Here’s the thing: I love The Hold Steady. With their previous two albums The Hold Steady earned the title of “The World’s Best Bar Band,” which, I think, doesn’t give them nearly enough credit for their beautifully prose-lyrics and winding plot lines that continue throughout their albums with recurring characters and highly emotional moments. That being said, I think it’s time The Hold Steady grew up. The majority of their lyrics on both their previous albums concentrated on high-school or college-age characters, and it worked. This time around, however, it seems a little pathetic. Their newest album Boys and Girls of America is the most main-stream of their albums so far. The song “Chips Ahoy” has been the most promoted, but features a chord progression that sounds just like every song on Separation Sunday, only as if Bruce Springsteen remixed it. This is not a good thing. I’m willing to let this go , but if you’re new to The Hold Steady, do not listen to this album until you have fallen in love with their previous work.
The Hold Steady's Boys and Girls of America
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