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Boys And Girls In America [Australian Import] [Import]

The Hold Steady Audio CD
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)

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Music

Image of album by The Hold Steady

Photos

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Biography

The Hold Steady was born out of some loose talk in my Boreum Hill apartment in 2002. I had moved to Brooklyn about two years earlier. I was thirty-one years old, and the other dudes were about my same age. Our concept was to start a straight rock band, with low aspirations. Just local shows, no touring, and most likely, no real records. We practiced for a while and then played our first show ... Read more in Amazon's The Hold Steady Store

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Product details

  • Audio CD (2 Oct 2006)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Import
  • Label: Vagrant
  • ASIN: B000HIP3X4
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 522,895 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

1. Stuck Between Stations
2. Chips Ahoy!
3. Hot Soft Light
4. Same Kooks
5. First Night
6. Party Pit
7. You Can Make Him Like You
8. Massive Nights
9. Citrus
10. Chillout Tent
11. Southlawn Girls

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Who Cares If It's Derivative... 5 Feb 2007
Format:Audio CD
Who cares if it's derivative, if it's this good. I first heard this album in a music store in Cambridge and stayed to listen to it all. It may remind us of the past, but like all great work, it knows where it's coming from to suggest something new. I like a ridiculous sweep of music but there is something about this album that is so fresh, warming and stirring that you will stop you from NOT listening. Craig Finn is a great rock lyricist and his voice is perfectly suited to his narratives of life in the fast and slow lane. From the brilliant blending of power chords and piano of 'Stuck Between Stations' to the anthemic swirl of organ on the closeout 'Southtown Girls' this is American rock of the highest order... Get in your car, go out on the road and play this CD on repeat.
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars "I believe in the power of rock and roll..." 28 Mar 2007
Format:Audio CD
...that's what Craig Finn - singer and lryicist with The Hold Steady - proclaimed with preacher-like rhetoric to the heaving crowd of York Fibbers on Tuesday 20th February, 2007. Dripping with sweat and drunk on (equal parts) alcohol, air-punching guitar riffs and complete hero worship, Craig could have divulged his belief that badgers are our intellectual superiors and are just biding their time until the inevitable takeover, and we'd have all agreed with him. Woodland-based conspiracy theories aside, at that point - if we hadn't already - everyone one of us in that room also believed in the power of rock and roll.

Such is the passion and conviction of this, The Hold Steady's third album, that they'll make you believe almost anything. NME called them "classic rock'n'roll charged with the spirit of hardcore punk" (well, quite), MOJO gave them a 5/5 rating and called 'Boys & Girls In America' "the first great album of 2007", Q Magazine (who awarded the album a stingy 4/5) and 6 Music's Phil Jupitus are also huge fans of the Brooklyn quintet, whereas in that rather cramped room in York, Craig Finn described them as a band who "play bad-ass rock and roll while I just spout bollocks over the top". I would describe them as a group who make my life better with their mere existance.

Listening to their previous two albums, I get the impression that The Hold Steady have been working their way up to producing 'Boys & Girls In America' and this album is where they reach complete and utter perfection. Craig Finn's tales of being young and loaded are as wonderful as they ever were, featuring of course our favourite heroes Gideon, Charlemagne and Holly.
... Read more ›
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Maybe the praise is justified 22 Feb 2007
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I first heard about The Hold Steady when Uncut made this 'Album of the Month' and has I have often bought their albums of the month and rarely been disappointed I gave it a go. First of all I can hear all of the pluses and minuses that are covered in the various reviews - the album is exciting and feels fresh and it also reminds me of Springsteen in his 1975-78 (no bad thing) and Craig Finn does have a little of Adam Duritz about him - the guy who was 'moved to tears' because it is so bad and he hates Counting Crows has clearly never listened to either band properly or has a hearing problem - still he doesn't like 'Snore' Patrol so he can't be all bad! There are great songs here and a joy of playing and energy that is infectious - on that basis I feel the praise here and in the press overall is justified. The album rewards the more you listen to it - I have to agree with the guy who thought the production was a bit muddy. The vocals seem low in the mix and there is a feeling of everyone fighting for air at first - but once you get into the songs it doesn't matter anymore - it falls into place. Give it a try - I'm sure that most buyers won't be disappointed.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars We had some massive nights.... 8 Dec 2006
By Eli
Format:Audio CD
If you were to scan over Craig Finn's lyrics detailing the youth of America's massive nights of sex, drugs, and getting 'messed up on the music', you might think Boys and Girls in America, The Hold Steady's third album in as many years, is a cautionary tale. Listen to the album, though, and you'll find the tales of drunken kids transformed by Tad Kubler's music into an air-punching celebration of what it is to be young and stupid.

This is an incredible example of words and music merging so perfectly together, colliding, contrasting, expanding and complimenting each other like on no other rock album I've heard in many a year. Whatever reservations you may have about Finn's nasal monotone, this is rock through and through. He's learned to sing (better) since Seperation Sunday, with the music instead of on top of it, immeasurably helping his stories really become songs (not to mention the inclusion of 'whoa whoa whoa' choruses).

The material is similar to SS but the scope is much larger. Heartbreaking stories of trying to fit in even when you know you can't such as 'You Can Make Him Like You' and teenage missions of getting high and wasted for the hell of it are here in spades, but Finn's brilliant lyricism and Kubler's cribbing of Thin Lizzy power chords celebrate and elevate the boys and girls' sad time together to become anthems you've known your whole life. It's not all fist-pumping stuff, the slow piano of 'First Night' is beautiful and the quieter 'Citrus' is also a wonderful moment. Boys and Girls is nostalgic, contemporary, beat, and hugely refreshing in a rock landscape where self-consciousness and irony stretch for miles around.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars If you like the first song you're in luck; there are ten more just...
I got this album from a friend, who got it from someone else. He hadn't listened to it, but I had read about them somewhere, probably Uncut or Mojo, and was excited about hearing... Read more
Published on 2 May 2010 by Mr. Te Stringer
4.0 out of 5 stars This promises to be a good purchase
I have just listened to this album on the headphones in Virgin - and i was very excited by it.

I dont know much of springsteens work and this 'E- Street band' everyone... Read more
Published on 9 May 2008 by Mr. D. Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars Keep playing it until you 'get it'
When I first received this, I played is a few times but remained immensely disappointed. Some months later, it was the next record on my MP3 player and I was too lazy to skip over... Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2008 by David Bradshaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Hoodrats Ahoy!
The Hold Steady. Disliked only by earless mono-browed, tooth-sucking, gurners lacking even one single atom of musicality in their entire nut sized cranuims. Read more
Published on 29 Feb 2008 by C. N. Sandford
1.0 out of 5 stars waste of money
when i bought this album i thought that it would be good because i had heard a couple of their songs and it had very good reviews on here. Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2008 by Mr. R. A. Brennan
4.0 out of 5 stars Springsteen meets the Pogues
Album of the year for the likes of The Word and Uncut. Springsteen meets the Pogues but as good as the Drive By truckers. Very good indeed.
Published on 7 Feb 2008 by Alister King
4.0 out of 5 stars Erm, No big words...
I'll try and sum this album up without the help of a musical buzzword generator. From some the reviews posted here, some love it and some hate it. Read more
Published on 9 Sep 2007 by D. L. Pestell
5.0 out of 5 stars not the future of rock and roll
but about as good a distillation of it's spirit and essence as you'll find from any band around today.
This is fantastic.
Published on 6 Sep 2007 by jeff pop
5.0 out of 5 stars why not just ENJOY it!!
I saw The Hold Steady on Jools Holland and bought the album. I took some mates to see them in Nottingham and told them they were going to "Love this band" and they did. Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2007 by R. M. Collins
1.0 out of 5 stars I don't get it......
As a devoted Springsteen fan of many years I have to say I was curious about "the next best thing" - I mean even the guys at Badlands were raving about it, so it must be worth a... Read more
Published on 28 Aug 2007 by M. Gormley
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