'Separation Sunday' is the new album from New York's The Hold Steady. Led by enigmatic frontman Craig Finn, The Hold Steady rose phoenix -like from the ashes of Minneapolis art-punk critical faves Lifter Puller, to create a new brand of the Midwestern-mentality classic rock ideal made famous by the loose energy of the legendary Replacements and the epic flourishes of The E-Street Band. Coupling this with an almost obsessive literary lyrical focus, Finn's Catholic upbringing informs many of the album's central themes. The ranting and raving Finn spits out a tale of drug-fuelled abandon wrapped up in biblical imagery with a punky bark recalling Husker Du's Bob Mould. The album follows the story of a motley cast of debauched characters as they pursue fast times set against a suburban landscape of citified circumstance, and ultimately find a strange sort of salvation. Wry, funny, biting, loud, smart, often surreal and always sweaty, the suds-soaked, booze-hound bombast of The Hold Steady will hook you from the first chord.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Hornets, Hornets
2. Cattle and the Creeping Things
3. Your Little Hoodrat Friend
4. Banging Camp
5. Charlemagne in Sweatpants
6. Stevie Nix
7. Multitude Of Casualties
8. Don't Let Me Explode
9. Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night
10. Crucifixion Cruise
11. How a Resurrection Really Feels