Album Review: The Hold Steady, Thrashing Thru The Passion

Ever since their inception in 2003, Brooklyn bar-room rockers The Hold Steady have been on a mission to prove that nice guys don’t always finish last. Informed by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Husker Du, their cult has continued to grow, and their long awaited new album Thrashing Thru The Passion is sure to earn them plenty of new converts. Now that frontman Craig Finn has gotten his trilogy of solo albums out of his system – not to mention ivory tinkler Franz Nicolay returning to the fold – they sound like a band re-born. This is a life-affirming offering indeed, from a self-described “straight ahead rock group with low aspirations.”

Exploring themes of happiness, disillusionment, death, destruction and redemption, their first album in over five years might follow the well-established Hold Steady musical formula, but that doesn’t make it any less fun.‘Denver Haircut’ and ‘Traditional Village’ are superb blasts of blue collar rock ‘n’ roll, and the T-Rex-y ‘T-Shirt Tux’ will sound unstoppable live. Album number seven’s best moment, though, is ‘Blackout Sam’. It’s a swoonsome, sax and organ-fuelled gem, littered with lyrics that will end up inked on the flesh of their fans. Indeed, lines like “Promise me you won’t forget the nights that haven’t happened yet” once again prove there’s a brain – and more importantly a heart – behind all the bravado.

Out August 16.