s the fierce combination of Tad Kubler’s dazzling guitar licks and Franz Nicolay’s gorgeous keyboards. Then add in Craig Finn’s usual dark poetry about his fictional characters from the Twin Cities drug scene. Few of the usual characters from the band’s first two albums are mentioned by name, although they do come up in “Same Kooks” and “First Night,” but all of The Hold Steady’s albums are basically one long, interconnected story. For example, “Chips Ahoy, the second song on this album, has a sequel two albums later on Heaven is Whenever called “The Weekenders,” and some of the lyrics from the song “Unpleasant Breakfast,” released earlier this year on their new album Open Door Policy, suggest that song is the third part of a trilogy. So we have great musicianship, detailed storytelling, and clever lyrics that come together to form my favorite album of the 2000’s.

The album kicks off with some epic combinations of guitar and keyboard as the two swirl around to make the moving intro to “Stuck Between Stations,” which lays out the meaning of the album’s name through the quote it comes from in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road: “There are times where I think that Sal Paradise was right/Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together.” And haven’t you ever had a girlfriend who was a pretty good kisser but not all that strict of a Christian? I certainly have. The aforementioned “Chips Ahoy” tells the story of a girl with psychic abilities who uses her powers to predict horse races and then she and the song’s narrator spend the money on drugs. I’ve heard Craig Finn explain many times that the point of the song is to demonstrate that, if money wasn’t an issue in your relationship, you’d still have problems.

Probably my favorite moment on this album is when the piano ballad “First Night” abruptly changes tempo and builds to that magical crescendo. “Chillout Tent,” the romantic and comical story of two kids at a festival who get too high on drugs and end up fooling around in the first aid tent has excellent guest appearances from Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner and The Reputation’s Elizabeth Elmore, who play the role of the young lovers. “Southtown Girls” is not my favorite album closer, although I think it would have been better in the middle of the album, but The Hold Steady has a tendency to put out songs as bonus tracks that are as good if not better than the songs that made the cut for the album. So I highly recommend the bonus versions of the album because “For Boston,” “Arms and Hearts,” and “Girls Like Status” are all excellent songs (with “Girls Like Status” frequently played live), and, some version also include a cover of The Violent Femmes’ “American Music,” so you’re guaranteed a better song than “Southtown Girls” to end on.

Is the album a little sexist? Yes, although not as sexist as you’d expect from an album named after a Kerouac quote. But all the lines are spoken in character and so you’re left wondering if the album is really sexist, or just the characters. But also sometimes you have to give an album a pass when it’s this well written and well played. Boys and Girls is not just an album but, in many ways, also a work of literature. Much like the Kerouac book this album took its name from, it’s problematic at times, but undoubtedly a masterpiece.