God bless Craig Finn, the lead singer of one of America's greatest Rock bands going today. In a Rock world full of nauseating frat-boy machismo, 80's revivalist poseurs and Emo-Punks that wear skinnier jeans and more make-up than my sister, Finn's eloquent tales of ordinary boys and girls going through the ordinary rites of passage are, well - extraordinary. Just when I was ready to wave my hand and make the outside world go away Finn's songs brings the world back warts and all. Bristling with the aimless desperation and realism of kids making out in bars, screwing, drinking and getting high – Finn does for the banality of Midwest adolescence what Patterson Hood (Drive By Truckers) does for the pathos of the South.

Finn knows few peers as a lyricist, Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, can hold a poison pen to Finn, but he's a different type of lyricist altogether. Meloy writes songs about sailors getting stuck in the bellies of whales and Chinese crane wives, whereas Finn is all about writing characters that live everyday boring lives. Whether he's singing about his beloved twin cities of Minnesota in "Stuck Between Stations" or "Party Pit" (which Finn's hero Paul Westerberg of The Replacements used to do quite frequently two decades ago) or a girl that could consistently pick winners at the race track in "Chips Ahoy!" his characters always feel like real flesh and blood that you could touch through the speakers, even though Finn has admitted that most of his stories are fictional and not autobiographical. Finn talk-sings more than anything, his style being very similar to that of Dave Lowery of Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven fame. Musically however, The Hold Steady have to be the best Bar-Band Rock group to come out in years. "Same Kooks" double guitar attack is pure Thin Lizzy and "Chillout Tent" finds Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum (another Minneapolis native) dueting with Finn and it's by far the best thing he's been involved in for ages. By the time you get to album closer "Southtown Girls," I promise you'll be singing the chorus to yourself at the top of your lungs, not wanting the party to stop. If you're looking for a good ol' fashioned Rock N' Roll album that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy like a shot of tequila, I promise you this is it.