The Hold Steady

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, there were two notable occurrences last year -- one intentional, one less so. The official celebration came in the form of a repackaged Born, complete with a DVD and other extras. But perhaps the livelier honoring of that album's spirit was Separation Sunday, The Hold Steady's latest attempt to capture the Boss' mixture of doomed romanticism and loving character sketches. Craig Finn doesn't have the pipes or ambition of Springsteen, but he recalls Bruce's early career when the beautiful losers he explored weren't yet destined for eternal mediocrity -- maybe they'd turn things around, maybe not. It'd be fun to see what Finn could do with Tunnel of Love, but of course his saving grace is that he doesn't just want to be Springsteen -- there's some Paul Westerberg in there, too, not to mention a wonderfully less pretentious Jeff Tweedy.