Making the long overdue jump to a major label after a humble debut and a pair of truly excellent albums, The Gaslight Anthem returns to record stores next week with Handwritten. Understandably, there's a lot at stake for the New Jersey soul rockers, so they mostly quell the urge to experiment, focusing on what they do best.
We've already heard the roaring, urgent lead single 45, and that's the track they come out of the gates swinging with. Beyond that, the album pretty much plays like a Gaslight Anthem highlight reel, spending a majority of its time in the deep soul end of the rock pool. The title track is a raging callback to another title track in The '59 Sound, a song that just happens to be one of my absolute favourites by the band. Here Comes My Man and Mulholland Drive are a veritable one-two midtempo punch to the heart. Keepsake and Too Much Blood cake on the grime, painting the canvas with a splash of grungy Tom Petty; the darkness in these tracks is reminiscent of frontman Brian Fallon's side project The Horrible Crowes.
Then comes Howl, a total rager that takes The '59 Sound album and ratchets up the tempo. It's notable in its tone and quickness, and even more notable when running headfirst into the brick wall of awesome that is Biloxi Parish. An emerging favourite for highlight of the album, it brings together soulful emotion, raw power and a very mean groove that will stick with you long after the record's over. And that's before it gets to its soaring, rousing power pop chorus.
If there has to be a clunker on Handwritten, it's probably Desire. After the juggernaut of Biloxi Parish, it just kind of sneaks past unnoticed thanks in part to its similarity in tempo and feeling to other (and better) songs in the band's catalog. It's followed by Mae, a mid-tempo slow burner that's a fine enough track, but I think I'm still feeling the effects of Biloxi Parish too heavily to make proper judgment.
The album closes with the acoustic, introspective National Anthem, gently swaying and earning the distinction as the track most critics will point to when criticizing The Gaslight Anthem's worship of Bruce Springsteen. It's a gorgeous track that will provoke as many tears as it does upraised lighters and/or cell phones when they break it out in concert.
Once it's over, one hopes that the band accomplishes the goal they undoubtedly set for themselves, which is to transition their underground charms into mass appeal. That they pulled in the reigns and stayed within a clear set of parameters shouldn't be scoffed at, the same way you don't complain to a prize fighter when he knocks someone out. On Handwritten, The Gaslight Anthem don't bother to break new ground because the seeds they planted years ago are about to supply a harvest for the ages.
By the way, the boys just released a new video for the title track:
Handwritten is out July 24 via Mercury.
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