Boys and Girls in America

Boys and Girls in America
Studio album by the Hold Steady
Released	October 3, 2006
Studio	Water Music Recorders (Hoboken, New Jersey), Atomic Studios (Brooklyn, New York)
Genre	Indie rock, rock
Length	40:07
Label	Vagrant
Producer	John Agnello
The Hold Steady chronology
Separation Sunday (2005) Boys and Girls in America (2006) Stay Positive (2008)

Boys and Girls in America is the third studio album by the Hold Steady, released on October 3, 2006, by Vagrant Records.

On August 18, 2006, first single "Chips Ahoy!" was released as a free download from music site Pitchfork Media. The second single, "Stuck Between Stations" began to appear on campus radio playlists in November 2006.

Backing vocals for the track "Chillout Tent" are provided by Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner and the Reputation's Elizabeth Elmore.[1] Dana Kletter (ex-Blackgirls, Dear Enemy, and Hole's Live Through This) contributed backing vocals to "Chips Ahoy!", "You Can Make Him Like You", and "First Night".[2]

The album title is a line taken from the opening lines of the song "Stuck Between Stations" ("There are nights when I think that Sal Paradise was right/Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together"), which in turn refers to a quote from American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel On the Road and its narrator, Sal Paradise.[3][4] The title is repeated in the lyrics in "First Night."

Boys and Girls in America has sold 94,000 albums as of April 2010.[5]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	85/100[6]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
The A.V. Club	A−[8]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[9]
The Guardian	[10]
The Irish Times	[11]
MSN Music (Consumer Guide)	A−[12]
NME	8/10[13]
Pitchfork	9.4/10[14]
Rolling Stone	[15]
Spin	[16]

The album received a metascore of 85 out of 100 on Metacritic, making it tied with four other albums for the 12th best-reviewed album of 2006. Magnet and The Onion's AV Club named it the best album of 2006.

Pitchfork rated Boys and Girls in America 9.4 out of 10, and named it the fifth-best album of the year.[17] They later ranked it as the 64th best album of the decade.[18]

Yahoo! Music ranked the album #9 on their list of the top 25 albums of 2006.[19]

The song "Stuck Between Stations" was ranked #12 on Pitchfork's list of the top 100 songs of 2006 and #63 on the best of 2000's list.

"Chillout Tent" was ranked #33 in Rolling Stone's list of 100 best songs of 2006.[20]

The song "Massive Nights" was always used at the Beginning of Colin Murray's Radio 1 Show, after the words, "New music, Alternative Classics, Drums" due to the drum roll introduction to the song.

Other versions

The song "Girls Like Status" was featured on the album Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Colon the Soundtrack.

Track listing

All songs written by Craig Finn, Tad Kubler and Franz Nicolay; except where noted.

1. "Stuck Between Stations" – 4:10
2. "Chips Ahoy!" – 3:09
3. "Hot Soft Light" – 3:53
4. "Same Kooks" (Finn, Kubler) – 2:47
5. "First Night" – 4:54
6. "Party Pit" (Finn, Nicolay) – 3:56
7. "You Can Make Him Like You" – 2:48
8. "Massive Nights" – 2:54
9. "Citrus" (Finn, Kubler) – 2:44
10. "Chillout Tent" – 3:42
11. "Southtown Girls" (Finn, Kubler) – 5:10

Bonus tracks on Japanese edition

12. "Against the Wind" (Bob Seger) – 5:17 (Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band cover)
13. "Stuck Between Stations" (Acoustic) – 4:13

Bonus tracks on Australian edition

12. "For Boston" – 3:17
13. "Girls Like Status" – 3:08
14. "Arms and Hearts" – 3:51
15. "American Music" (Gordon Gano) – 3:47 (Violent Femmes cover)

Bonus tracks on U.S. iTunes edition

12. "Girls Like Status" – 3:08
13. "Arms and Hearts" – 3:51

Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes.[21]

The Hold Steady

• Craig Finn
• Tad Kubler
• Galen Polivka
• Franz Nicolay
• Bobby Drake

Additional musicians

• Jean Cook – violin
• Caleb Burhans – viola
• Peter Hess – tenor saxophone, horn arrangements
• Lloyd Debonis – trumpet
• Alan Ferber – trombone
• Drew Glackin – lap steel
• Dana Kletter – additional vocals
• Dave Pirner – vocals on "Chillout Tent"
• Elizabeth Elmore – vocals on "Chillout Tent"

Technical

• John Agnello – producer, engineer, mixing
• Ted Doherty – assistant engineer
• Chris DeCocco – assistant engineer
• Ted Young – mixing assistant
• Greg Calbi – mastering
• Steve Fallone – mastering assistant
• Marina Chavez – photography
• Ben Goetting – layout, design
• Sacha Penn – typography

References

1. Hold Steady Announce Fall Tour | Pitchfork Archived March 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
2. "Barnes & Noble.com - Music: Boys and Girls in America, The Hold Steady, CD". Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
3. World Hum | Travel | The Hold Steady Pays Tribute to Kerouac’s “On the Road” Archived July 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
4. Kerouac, Jack. On The Road. Penguin: New York (1991), pg. 58.
5. "Hold Steady Seeks To Break Out Of The Brooklyn Rock Box". Billboard.com. 2009-09-14. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
6. "Reviews for Boys And Girls In America by The Hold Steady". Metacritic. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
7. Jurek, Thom. "Boys and Girls in America – The Hold Steady". AllMusic. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
8. Murray, Noel (October 3, 2006). "The Hold Steady: Boys And Girls In America". The A.V. Club. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
9. Howe, Sean (September 29, 2006). "Boys and Girls in America". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
10. Hann, Michael (January 12, 2007). "The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America". The Guardian. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
11. Carroll, Jim (January 19, 2007). "The Hold Steady: Boys And Girls Of America (Vagrant)". The Irish Times. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
12. Christgau, Robert (December 2006). "Consumer Guide". MSN Music. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
13. "The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America". NME: 30. January 13, 2007.
14. Plagenhoef, Scott (October 2, 2006). "The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
15. Hoard, Christian (September 21, 2006). "Boys And Girls In America". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
16. Matos, Michaelangelo (November 2006). "The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America". Spin. 22 (11): 100. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
17. Staff, Pitchfork (2006-12-19). "Staff Lists: Top 50 Albums of 2006 | Features". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
18. Pitchfork (2009-09-30). "Staff Lists: The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s: 100-51 | Features". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 2016-01-10. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
19. "Yahoo! Music Top 25 Albums of 2006". Archived from the original on 2017-01-14. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
20. The 100 Best Songs of 2006 : Rolling Stone
21. Boys and Girls in America (booklet). The Hold Steady. Vagrant Records. 2006.