Business as usual for The Gaslight Anthem. Springsteen-anthems with a punkier edge. The first album of theirs I heard was The '59 Sound which I loved. It starts brilliantly with a triple whammy of great tunes and the does pretty well to sustain the blue-collar euphoric rock the Springsteen is known for.
Two more albums along and I'm afraid it's all begging to wear a bit thin. The problem is there's a lack of new ideas. The music is good but there's zero progression from one album to the next. They all sound exactly like the last. I'm not expecting Bowie-like complete reinvention on ever album but they need to move things on a bit to avoid becoming stale. The problem is they are so in the thrawl of their inspiration and New Jersey favourite son that they're never going to brave enough to try something new and exciting. They're sounding increasingly old hat.
I also saw The Gaslight Anthem at Brixton Academy last night and I was massively dissapointed. Very little stage presence and the songs really blurred from one into the next. The band looked for all their worth like a bar room band that had got lucky. Perhaps that's exactly what they are. To be fair the sound quality wasn't great especially on Brian Fallon's vocals which were quite distorted at times. The space between songs was filled with the noise of a talking audience so I can only assume I wasn't the only one bored. That said my company for the evening was excellent!
Fallon has a great voice that manages to sound both fragile and rough. He looks the part too, but he until he delivers a collection of more memorable songs I think The Gaslight Anthems will never be more than mediocre Springsteen copyists.
As for this particular record I thought I'd give in another go in the cold light of day. I'm struggling to choose tracks of it.'American Slang' is good but after that it all begins to sound very derivative. If your interested give it a listen, but failing that go back and check out previous album THE '59 SOUND, especially the title track and 'Great Expectations'. If I'd done the same this morning I might be writing a more favourable blog.
AMERICAN SLANG
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
THE '59 SOUND
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