10 Massively Underrated Albums From The 2000s
2. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America (2006)
The Hold Steady’s Boys and Girls in America was not just one of 2006s best albums but of the entire decade. The band combined the ways in which British artists such as Pulp and Arctic Monkeys perfectly summarised young teen life and combined it with Spingsteen’s capacity for heartland rock and succinct capturing of American life.
Up to this point, the band were known for singing about other people and making up characters in conceptual albums but Boys and Girls In America allows listeners to claim the songs as their own and find themselves in the band’s poetry.
Boys and Girls in America takes all the best of The Hold Steady’s raggedness, the fun of their instrumentals and their fist pumping vocal lines. This album is about the joys of having the entire world in front of you, it unites lovers of classic rock and punk and turns it into a universal message of vitality and looking ahead to a bright future. Singer Craig Finn still tells stories here and rasps through bar style rock and roll tunes.
If there was ever an album to bring a smile to your face, it's this.