C/D : The Gaslight Anthem

Matt - I interviewed the Vaccines the other day and put to them your contention, after their second single, that you preferred their early stuff. They thought that was uproarious. Yes, I take all my questions from ILX posts.

Hah, I don't really remember saying that in the first place but good stuff.

http://www.spin.com/reviews/gaslight-anthem-handwritten-mercury

worst new music? a little harsh

smh, terrible

thought this reviewer at least tried to think a little http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16856-handwritten/

http://i.imgur.com/Nj59d.gif

hahahah

yeah sorry whines i prefer reviews that actually engage with the material and approach it with something resembling respect - that dude obviously saw the opportunity to get in some lazy zings and good for him if it's getting him spin paid but it's shitty writing

i haven't heard this album and i didn't have much of a problem w/ it but yeah it was obv more of a leveling of the band than the specific album

Yeah, I get the impression those last two reviewers were pretty set on panning it before they even heard it, based on the zings; which to be fair, if I was reviewing records on a consistent basis, I'd probably run across a few albums every year that I'd end up reviewing, knowing beforehand that it's not my thing, and writing a review signifying such.

tbh a band that stays so unfalteringly true to its formula from album to album kinda invites pre-written pans

Don't recall any pans of the last two, but I know the Horrible Crowes album rubbed some people the wrong way. And then comes an album that if anything upped the earnestness, which seems hard to do. Fork review otm in that it would be nice to hear a glimmer of humor in this endeavor.

I agree this band is becoming a bit formulaic, but I don't hear much of a qualitative difference among the three albums. Did this band ever have a sense of humor? I don't remember chuckling at any of their previous songs. Either way, that's not something that I care about at all (big Radiohead stan here).

i agree that the last 3 albums really very nearly equal -- i was just saying being consistent, while it can be enjoyable, can set a band up to get some pretty paint-by-numbers reviews

Finally bought this. I didn't love American Slang at first either, but this is seriously growing on me.

('59 Sound is easily my fave rock album of the last five years, btw.)

but this is seriously growing on me

^ this

I would more or less describe all three albums the same way, but I think the quality of the songs on "59 Sound" and "American Slang" are superior. I haven't made it through a listen of the new one yet that didn't make me wish I was listening to one of the other ones instead. Does not make the new one bad, per se, but I definitely think it inferior, and not just because it is more of the same.

Don't think the idea is that the band was ever funny, just that a glimmer of humor or wit could be a nice way to shake things up without really changing much, sonically. On its face Gaslight Anthem does not seem any more conservative than, say, Lucero, but Lucero seems a little less beholden to a specific template. But it's not like I'm writing off Gaslight Anthem at all. I'm curious to hear if the group ever grows beyond the sum of its (wonderful, exciting, anthemic, etc.) cliches.

Right, I feel like where Lucero asks the girl to dance cause they're downtown and drunk and it's Friday, Gaslight asks the girl to dance ~for redemption~. that's part of what I like about them, but 4 records without much of a wink gets kinda staid.

"here comes my man" is becoming my favorite on this. i think taking a different voice - something, as we alluded to upthread, that fallon does infrequently - really opens him up on this song. lines like "and i'll never let you drop another tear in my eye" and "don't you think i knew about all your pretty girlfriends" affect partly because of just how unusual they are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoW3Pgv-gng

seeing these guys in philly in november @ electric factory. pretty excited actually - especially if they play older stuff and not just new material

when i saw them a lil while ago they played stuff from all four records, it was p rad

yeah i think one benefit of them having figured out their sound from the get-go is that they seem to mix the old and the new pretty seamlessly. plus i think they know no matter how big they get The 59 Sound is gonna be the record that they need to give people a certain amount of songs from every night.

show was excellent!

i noticed that a lot of their lyrics include some variation of the words "sad songs"

i was also sad bc no "lucky" or "american slang." lots of other great songs tho including 'blood bank' and 'just like heaven' covers. 'too much blood' and 'handwritten' were huge too -> over capacity electric factory crowd, philly seems to be huge gaslight anthem fans

oh yeah, and astro zombies cover!

i was sort of shocked at how many frat types appeared at their last show

have they always been a fratty band and i just didn't notice with my headphones at home

i had tickets to monday night in boston but couldn't go :(

'handwritten' would probably be epic live

i was sort of shocked at how many frat types appeared at their last show

rly

DEFINITELY a fratty band.

just not my thing, I guess. i'm not big on the Americana sound

i mean on thought their presence made a lot of sense and i'm not really sure what sort of crowd i expected--*a room full of haunted-eye moleskine clutchers* or whatever--but it struck me as incongruous somehow

can't really finger why

"45" crossed over to hard rock radio a little bit, they are on a major label now, etc. the whole reason indie's been running from anthemic guitar bands the last x years is "man i didn't know there were gonna be baseball caps at this show"

i think maybe it's bcz the bruce influence codes as 'blue collar' to me--though obv that's a whole thing to unpack as like obv not every dad fist pumping at the staples center to darkness on the edge of town is a dust farmer by day--and hollister definitely does not code as blue collar to me

shit collar

sure

the album "handwritten" is a tragedy, the first three songs are so amazing

new one is streaming.

i had no use for it but RIP

http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/08/stream-the-gaslight-anthems-new-album-get-hurt/

"45" crossed over to hard rock radio a little bit, they are on a major label now, etc. the whole reason indie's been running from anthemic guitar bands the last x years is "man i didn't know there were gonna be baseball caps at this show"

― trinidad jokes (some dude), Friday, November 30, 2012 12:11 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a+ post

i'm never going to love a gaslight album as much as i love american slang, am i? the new one is okay.

i am sort of too down on those first three singles to even listen to it man. i'll always love those first three records, all sort of perfect even in their flaws, but yeah--barring some unexpected breakthrough i think i may be out of steam for these guys.

man get hurt is just not great

i really tried to like it but i got nothing

with the benefit of a few years, i think american slang has actually become my favorite record of theirs--59 sound, in retrospect, is too weighed down by fallon straining to fit into The Boss's leather jacket.

love the solo album

btw h00s otm american slang is the best album. the new solo reminds me a lot of it.

already got teary once at "i don't want to survive / i want a wonderful life"

I like to think that Fallon runs his albums by Springsteen first, the way Weird Al makes sure his marks are cool with his parodies.

But yeah, this is good. I was afraid to listen to the last GA, since someone said it was more Bon Jovi than Bruce. But this is good.

it's much better than the last GA which i haven't gone back to once. it's how i wanted things to go after american slang + get hurt in terms of GA sound.

Fallon gets more unabashed mileage out of the C-G-Am-F change than every other pop-punk act combined.