The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America

Chips Ahoy - The Hold Steady

Letting your influences control your sound can lead to disastrous results. Just look at Nickelback, Creed, Puddle of Mudd, and... well, the entire genre of post-grunge. On the contrary, it is entirely possible to overcome this curse and carry the sound of your heroes while still remaining fresh. The Hold Steady are a wonderful example of such a band. They manage to blend all the spirit and energy of punk rock with some of classic rock's most famed and prominent motifs. Packing heavy use of the piano and massive guitar riffs that only add to the moving force that is Craig Finn's voice, the poignant stories of desperation and heartbreak in the big city are brimming with emotion; a special kind of emotion that refuses to stop at any point throughout the forty-minute thrill ride that is Boys and Girls in America.

Finn's style of singing is rather coarse, almost akin to Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk. But in a similar comparison, their voices both fit the music performed by their respective bands extraordinarily well; they utilize driving, passionate vocals and raw power to elevate their music to a whole new level of emotion. Finn's songwriting should not be ignored either; "Stuck Between Stations", the album's vigorous opener, sounds almost like a modern "Born to Run", minus the saxophone solo.

Holly "Hallelujah", an enigmatic hoodrat from the band's earlier works, makes an appearance on the tender ballad "First Night", one of the album's two softer songs (the other being "Citrus"). These two songs bring the album down just a bit, but are excellent additions nonetheless. And although "Southtown Girls" wasn't the best way to close the album, it's beautiful nonetheless, and sports a pretty great riff.

It should also not be disregarded that "You Can Make Him Like You" is, in fact, the greatest song about women ever.

Final Score: 89/100

The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound

Great Expectations - The Gasli...

The opening lines of 2008's The '59 Sound read as follows: "Mary, this station is playing every sad song/I remember like we were alive/And I heard and sung them all from inside of these walls/Of the prison cell where we spent those nights". What's incredible about this, is that the Bruce Springsteen allusions, comparisons, and flashbacks are just beginning.

The Gaslight Anthem draws very heavily from its influences, whether it be tales of heartbreak and lust in the streets of New Jersey or nostalgic, doleful numbers like "Here's Looking at You, Kid", one of the album's standout tracks, and a clever Casablanca reference. Brian Fallon definitely comes off as a Springsteen-esque youth with a defiant, daring edge, who can be quite the romantic or poet when duty calls.

While The '59 Sound comes in with flying colors, it begins to drag a bit after "Film Noir" ends, and hits an all time low at "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues", a downright disappointment to every bit of emotion the band had built up to that point. Fortunately, the band picks things up again on "Meet Me By The River's Edge", a song about young lovers that go down to a river to wash away their sins, and last year's nominee for Most Cliches in a Song. The album wraps it all up on a rocking note with "The Backseat"; while it's not the best album closer, it certainly serves its function quite well, and ends a great album, albeit an inconsistent one, on a grand note.

Final Score: 77/100