American slang --- The Gaslight Anthem --- 2010 (SideOneDummy)
Whenever I see the words “punk rock” it always sends a shiver down my spine. I
know it did so much to shake up the complacency in music in the late seventies, and I know many decent bands started out as punk (The Clash, The Buzzcocks, The Ramones, The Damned, lots of other bands with “the” at the start of their name...) but it just never ever appealed to me. So I don't listen to punk rock bands, and perhaps that's my loss, but that's just how it is. The Gaslight Anthem (where
do they get their names from, these bands?) would have passed right by under my radar had it not been for the issue of “Classic Rock” magazine I bought, which happened to include one of their songs on the coverdisc, and considering many of the bands on that disc were not to my taste, it's perhaps surprising that a band styled as punk would be one of the few I did enjoy.
So now, here I am with their most recent album, ready to listen to it for the first time, with not a little trepidation, but here goes anyway. It opens with the title track, big heavy guitar sound, crunching drums from Benny Horowitz, great powerful guitars from Alex Rosamilia and Brian Fallon, who is also their vocalist. This is the track I heard on the CD mentioned above, and it's a great tough rocker, definitely more hard than punk though. Good backing vocals, great beat, excellent melody, more like a heavier John Cougar Mellencamp I feel than anything else, very Americana, as they say. Strong vocals from Fallon, and you get the feeling he's holding back his full register.
The Gaslight Anthem claim a lot of allegiance to New Jersey's most famous son, and indeed Fallon does sound a little like Springsteen on occasion, but that's not to his detriment as a singer, and “Stay lucky” is a faster, punchier track, almost rockabilly meets punk with some great guitar work from Rosamilia and Fallon, a solid bass line from Alex Levine, and there's a great sense of enthusiasm about the music here, like four guys from Jersey just enjoying themselves. A quick scan down the tracks shows nothing unexpected in terms of length: only one track is over the four minute mark, and it's the closer. The rest are all around three, and “Bring it on” opens with an almost blues melody, before it kicks into life with a certain Edge-style guitar from Alex R, and Fallon almost channelling Springsteen (I know he's not dead, but you get what I mean): you could almost hear this on the Boss's next album.
There's a great feeling of power too about the Gaslight Anthem, and I'm sure they must be amazing live. They've been together for only four years now, but have released three album in that short space of time, of which this is the third, with another planned for this year. “The Diamond Church Street choir” adds a touch of cool funk to proceedings, before becoming another rock anthem, with finger-clicking and sparse guitars. Perhaps an odd choice for subject matter, but the Gaslights make it work, and there's a definite reminder of very early Springsteen, a la “Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ” or “The wild, the innocent and the E Street shuffle”. Sorry to keep making the Springsteen comparisons, but they're there quite clearly, though the band has without doubt its own identity and would never be accused of being a Springsteen rip-off outfit.
“The queen of lower Chelsea” is another street rocker, with jangly guitars and light percussion, and “Orphans”, despite its low-key title suggesting a ballad, is nothing of the sort, in fact one of the fastest tracks on the album so far, a real air-puncher that trundles along like a joyous express train, Horowitz getting to really cut loose on the skins and relishing every moment. Apparently the similarlities to Springsteen have led to the Boss jamming onstage with them, and they're obviously big fans. There's a nod to rap then on “Boxer”, the shortest song on the album, then it takes off as another headlong rocker, The Gaslight Anthem displaying their allegiance to another rock and punk icon, Joe Strummer: it's just impossible to sit still when these guys rock out!
There's something of a slowdown in the tempo, though not much, for “Old haunts”, a rock cruncher, with some pretty introspective guitar as Fallon snaps
”Don't sing your songs/ About the good times/ Those times are gone/ And you should just let them go!” There's a lot of anger, bottled-up frustration running through this album, but it comes out in a really positive, energetic way, so much so that it's often hard to realise that Fallon is raging while he rocks. To paraphrase “Bleeding Gums” Murphy, rock is a fire that comes out of your fingers, so you'd better put a guitar in them! Back up to top gear then for “The spirit of jazz”, as The Gaslight Anthem remind us that the best music comes from the streets, and they never forget where they've come from. The closer, “We did it when we were young”, starts out slow and restrained, the closest TGA have come to a ballad on this album. Like most of their songs it's tinged with bitterness and regret, memories of choices made which were perhaps not the right ones, decisions that can no longer be undone. It's a sobering and rather unexpected end to what is mostly a very high-energy album, full of power rockers and anthems, as their name suggests and which they definitely live up to.
I definitely see more (well, hear more) of rock than punk rock here, although the unbridled energy and the sense of wanting to tear down the walls and rebuild anew is evident throughout the album. From what I know of punk rock --- and this is only from the birth of it, with the likes of the Pistols, UK Subs and so forth --- this is a lot more melodic and together than I had expected. Yes, I'm probably doing punk rock a huge disservice, and I don't know anything about the current crop of bands to attempt judging them, but this has been a huge surprise. I feel the energy, the power of youth, but no three-chord wonders and no screamed or roared vocals: has punk changed that much, or are The Gaslight Anthem more than they're sold as? I suspect the latter, in spades.
Really, you couldn't choose a better album to begin 2012 with. Although two years old now (okay, one, really) it's still one of the best albums I've heard this year (being 2011, obviously) and one of the most accomplished, and perhaps it's fair to say unexpected. If you're feeling the New Year Blues, need a kick up the arse to start 2012 or if you just need something to clear away the cobwebs and begin the new year on a high note, do yourself a favour and get this album. It's the cure for what ails ya!
TRACKLISTING
1. American slang
2. Stay lucky
3. Bring it on
4. The Diamond Church Street choir
5. The queen of lower Chelsea
6. Orphans
7. Boxer
8. Old haunts
9. The spirit of jazz
10. We did it when we were young