Things almost didn’t turn out the way they did for New Brunswick’s The Gaslight Anthem and it seemed that Brian Fallon at 30 would be playing music for fun rather then a living. In an interview after the release of the highly successful The ’59 Sound he said he was planning on being a roofer the rest of his life and working the hard life that his family had done growing up. But it turns out after their sophmore album blew up big, The Gaslight Anthem was destined to play music together forever. It helps that they had the support of fellow New Jersey legend Bruce Springsteen who happens to be a huge fan of the band and has made guest appearances with them randomly at festivals. Their sound could be compared to Against Me!, The Clash, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen and any blues singer from the past mixed into one kickass band. I think the best description of their type of sound is set in their most recent and anticipated release called American Slang, a very blues sounding album with a punk rock mentality.
The album starts off with the title track/first single and sounds like it could of been off of The ’59 Sound that has a very rock n roll/punk vibe to it with catchy chorus lyrics in “they cut me to ribbons and taught me to drive, I got your name tattooed inside of my arm.” The following song cuts into “Stay Lucky” a more punk rock song that slowly eases into the tempo of the album and compliments the first song without straying to far from their roots. This is when the album gets interesting and when I mean interesting, I mean that they show some of their evolution since they don’t want to just release another ’59 Sound. The third track, “Bring It On” is probably my favorite one on the album thus far and it’s very Bruce-like in the way it breaks down into the chorus and has a very punk rock chorus where he’s backed up by the rest of his band. What I like about the song is that it’s different from most songs off of the ’59 Sound but it still has that Gaslight Anthem feel and that slight show in progression makes me happy they’re moving on.
The album really starts showing more of their Blues and Soul element at this point with songs such as “The Diamond Church Street Choir” which has a soul type vibe. The lyrics are pretty sweet as well as he sings about driving around New Brunswick seeing all the college kid’s from Rutgers. Something I could connect with since I was going to college there while this band was living up there trying to make a living. The punk rock folk style in “Boxer” is a solid punk ballad that most fans of the band old or new will enjoy and then the bluesy “The Spirit of Jazz” will show how the band isn’t just a one trick pony. The last song “We Did It When We Were Young” is a slow end of the album type ballad that reminds me of a Tom Waits song, particularly “Anywhere I Lay My Head” just without the harsh vocals of Tom Waits. The song really compliments the feel of the album and anybody who just likes straight rock n roll music or is any sort of Bruce Springsteen band you should really check this band out. People that love Bruce Springsteen tend to really enjoy this band because of the similarities in vocals and lyrically style of the two singers. I’m not saying the music is like Bruce’s but you can definately feel the similarities in alot of songs, especially if you look up the YouTube video of Bruce singing “The ’59 Sound” with them this past summer. I wouldn’t say this album is better then “The ’59 Sound” but it’s an awesome album and I enjoy every second of it.
