HANDWRITTEN: your impressions, comments, and declarations of love

i like the song a lot more than some, i think it would've been cool if they cut out those vocals at the beginning of Desire. leave the hooks to the guitars.

Desire is obviously not as good as Handwritten, but both suffer from some detrimental vocal parts.

Christophe wrote:

rkirkpatrick25 wrote:

Christophe wrote:

Yozzy wrote:

Also Desire is the worst song they've ever written. I just can't stand it. If only they swapped that track for Blue Dahlia, or hey, even removed it completely. That would be nice.

Personally wouldn't say it's the worst song at all. It's in the top half of songs from Handwritten for me. I know I seem to be in the minority but I love Desire.

I agree with you, I don't think it's a bad song.... I don't understand why everyone is jumping all over it... I enjoy the guitar riffs and think it's fun and catchy...

It's simply a fun rock song, Brian also clearly loves it, seeing as he's been playing it a lot at acoustic radio gigs....

I agree completely. It is a fun rock song. It has a romantic, uplifting vibe similar to The Spirit of Jazz and Casanova, Baby. Gaslight records need songs like this as well as the what might be considered 'deeper' songs.

Funny you mention those tracks, Spirit of Jazz and Casanova, Baby. Both are probably in my bottom 5 Gaslight songs!
Haha, maybe it's just not my type of song.

Desire is a grower I find myself coming back to it a lot more than many of the songs on the album. Anyone else feel me?

Howl is probably my favorite song, overall I think is album is a huge heart breaker, the themes of it are desperate and bargaining. but i really love that.

my bottom song on this album is probably Too Much Blood.

RickySpanish wrote:

Howl is probably my favorite song, overall I think is album is a huge heart breaker, the themes of it are desperate and bargaining. but i really love that.

my bottom song on this album is probably Too Much Blood.

I love the song Handwritten, just hate the intro with the whoa whoas

It took a few times to listen to it all to get the full experience, but I really like this album. It is tough to compare to others, but Handwritten has quite the collection of superb songs.

Still can't get into this album as much as their other stuff. In its own regard, its a pretty good rock album. But it isn't a Gaslight anthem album. It lacks the imagery, catchiness, "this is everything that is right about music" feel of their other stuff. I feel like I could only sing along with half the album. And the when the best part of your band is the shows where everyone is singing along every song because the lyrics are that catchy and relatable, that's a problem. Kill that and you've killed the part of what makes Gaslight Gaslight. So when you compared to the album to could've been its hard not to get disappointed listening to it.

A six song Biloxi Parish EP (side A: Biloxi Parish (original version), 45, Keepsake Side b: Mae, Howl, Blue Dahlia) would've easily been my AOTY. But the only way the whole thing cracks my top five is if I continue to pretend Blue Dahlia isn't a bonus track.

And to be fair, it wasn't as disappointing as Comet or the Vaccines Come of Age...

CluckyB wrote:

Still can't get into this album as much as their other stuff. In its own regard, its a pretty good rock album. But it isn't a Gaslight anthem album. It lacks the imagery, catchiness, "this is everything that is right about music" feel of their other stuff. I feel like I could only sing along with half the album. And the when the best part of your band is the shows where everyone is singing along every song because the lyrics are that catchy and relatable, that's a problem. Kill that and you've killed the part of what makes Gaslight Gaslight. So when you compared to the album to could've been its hard not to get disappointed listening to it.

A six song Biloxi Parish EP (side A: Biloxi Parish (original version), 45, Keepsake Side b: Mae, Howl, Blue Dahlia) would've easily been my AOTY. But the only way the whole thing cracks my top five is if I continue to pretend Blue Dahlia isn't a bonus track.

And to be fair, it wasn't as disappointing as Comet or the Vaccines Come of Age...

Blue Dahlia definitely should've been on the album, I'll give you that. But let's please depart this thread and find a Vaccines thread so we can talk about Come Of Age...I thought that was a good record, personally.

JackStreetcar wrote:

CluckyB wrote:

Still can't get into this album as much as their other stuff. In its own regard, its a pretty good rock album. But it isn't a Gaslight anthem album. It lacks the imagery, catchiness, "this is everything that is right about music" feel of their other stuff. I feel like I could only sing along with half the album. And the when the best part of your band is the shows where everyone is singing along every song because the lyrics are that catchy and relatable, that's a problem. Kill that and you've killed the part of what makes Gaslight Gaslight. So when you compared to the album to could've been its hard not to get disappointed listening to it.

A six song Biloxi Parish EP (side A: Biloxi Parish (original version), 45, Keepsake Side b: Mae, Howl, Blue Dahlia) would've easily been my AOTY. But the only way the whole thing cracks my top five is if I continue to pretend Blue Dahlia isn't a bonus track.

And to be fair, it wasn't as disappointing as Comet or the Vaccines Come of Age...

Blue Dahlia definitely should've been on the album, I'll give you that. But let's please depart this thread and find a Vaccines thread so we can talk about Come Of Age...I thought that was a good record, personally.

Its not a bad record, but I found the later half rather boring. Especially when you compare it to What Did You Expect... which was one of my favorites last year. That was full of upbeat catchy jams. The new one has a few good tunes, but overall just felt a whole lot weaker.

I think my problem with Handwritten ultimately comes down to the lyrics. I mean, I'm just going through American Slang again and every song's lyrics blow away everything on Handwritten. People say that Handwritten is more "personal and direct" - it's more direct, sure, but can you really listen to We Did it When We Were Young and not see how personal it is? Except he still maintains the poetic side, with gems like "I buried my faith in another plot, where your heart and your claws will not find".

Conversely, I think that some of the production on American Slang could benefit from Brendan O'Brien producing. The title track always seems like it wants to be bigger than it actually sounds.

eagles1139 wrote:

I think my problem with Handwritten ultimately comes down to the lyrics. I mean, I'm just going through American Slang again and every song's lyrics blow away everything on Handwritten. People say that Handwritten is more "personal and direct" - it's more direct, sure, but can you really listen to We Did it When We Were Young and not see how personal it is? Except he still maintains the poetic side, with gems like "I buried my faith in another plot, where your heart and your claws will not find".

I agree almost 100%. I really love this album and I'm fine with how it's more direct. I just hope it's not gonna become a trend with their music. Meaning, I think, of all their albums, American Slang has the best combination of creative wording and clarity. I said a while back that I love Handwritten but I'm hoping the next album isn't Handwritten 2. I'd rather they edge back a bit toward AS without losing what they learned from HW. Having read lyrics to Halloween and Misery, I'm not terribly concerned.

eagles1139 wrote:

I think my problem with Handwritten ultimately comes down to the lyrics. I mean, I'm just going through American Slang again and every song's lyrics blow away everything on Handwritten. People say that Handwritten is more "personal and direct" - it's more direct, sure, but can you really listen to We Did it When We Were Young and not see how personal it is? Except he still maintains the poetic side, with gems like "I buried my faith in another plot, where your heart and your claws will not find".

Conversely, I think that some of the production on American Slang could benefit from Brendan O'Brien producing. The title track always seems like it wants to be bigger than it actually sounds.

Overall, AS was a better album than HW, but its not "every song's lyrics blow away everything on Handwritten". Keepsake covers the same themes as American Slang (the song) but does it so much better. Even with gutting the third verse, Biloxi still has some of Brian's best lyrics (Try it on for size my darling see what a man you can make of me). And Mae is as hauntingly beautiful as We Did it when we were young or HLAYK

But yeah, its still overall lyrically worse and more importantly its just so disappointing because its clear Brian can do better (just listen to Blue Dahlia) but instead he wants to do this. And I'd rather have him write the music he really wants to write than the music I want to hear, but at the same time I really wish he wanted to write the music I want to here.

Oh well. There's still the Menzingers. and Half the songs on HW are still awesome so I shouldn't complain

CluckyB wrote:

eagles1139 wrote:

I think my problem with Handwritten ultimately comes down to the lyrics. I mean, I'm just going through American Slang again and every song's lyrics blow away everything on Handwritten. People say that Handwritten is more "personal and direct" - it's more direct, sure, but can you really listen to We Did it When We Were Young and not see how personal it is? Except he still maintains the poetic side, with gems like "I buried my faith in another plot, where your heart and your claws will not find".

Conversely, I think that some of the production on American Slang could benefit from Brendan O'Brien producing. The title track always seems like it wants to be bigger than it actually sounds.

Overall, AS was a better album than HW, but its not "every song's lyrics blow away everything on Handwritten". Keepsake covers the same themes as American Slang (the song) but does it so much better. Even with gutting the third verse, Biloxi still has some of Brian's best lyrics (Try it on for size my darling see what a man you can make of me). And Mae is as hauntingly beautiful as We Did it when we were young or HLAYK

But yeah, its still overall lyrically worse and more importantly its just so disappointing because its clear Brian can do better (just listen to Blue Dahlia) but instead he wants to do this. And I'd rather have him write the music he really wants to write than the music I want to hear, but at the same time I really wish he wanted to write the music I want to here.

Oh well. There's still the Menzingers. and Half the songs on HW are still awesome so I shouldn't complain

Yeah I'll rephrase that, I prefer the AS lyrics greatly but it's not every song blows away everything on HW.

I disagree that Keepsake > AS from a lyrics standpoint, but it is better in terms of the power of the vocals...but both great songs so I digress. My problem is more with songs like Mulholland Drive and Desire (which aren't even my least favorite on the album, I can't get into Here Comes My Man anymore). I always think of Brian as a poet and some of those songs don't prove it.

And it's funny that you say that about the Menzingers because I was gonna mention that On the Impossible Past kinda gave me my fill of the great poetic Americana imagery that I come to expect from Gaslight.

eagles1139 wrote:

I think my problem with Handwritten ultimately comes down to the lyrics. I mean, I'm just going through American Slang again and every song's lyrics blow away everything on Handwritten. People say that Handwritten is more "personal and direct" - it's more direct, sure, but can you really listen to We Did it When We Were Young and not see how personal it is? Except he still maintains the poetic side, with gems like "I buried my faith in another plot, where your heart and your claws will not find".

Conversely, I think that some of the production on American Slang could benefit from Brendan O'Brien producing. The title track always seems like it wants to be bigger than it actually sounds.

The more I listen to HW, the more I like it. Was the same with American Slang. Just as of late I've really been liking Howl after I listened to the acoustic version and then listened to the full version 10 times. So good.

eagles1139 wrote:

I think my problem with Handwritten ultimately comes down to the lyrics. I mean, I'm just going through American Slang again and every song's lyrics blow away everything on Handwritten. People say that Handwritten is more "personal and direct" - it's more direct, sure, but can you really listen to We Did it When We Were Young and not see how personal it is? Except he still maintains the poetic side, with gems like "I buried my faith in another plot, where your heart and your claws will not find".

Conversely, I think that some of the production on American Slang could benefit from Brendan O'Brien producing. The title track always seems like it wants to be bigger than it actually sounds

Agreed 100% on both points

A_Regular wrote:

I'm earjaculating everywhere

HAHA AMEN brother Amen still happening to me everytime i hear it

I am still obsessed with Handwritten. It's my favorite album ever and these songs describe me and my life more now than they did last July. I really can identify with every single song in some way. Amazing!

Try whistling/humming the end of Handwritten "With this pen, I thee wed, From my heart to your distress" and then the guitar intro to Old White Lincoln.

Pretty similar, no?

The more time that passes, the less I care about HW. At first I considered it the best album, now it's lucky if it stays out of last place. It has some great moments, but it lacks whatever made me fall in love with The Gaslight Anthem.

I read the discussion above about the comparison between HW and AS and I ended up thinking that AS may be their most mature album : they tried lots of different musical directions keeping their own style, and you said already all about the lyrics.
Anyway to stick with the topic HW is a good album,surely not their best (probably their worst but I really like it anyway) and showed clearly what they should do with the next record basing me(I'm pretty shure that's not even engish I hope you get what I mean) on the quality of the songs: stuff like "Mae" is 100 times better than fast and catchy songs like "Desire"; if you add the fact that Halloween is (for me) one of their best songs ever I think they should go in that direction 'cause it's clearly what they are better at nowadays. A sort of mixture between gaslight and crowes.

guys, handwritten is great, fuck y'all. rocks so hard

a man's album

I'm kinda sorta really frustrated about how Biloxi Parish's chorus sounds. Man, that HQ live version that's been out has so much grit and awesomeness, the album version's vocals sounds so sugar-coated in comparison. This pisses me off more than the whole "bridge vs. third verse" debate, which I could take either side of.

well i think Biloxi's chorus sounds awesome. one of the best moments on the album, and certainly Brendan O'Brien's shining moment.

the rest of the song sounds great too, notably Brian's opening chords.

but i can understand one preferring some old fashioned Gaslight grit to the big production on the album.