The Laughing Gnome

Let's make no bones about it, New Jersey's The Gaslight Anthem have tapped into a truly passionate, all-American hormone that brims with promise and a truly ecstatic joie de vivre with their solo effort.
This becomes so critically evident from the brash opener 'Boomboxes and Dictionaries', that exudes a lust for life unheard since Springsteen's fiery years of excessive adolescent energy. Their blue collar spirits that flow through every note of the raucous guitar and furious pounding of the drums show more gruff spirit than a lumberjack felling a Redwood in a harsh Oregon winter. This provides the first winning hand for the strong suits to follow in the first half of the album, which reaches it's pinnacle with 'We Came To Dance', which stands firm as one of the albums finest moments with it's arpeggiated, chiming riff, but with a fist-raising, testosterone fuelled chorus to boot.
However, with such a strong set of songs that open the album, the quality unfortunately descends with 'The Navesink Banks' - an enervatingly unoriginal slice of emotive Americana that you can imagine even 'The Boss' himself cringing at. Although it is understandable that they attempt to show variety by incorporating this acoustic led track, it amounts to a dissatisfying notion that they have only used a tried and tested form of songwriting in this section of the album. Even when the album's full-throttle energy continues with 'Red In The Morning' you can't help feeling that the blue-collar theme is growing a little wearisome.
But before the fears that the album will descend into tedium become too frustrating, they miraculously return to form with 'Drive' which gloriously saves the listener from concluding that the first set of 5 songs were merely a fluke. The last place where the songwriting dissappoints is 'Bed at Night' - a track similar to 'The Navesink Banks' except opened with a harmonica, which evokes a certain sentimentality that recalls early Bob Dylan, but falls flat with lack of innovative songwriting prowess.
As a debut effort, this is an exceptionally admirable album from the New Jersey mob, brandished with the refreshing sounds of a youthful and determined band. But this is also the sound of a band who have not yet realised their true ingenuity of unique songcraft, and need to uncover their potential quickly before their second album if they don't want to be labelled as a Springsteen styled cliché. Frontman Brian Fallon clearly wears his prime influence on his sleeve with unfortunately often trite lyricism such as "We are the last of the jukebox Romeos, we are the romantics by the light of the fourway" in 'We Came To Dance' - which sounds exactly like the kind of nauseatingly romantic line only 'The Boss' could come up with. Sadly, this is the kind of obvious expression of influence that will leave them open to ridicule from a vast variety of critics
But for a record that sounds as American as an apple pie wrapped up in the stars and stripes, Brian Fallon & Co. make it evident that they're not sinking any time soon. They want to swim all the way.

7/10