Who is this bespectacled, inoffensive-looking bumpkin? Why no other than Craig Finn, arguably current rock music's most prolific songwriter! In addition to fronting New York's favorite bar band, The Hold Steady, Finn is one of the most dynamic characters in the biz. A lovable misogynist whose honesty rings in the gruff, frenzied manner in which he speak-sings. Spending a long bus ride listening to The Hold Steady's Separation Sunday from start to finish is the sonic equivalent of reading a page-turning novel. But unlike the majority of page-turning novels, Sunday is an effing masterpiece. It could be called a concept album, but that would oversimplify its genius. The album revolves around Hallelujah ("but they kids, they call her Holly") a strung-out ex-Catholic School girl. Hallelujah is not merely one misled young woman, but a vehicle for Finn's brillliant, hilarious commentary on human nature. Betrayal. Disillusionment. The ins and outs of love and lust. She also provides him with a whole lot of context for his twistedly thought-provoking religious analogies. The Who sang "It's only teenage wasteland" but Finn takes the notion of wasted youth a step farther. Hallelujah begins her descent into drunkenness and physical dissipation on The Hold Steady's equally awesome debut Almost Killed Me. But Sunday offers a deeper look into her chaotic life. She "slept with too many skaters" ("Hornets! Hornets!") and likes the way her crucifix necklace looks "on her chest with three open buttons" ("Multitude Of Casualties"). But by the album's end she's reached a turning point, for better or for worse. "Youth services always find a way to get their bloody cross into your druggy little messed-up teenage life," sings Finn on "Multitude of Casualities". Hallelujah's journey, chronicled over the course of three albums, is intense, engaging and oh-so human. And not one second of the trip sounds forced or false. Gotta hand it to Craig Finn: dude calls it like he sees it, and damn, he calls it good.
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