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The group sounds a bit like Guided By Voices at times, only a Guided By Voices that want to kick your sorry can up and down the length of the bar.
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This stuff would sound great behind just about any garage-rock hack, but it turns Finn's dirtbag chronicles into something epic and huge and molten and beautiful.
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Separation Sunday won't win over the masses, but that's not what its intentions should be. The Hold Steady's record is a testament to what good times are really like, if you're paying close attention. That, and it will make you air-guitar. For certain.
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His wordy narratives get hazy at times, but Sunday succeeds as a whirlwind tour through an overstuffed brain.
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It's a triumph of non-judgmental storytelling, delivered within purgative rock'n'roll.
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The Hold Steady is the ideal iPod band. Finn's abrasive voice sounds legitimately exciting in four-minute bursts, and his best put-down lines are more corrosive.
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Entertainment WeeklyBar rock for the smart set. [3 Jun 2005, p.82]
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MagnetSeparation Sunday is a book-on-tape, a grim and funny tome that draws from the Bible and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. [#68, p.98]
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The New York TimesThese are songs full of offhand aphorisms, and they can grab you from the first line. [23 May 2005]
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The music is like some unholy amalgamation of Born to Run-era Springsteen and Billy Joel shazam. This is a good thing.
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BlenderSounds like the best bar band in the world. [May 2005, p.122]
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Take Finn’s vocals out of the equation and you have a fun and even innovative garage band steeped in the brand of classic rock to which indie has never properly paid its due. With Finn, they’re monotonous, even annoying.
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"Separation Sunday" is not only these Brooklyn transplants' best work to date (far surpassing the critically mis-hyped debut from last year), it is one of the grittiest, realest New York rock albums to come out since the Trouser Press folded.
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Finn is a decidedly great lead non-singer, and because of this, he has to rely on brainy, culture-referencing wordage as opposed to impressive melodic style or range. Fortunately, his banter rarely disappoints, even if it is a little repetitive at times.
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While far from perfect, The Hold Steady's sloppy take on classic rock is actually quite refreshing and much more fun than most current indie rock and British post-punk revival wankery.
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Separation Sunday stands a chance of being one of 2005's true classics.
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This isn’t just Almost Killed Me 2, it’s an exploration of what lies beyond that initial surface – and the truth ain’t pretty.
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Separation Sunday isn’t quite on par with Almost Killed Me, primarily because it won’t stun listeners with its freshness.
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Finn's masterful lyrics can't be ignored. And the music, stopping, starting and crashing with wrenching enthusiasm, is equally undeniable. But the way Finn understands the human condition in all its glory and contradiction is, simply, brilliant.
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While [Finn's] odd and humorous rants are essentially compelling, they wouldn't be half as engrossing if his backing group... didn't smack up such a glorious din, scabrous punk rock swagger dolled up with classic hard rock power chords.
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This literature with power chords addresses not only the crucial matter of vanishing bohemias as cultural myth but also the crucial matter of re-emerging spiritualities as cultural fact.
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It is Finn's particular gift to be able to set the listener smack in the middle of his songs, seeing what he sees, caring about the lives he chronicles. It is the listener's reward to find these stories scored by big, fat monster hooks, and effortless piano-driven melodies.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 39 out of 42
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Mixed: 0 out of 42
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Negative: 3 out of 42
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Sep 25, 2015
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ThomasDFeb 20, 2007
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MilesWOct 3, 2006