The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America

CML call number: CD/ROCK/Hold
Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog, Sound Check: "'Boys and Girls in America' represents the Hold Steady's creative pinnacle so far: pungent storytelling with healthy doses of heart and wit, killer guitar riffs, a more prominent role for the piano and, this time, actual singing from Craig Finn. … [T]he Hold Steady's characters adhere … to the alternative-community ethos of Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road,' which inspired the title: 'Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together,' narrator Sal Paradise observed in the Beat classic. … It's an album about not fitting into the mainstream, and looking for acceptance elsewhere, even if it means creating a situation where that can happen. It's powerfully resonant. It also doesn't hurt that 'Boys and Girls in America' is among the catchiest albums released this year. Or last year. … 'Boys and Girls in America' is that rare album that, regardless of its commercial fortunes, encapsulates the American experience (or AN American experience, at any rate) in a way that makes it an immediate classic. It's … sort of an album version of the Great American Novel … [and] the best album of 2006."