Loyal fans of the Hold Steady were familiar with half of the band’s new release, Thrashing Thru the Passion, even before the album was announced in June.
Between November 2017 and March 2019, the Hold Steady released a series of digital singles, usually with a B-side, that led up to and comprised half of the new album.
Almost a year ago, I wrote that the 2017 and 2018 songs already added up to an album’s equivalent and a long-overdue body of work from this great band. The Hold Steady had not released a new album since Teeth Dreams in 2014.
The five new tracks that appear on Thrashing Thru are classic Hold Steady — as are the previously released songs. Yeah, these guys don’t stray terribly far from the early to mid-2000s albums that put them on the map. But the musicianship is tight (keyboardist Franz Nicolay rejoined the band in 2016), Craig Finn is still a great front man and songwriter and the group’s energy is thankfully revived.
All the Young Punks 