borrowed tunes: the hold steady :: separation sunday

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May 08, 2005

the hold steady :: separation sunday

If early Bruce Springsteen was actually a recovering drug addict skate rat and fronted AC/DC instead of the E Street Band, you'd really like that, wouldn't you? I knew you would.

Separation Sunday is an epic concept album exploring Catholic edcuation, guilt and redemption in the lives of down-and-out drug kids - opiates, both of the underground party scene and of the masses. The central character is a Holly (née Hallelujah), a "hoodrat" who wears a cross because "she likes how it looks on her chest with three open buttons", because when you get busted "if you think you're a christian then they won't bring in the dogs", and because there's something in the lives of the saints that feels like her own.

If you've never heard the Hold Steady before, approach the vocals with an open mind. Craig Finn (formerly of Lifter Puller) isn't so much a singer as a shouter, because he knows the lyrics need full force to be delivered over the kicked-out jams. In a way, this album is the American version of Borrowed Tunes' #1 album of 2004, The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free - a long story about wasted lives of wasted kids, delivered in a voice that takes some getting used to, with the simplest of musical accompaniments.

And it's simply brilliant. There are more changes of pace, delivered with a more expansive sound, than on the excellent debut Almost Killed Me. Spend some time checking out the complete lyric sheet here. I usually don't recommend reading lyrics before hearing songs, but for some of you this may be the way in to getting past the vocal style.

The initial reviews are super-strong and unanimous on this; a good quote comes from Tim Sendra's review in the All Music Guide: the strength of the album is in the flow from song to song and the way the intensity level (which starts off at a near fever pitch) elevates until your head is just about ready to burst from the thrill of it all. Call it a quaint idea in 2005, but Separation Sunday is truly an album, one that sounds almost perfect when played from beginning to end in the proper running order.

~~Banging Camp (mp3)~~
~~Stevie Nix (mp3)~~
Your Little Hoodrat Friend (mp3) (from the band site)

Posted by borrowed_tunes at May 8, 2005 11:11 PM

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