Dear Kevin,
As people are getting their favorite picks blasted out of the competition with the kind of stoic heartlessness perhaps needed for such a competition (see under: Jeff rips out Jane’s heart by choosing New Order over the Weakerthans) , I thought I would give a plug for my #2 pick.
Most people I’ve talked to either love The Hold Steady or they hate them. Jane hated them but is starting to come around ever since I dragged her to see them live. In some ways, I wish I had chosen their other album Boys and Girls in America to be higher on the list (it ended up in my #22 slot) because I think it is probably more appealing to most folks. It’s probably a little catchier and a little more polished. However, Separation Sunday—at least for me--carries what a great writer once refered to as “emotional resonance”. It’s also one of the few albums where the lyrics matter to me as much as the music does.
The album starts out with a few kids trying to “decide to go with whatever’s going to get them the hightest”—which essentially turns out to be drugs, lovers, or Jesus—and then proceeds to chronicle the messiness involved in pursuing these different avenues. Craig Fin sort of half talks/sings most of the album, and while I understand this is a turn off for some people, it works for me. Besides, some of the lyrics almost need to be spewed more than sung:
Yer little hoodrat friend's been calling me again / and I can't stand all the things that she sticks into her skin / like sharpened ballpoint pens / and steel guitar strings / she says it hurts but it's worth it / tiny little text etched into her neck / it said "Jesus lived and died for all your sins." / she's got blue black ink and it's scratched into her lower back / it said: "damn right I'll rise again." / yeah, damn right she'll rise again.
Some of this may seem a little adolescent, but then again, it is an album about adolescence. Rather than romanticize that age, Finn reminds us how awful that time can be—thus, his characters’ need to find something to put their faith in. My favorite is Holly, whose story closes the album and who offers us some redemption at the end:
Her parents named her Halleluiah / the kids all called her Holly / if she scared you then she's sorry / she's been stranded at these parties / these parties they start lovely but they get druggy / and they get ugly and they get bloody / the priest just kinda laughed / the deacon caught a draft / she crashed into the easter mass with her hair done up in broken glass / she was limping left on broken heels / when she said father can I tell yer congregation how a resurrection really feels?
In case, you feel like this all too a little serious, there’s some great comedy on the album as well:
Yeah I think I heard about original sin / I heard the dude blamed the chick / I heard the chick blamed the snake / and I heard that they were naked when they got busted / and I heard that things ain’t been the same since.
It’s odd for me to concentrate so much on the lyrics, but I didn’t want you to miss them on a casual listen. This album deserves to be paid attention to, and it’s easy to miss its emotional impact if you get stuck on his voice or the big guitar riffs. The music, I believe, speaks for itself. It’s a little bit of punk and a lot of rock n’ roll. It’s large and dirty and unapologetic.
This may all seem a little earnest, but that’s what this band does to you. They’re not cutting edge (they’re basically playing classic rock), they’re not ironic, and they’re certainly not hipsters (my friend Brooke’s reaction to seeing them live was “He’s so old. He looks like a science teacher. That’s awesome.”) If you choose Automatic for the People I’ll understand (Brian, Steve—want to give a testimony for that album?), but I wanted to put in a good word for this record. If you want, you can do the same for Karen Dalton.
For the record, Andrew didn't *drag* me to see the Hold Steady; I went, with an air of having been martyred, out of my great love for him. And, yeah, they were awesome enough live that I am beginning to like them more even when I can't see that exuberant science-teacher-looking lead singer and the mustachioed keyboard player in a three-piece, baby-blue suit (who, I hear, has moved on to other endeavors).
ReplyDeleteAndrew, I really can't put a great argument in for Automatic and be honest with myself. Automatic is one of my all-time favorites, but if you're talking recent favorites, I'd put the Hold Steady much higher. I'm more of a Boys and Girls in America kind of fan, but I think that's more because that was my first Hold Steady album. The first dozen times I listened to it I thought it was so fresh sounding, but I later realized that to me it was the indie rock version of Bruce Springsteen, which was perfect for me (Andrew, if you haven't heard the HS's version of Atlantic City, you need to check it out--simply brilliant)
ReplyDeleteI think it's an interesting pattern we're in: Lots of our nominated albums are nominated out of aesthetics that we no longer hold. And we're tending to judge them by our current taste.
ReplyDeleteNot that that's a bad thing. In fact it's kind of fun to be like, uh, Shakespeare sucks.
Thanks for the letter Andrew. Earnestness appreciated. I dont' know the album at all, but I do know you, and you've recommended some pretty great music to me in the past, so I'm kind of biased towards it. And I have to say, I've never been a huge REM fan. So it's looking pretty good for the Hold Steady. That being said, there's always the chance that I'll love Automatic for the People and hate Seperation Sunday, in which case I'd have to go with that. Who know what will happen. I'm feeling a little bit of power here, and I like it.
ReplyDeleteI actually won't fight for REM as I meant to take them off my list anyway.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that the Hold Steady is in trouble once they run out of ways to say "I was drunk when we made out in back of the billboard with the address of the Catholic Church in Large Letters..." or some shit like that.