Imagine the most stereotypical dive bar possible, complete with dim lighting, dirty glasses and peanuts all over the floor. That was the Hold Steady’s bar last year when its sophomore effort, “Separation Sunday,” was released.

But somehow, with “Boys and Girls in America,” the Hold Steady have made the jump from writing bar band rockers to stadium-worthy anthems without any of the awkward in-between experimentation.

Frontman Craig Finn is the band’s most obvious defining feature — after all, it is his loudmouthed storytelling that makes these songs what they are. Seemingly biologically incapable of watching his mouth, he rambles on and on, spinning tales in such raw detail they become cinematic in an almost film noir sense. But what makes the album is the punk-rock attitude and stadium swagger by his band.

Guitarist Tad Kubler has become increasingly deft at his instrument in the past year, and keyboardist Franz Nicolay (never a slouch to begin with) augments everything with absolutely epic piano. The production is clear enough that everything that needs to be heard can be, but not so sparkling that any of the band’s grimy aesthetic is lost.

Finn’s lyrics are in fine form this time around as well. “She was a real good kisser but she wasn’t all that strict of a Christian,” he laments on the album’s opener “Stuck Between Stations.”

“Party Pit” seems to explain Finn’s party-going attitude (“Gonna walk around/ Gonna walk around/ Gonna walk around and drink”), while the “Summer Nights”-inspired “Chillout Tent” boasts possibly the most blunt storytelling Finn has written.

The song tells of an unlikely romance by two overdose victims at an outdoor music festival. “They started kissing when the nurses took out their IVs/ It was kinda sexy but it was kinda creepy/ Their mouths were fizzy with the cherry cola/ They had the privacy of bedsheets and the other kids were mostly in comas,” Finn explains.

But the two real shockers come from “Citrus” and “Southtown Girls.” The former is a delicate acoustic number, possibly about the spiritual element of alcohol. The latter is a down-tempo rocker with the simplest and most effective hook Finn has come up with. The two songs, with “Chillout Tent” in the middle, provide the perfect way to close the album.

The Hold Steady has come a long way from recording songs essentially without melody or structure to releasing such a hook-laden third album, and have done so without sacrificing any of the roughness that gives members their character.

Finally, the world’s best bar band has raised the bar and is moving up in the world.

Evan Thorne is a music critic for the Northern Star