Separation Sunday
Year: 2005
Format: Spotify
Grade: B+
It's a weird thing to write, but it's actually the chaos of The Hold Steady's second record, Separation Sunday, that makes it work so well.
This isn't chaos in a free jazz way, but in the sense that singer Craig Finn and guitarist Tad Kubler sometimes sound unaware that they're in the same band. Finn rattles off lyrics in his signature brand of singspeak — a fixture lessened on later records by voice lessons — dropping lines about parties, drugs and Bible-stealing, born-again Christians. In between, Kubler steps in and rattles off a solo or provides the hook.
The recording is more raw than any of the Hold Steady records that follow it, a quality which works to the advantage of their thinking man's bar band ethos. A live, fresh sound is really what suits their sound best, especially when Finn and Kubler are this unaware of each other. Somewhere around the time of Stay Positive, someone informed them they were both in Hold Steady and the results have been mellower songs and a breaking down of the juxtaposition that made Boys and Girls in America and Separation Sunday so much fun.
Tomorrow's entry: The Reverend Horton Heat, The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of The Reverend Horton Heat
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