The A.V. Club Review

I was waiting for this review, since this same reviewer gave American Slang an A-, but it seems he didn't like Elsie as much:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-horrible-crowes-elsie,61288/

Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon takes a break from his surging pop-punk outfit to pursue the more low-key side project The Horrible Crowes with his guitar tech Ian Perkins, but it’s something of a busman’s holiday. The Horrible Crowes’ debut album is still fundamentally a rock record: Fallon and Perkins slow the tempos and dull the roar, but Elsie’s songs are still built on drums and electric guitar, softened some with strings and horns. The songs aren’t all that different from Gaslight Anthem’s, either. Fallon doesn’t go in as much for quotes from his favorite musicians, but he still fills the lyric sheet with images of urban life, religious guilt, sudden violence, and girls’ names.

It’s because Elsie sounds so much like The Gaslight Anthem operating at half-power that the album proves disappointing. Fallon has said The Horrible Crowes was inspired by Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, and Afghan Whigs, but it’s the more cinematic, less riffy side of those acts that the band resembles. So while Elsie has a few songs that pop out—the pumping “Behold The Hurricane,” the darkly romantic “Crush,” the gentle, piano-accented “Black Betty & The Moon”—the rest of the record sounds like an adult-contemporary record, but with an excess of strained growls and verses so dense that Fallon seems at times to be reading, not singing. If this adventure into the rumble-y leads to more eclecticism on the next Gaslight Anthem album, then Elsie will have been worth it. On its own merits though, the album comes off like a talented musician sketching out some ideas, but without the muscle to will them to fruition.

Quote :

weworemasks


bitch, plz. one of the best albums i've heard all year.

I like that guy =P

Quote :

but with an excess of strained growls and verses so dense that Fallon seems at times to be reading, not singing.

I think this shows either the reviewer missed the whole point of the album or values completely different things in music than I do. Seems like he came in with expectaitons of what the record would sound like, it didn't sound like that, so he was disappointed.

*feels like a old hipster complaining any bad reviews are just from people who don't 'get it'*

Gaslight are a "pop punk" band? That's probably news to them.

He says "pop punk," but I'm not sure he knows what that term means. hmmm.

While I think the album is a lot better than the review gives it credit for, I don't think the review is THAT off-base. My initial impression was probably about the same. Only after I listened to the album many many times in the last five days or so has it improved for me. There are a lot of little hooks in it that take time to come out. The album is a slow burner. If you come in expecting Gaslight Anthem, then you're probably going to be disappointed, because (at least for me), only a few tracks immediately jumped out. The more you listen to it, though, the deeper it goes--which is always better than an album that sounds great on first listen, and then loses its luster on repetition. And I think the bottom line of the review is right on: It's an interesting album of ideas, and hopefully it helps to build toward whatever TGA's next album happens to become.