While he often presents it all with a strong sense of nostalgia - as if this was an actually obtainable reality - the title track to American Slang acknowledges head-on the storybook nature of the majority of The Gaslight Anthem’s lyrical content. “American Slang”īrian Fallons sings extensively about the mythos of Americana, this dream of a world populated by hardworking roughs and the ethereal women who can capture their heart. Fallon arrived too late to the game to befriend his idol, but that doesn’t make him any less of an heir. The song’s title also contains a coded reference to Woody Guthrie, whose own biggest fan, Bob Dylan, was also a personal friend. The lyrics describe Fallon’s first encounter with “the sound from Camden town” and how he gradually came to see that sound as a way to escape his suffocating Jersey adolescence (in a moment that’s a touch literal and a touch figurative, the walls of his bedroom actually tremble around him). Written in the wake of Joe Strummer’s death in late 2002, “I’da Called You Woody, Joe” is as much a tribute to Strummer and The Clash as it is a symptom of Fallon’s “life is elsewhere” outlook. Even before that anxiety was given a social media-friendly name (“FOMO” or “Fear of Missing Out”), it was at the core of what The Gaslight Anthem are all about. There’s an emotional disease that Czech author Milan Kundera touches on in his novel Life Is Elsewhere, in which the sufferer always feels one or two steps away from where all the action is. Scroll to the end for a playlist of all 10 tracks. They name-drop Charles Dickens, English author, and Andy Diamond, New Jersey punk promoter, and don’t skip a beat in the interim.Īhead of Fallon’s birthday tomorrow (January 28th), we’re revisiting their catalog and detailing the best songs of their career. They wear their influences on their sleeves, yet they refuse to hide behind those influences. As the tropes became more common, the band even risked unintentional comedy, with some critics in awe of how many times Fallon could drop the word “radio” on a single album.īut all of that is part and parcel of what makes The Gaslight Anthem great. On 2010’s American Slang and 2012’s Handwritten, frontman Brian Fallon and his bandmates held fast to their fantasies about late-night diners and girls named Mary or Maria, creating a self-contained mythology of an America more real than the one we’ve got. But the fact is that it was 2008, you probably bought this on CD or mp3, and the band’s only way to be authentic was to be a little contrived.įast-forward six years and three records, and the same paradox applies. The soft hisses and crackles belong to a prerecorded sound effect, the inclusion of which would be entirely unnecessary if the band trusted you to listen on glorious, 180-gram vinyl. When the needle drops on The Gaslight Anthem’s sophomore record, The ‘59 Sound, it’s not actually a needle. This article originally ran in 2014 and has been updated. The post The Gaslight Anthem’s 10 Best Songs appeared first on Consequence.
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