Review of Handwritten on Ultimate-Guitar.com

Found this and I though it was a good review. Just figured some folks from here might enjoy it.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/the_gaslight_anthem/handwritten/index.html

That was a great review. I agree on Biloxi too. First thoughts were not that it was one of the best, but after reading the lyrics, the song hit me.

I like that review. I agree with basically all of it. Biloxi is pretty awesome. I don't know if I'd call it "one of their best" but it's up there and I agree it really does show off how talented all of them are.

But American Slang did not FAIL! Geesh, there will be no end to this nonsense will there?

Great review. Very true as well. I still hold The '59 Sound as their best album, but Handwritten is still perfect and very close to The 59 Sound in my rankings.

StitchesOnTheRadio wrote:

I like that review. I agree with basically all of it. Biloxi is pretty awesome. I don't know if I'd call it "one of their best" but it's up there and I agree it really does show off how talented all of them are.

But American Slang did not FAIL! Geesh, there will be no end to this nonsense will there?

Ha... Yeah, I don't get what all the negativity about American Slang is. Just a bunch of critics out there I guess.

I read the lyrics to Biloxi and I'd have to agree. It probably is one of their best off the album, but it's hard to pick a favorite, for me anyway.

TGAforLIFE wrote:

StitchesOnTheRadio wrote:

I like that review. I agree with basically all of it. Biloxi is pretty awesome. I don't know if I'd call it "one of their best" but it's up there and I agree it really does show off how talented all of them are.

But American Slang did not FAIL! Geesh, there will be no end to this nonsense will there?

Ha... Yeah, I don't get what all the negativity about American Slang is. Just a bunch of critics out there I guess.

I read the lyrics to Biloxi and I'd have to agree. It probably is one of their best off the album, but it's hard to pick a favorite, for me anyway.

Totally agree. When AS was the new CD, I remember thinking how good it was, and the general consensus was the same--great CD. Now 2 years later, it's almost like revisionist history, in that it was terrible. Although one thing that does make me pause---it doesn't seem like they like to play many songs at all from AS. Seeing them in STL in July and reading all the set lists...they play maybe 1-2 from AS. Weird. I think Orphans, Boxer and Spirit of Jazz are great songs....Can't explain it.

StitchesOnTheRadio wrote:

I like that review. I agree with basically all of it. Biloxi is pretty awesome. I don't know if I'd call it "one of their best" but it's up there and I agree it really does show off how talented all of them are.

But American Slang did not FAIL! Geesh, there will be no end to this nonsense will there?

The reviewer says

Quote :

Since 2008, the question for this band has been "will they ever write something better than 'The '59 Sound'?". Where "American Slang" failed, "Handwritten" succeeds.

That doesn't say AS slang failed in general but that it failed to be better than The '59 Sound which seems fair. He then praises Handwritten, indicating that it may be better than their previous work. I don't get why everyone needs to defend AS. It has some good songs but it wasn't a masterpiece in 2010 and it isn't now.

I agree, I don't consider AS a masterpiece (what is, really?), but I also don't consider it punishment to listen to it. It's solid, and a good listen. I think that people undervalue AS as time marches on, and I'm not sure that's fair.

this is going a bit off topic, sorry, but click the link or search for AS reviews on this site, and I think we'll find that at the time AS was released it was considered more masterpiece than terrible. Lots of 4/5, 9/10 reviews. And somehow two years later, we're saying that it's soft...still don't get it.

https://thegaslightanthem.forumotion.com/t2036-magazine-review-ratings-thread-american-slang?highlight=AS+review

[/quote]Totally agree. When AS was the new CD, I remember thinking how good it was, and the general consensus was the same--great CD. Now 2 years later, it's almost like revisionist history, in that it was terrible. Although one thing that does make me pause---it doesn't seem like they like to play many songs at all from AS. Seeing them in STL in July and reading all the set lists...they play maybe 1-2 from AS. Weird. I think Orphans, Boxer and Spirit of Jazz are great songs....Can't explain it. [/quote]


It's common for bands with multiple albums to not play much off the last tour, since they just got finished flogging all those songs for 1-2 years and are probably sick of them. I just saw Wilco and they played nothing off "Wilco (the album)" (not a bad thing!) now that they're touring their new CD, whereas the tour before they played almost the whole thing. Springsteen's (mercifully) doing the same thing with "Working on a Dream" songs on the current "Wrecking Ball" tour.

Two years from now when Gaslight's touring on the NEXT new record, I doubt we'll get much off "Handwritten," whereas songs from AS will start to crop up with more frequency in the same 4-5 slots as their first two albums are now.

That being said, I do miss some of those AS songs, too. And "Diamond" was even better this time around than the version I heard in 2010. Regardless, I'm just happy we're getting three songs off "Senor & the Queen" with so much regularity! Of all their releases, that's the one I expected to drop off the map the most, so glad to be wrong about that.

i don't think its revisionist history in this case as the things said about American Slang in this review are consistent with Ultimate Guitar's review of American Slang

Good point about playing AS songs. sounds completely reasonable to me. Thanks.

ral, what you said is true, they didn't say AS was a failure, I just don't like seeing the word "fail" anywhere near that album. I'll say this, I like AS better than T59S but I couldn't honestly say I thought either one was better than the other. Both are amazing in different ways. I just get confused when people act like AS was a step backwards, even a slight one. To me all the records are on par with each other but all have different strengths or explore slightly different styles. If I could picture MY ideal next record for these guys, it would have the rawness of SoS, the imagery of T59S, the balance of directness/storytelling and general lyrical style of AS, and the musicality of Handwritten.

J_Schooly, what you said makes total sense. Although I'm hoping part of why Working on a Dream was basically dropped is because it sucked (I say that in comparison to Bruce's entire catalog though of course). It'd be cool though if they at least varied which AS songs they played more. AS the song is one of my favorites of all time by them and I'm like "replace it with Boxer or Bring it On". I just hope it's "normal" like you said and not a reflection of how the guys feel about the album.