The Hold Steady's songs conjure up punk-rock dives that smell like armpits, slutty women with crooked smiles, fistfights between drunks who can barely stand up, and shlubs hanging out at house parties long after they've ended. It's sentimental stuff that longs for more glorious times and celebrates them to the point of fiction. Craig Finn, who used to front the Minneapolis band Lifter Puller, doesn't quite sing but rambles and rants lyrics such as
She got screwed up by religion/
She got screwed by soccer players/
She got high for the first time in those camps down by the banks of the Mississippi River/
Ahhhh, to be 17 forever. With both Lifter Puller and the Hold Steady, Finn's stream-of-consciousness lyrics and clever rhymes stand out. The piano-tinged music and the whole vibe of the band recall Bruce Springsteen, but the Hold Steady doesn't take itself seriously like the Boss. Instead, it spews out sloppy bar rock for romantic drunkards to clink glasses to.
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