Big ups to Whitney “Not A Blogger” Pastorek for revealing this new Hold Steady video buzz. And although your Uncle Grambo has already talked at length about how much I love “Stuck Between Stations” — IMHO, easily one of the all-time best album openers evs — I’ve never publicly expressed my admiration for a particular couplet contained in the song’s first chorus. So here goes!

First, the line:

“She was a really cool kisser and she wasn’t all that strict of a Christian.
She was a damn good dancer but she wasn’t all that great of a girlfriend.”

Here’s the thing. A lot of people criticize Craig Finn for his propensity to get overly wordy in his lyrics. It’s a fair critique; after all, I didn’t really get “Separation Sunday” until I listened to the album while reading the lyrics. But in this particular instance, Finn is able to perfectly sum up his narrator’s perspective on the rush that accompanies a brand-new relationship in the span of just two lines. Talk about economy of language! I’m not sure anyone has ever better described the impetuous way in which relationships form (and subsequently, break) between boys and girls in America. Not “men and women”, mind you, but “boys and girls.” That’s an important distinction.

Still lost? Think back to when you were younger. Back to your teenage days. Back to the time when you could share a dance and a kiss with another totally free of all of the messy constraints that come along with relationships. Remember those feelings? That’s what Finn so masterfully details in the span of these two lines about two people who met “suckin’ off each other at the demonstrations”, capturing some moments before the two really had to worry about “crushing each other with (their) colossal expectations.” It’s a couplet that allows the listener to relive their own days gone by in a way that’s both nostalgic and celebratory (thanks in part to the massive riffs of Tad Kubler). The Hold Steady … some say best evs.

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