American Slang album - personal reviews

rhg5010 wrote:

I still get a lot of Springsteen from them, maybe even more than last time. Just more in the music and vocal melodies this time instead of the lyrics.

I agree, but I didn't want to say so right off. It actually brought to mind the more upbeat tracks on The River and on Working on a Dream. As the comparison is unlikely to go away, they might as well enjoy it. They are not in Bruce's shadow, as far as I am concerned, but they carry the mantle. Contrary to Brian's hopes, I don't think that this is their London Calling, though I feel that that is still to come. On the form they have just shown three albums running, they have a long way to go yet.

loving this album already,only the fourth listen.personal favourites so far are Diamond Street Church Choir & Queen Of Lower Chelsea.loving all tracks though.

surprised to say it but i think i just might like it more than 59 sound.

Very Disapointing..

ForgetIt wrote:

Very Disapointing..

If that's all you've got to say, aside from your 'guest' name, then why bother post here at all? I doubt you'll even be back to read this.

Harsh. No disrespect but I doubt you would be so bothered if he said its great.

Anyway its different. I can hear a lot more soul influence. I love some songs while some are a bit pedestrian. I get the feeling its a grower overall its pretty good though its not the massive disappointment I built it up to be in my head.

Stay Lucky seems to be the track people either loved or didn't. Personally it's one of my favourites in the album. Really makes you want to get up and dance.

Another 10/10 for Gaslight. Does not disappoint.

To me it sounds like the best parts of SOS and 59 combined, plus with a new jazz/soul flare.

I figured 'Orphans' would be a big hit for old-school fans, it feels very much like an SOS song to me.

The last 2 tracks are my favorite right now.

'We Did It When We Were Young' sort of reminds me of U2 before they started to suck. but with Brian's amazing vocal delivery, both high and low. Very powerful.

That being said, right now, there's nothing hitting me as hard as 'great expectations' or 'here's lookin at you, kid' or 'we're getting a divorce..'. but some songs may grow on me over time.

joe wrote:

Stay Lucky seems to be the track people either loved or didn't. Personally it's one of my favourites in the album. Really makes you want to get up and dance.

I love the way Brian sings 'when your knees got so weak'.

MCStevepants wrote:

Another 10/10 for Gaslight. Does not disappoint.

To me it sounds like the best parts of SOS and 59 combined, plus with a new jazz/soul flare.

I figured 'Orphans' would be a big hit for old-school fans, it feels very much like an SOS song to me.

The last 2 tracks are my favorite right now.

'We Did It When We Were Young' sort of reminds me of U2 before they started to suck. but with Brian's amazing vocal delivery, both high and low. Very powerful.

That being said, right now, there's nothing hitting me as hard as 'great expectations' or 'here's lookin at you, kid' or 'we're getting a divorce..'. but some songs may grow on me over time.

was thinking that this morning that we did it when we were young reminded me of U2

01.American Slang: already know that one for some time now.pretty good track,already sounds familiar...
And here's where we died that time last year,
And here's where the angels and devils meet.

8/10
02.Stay Lucky:one of the faster songs on the album.referring to the youth and old times i really like it...
what you don't have,
you don't need it anymore
9/10
03.Bring It One:typical gaslight song in my opinion,could have also been on the 59'sound.but i really like it...
and take it back out to the streets,
where you know you used to be
for
the romeos of town
8/10
04.The Diamond Church Street Choir
catchy refrain,grat guitar line,first track that sounds more different to the older tracks,but also quite outstanding.
8/10
05.The Queen of lower Chelsea
awesome catchy song,with great lyrics.like it!
If you've found a good man, don't take him home [...]
Nothing is free, not even me
9/10
06.Orphans
reminds me a bit of the sos-times, which is a good thing, for sure...after two not so powerful songs it's great to have that one...
so you can find some local libertine,
to take your daughters out on the town...
8.5/10
07.Boxer
geat intro,catchy guitar line,great lyrics.so altogether an awesome song!
9.5/10
08.Old Haunts:
for me the best track on the album!text and music fits so good,it's outstanding!
so don't sing me your songs about the good times,
those days are gone and you should just let them go!
10/10
09.The Spirit of Jazz
love the guitar!also great personal lyrics from brian in this one...
so, was i good to you,
the wife of the youth?
9.5/10
10.We did it when we were young
great 'outro', again with some personal themes.perfect end to such a good album!
9/10

so,that was the first listen,will post again if it's more 'common' to me!

This album is so much different for me and does not really sound like the pre-records.

But i do really like it, it already grew a lot on me and i think this will even get more on me.
somehow reminds me of the summer i used to enjoy way back when i still was a teenager and had nothing else to fear or worry about than enjoying life.
I love the big touch of soul it has and someone else thinking, that brian's voice sounds different than it did on sos & t59s?


Current fav songs:
Bring it on
We did it when we were wrong
The diamond chruch street choir > feel like this' going to be my summer song 2010...

MCStevepants wrote:

'We Did It When We Were Young' sort of reminds me of U2 before they started to suck. but with Brian's amazing vocal delivery, both high and low. Very powerful.

It does remind me a bit of "Moment of Surrender".

Hey all, here's a review I plan on posting closer to the release date (and after some editing) to my w.i.p. website, vinylrevolution.net(coming soon!!).

- American Slang -

The difference between The Gaslight Anthem's two albums, and the bridging EP between them, left me scratching my head as to what their newest offering, American Slang would bring. They had gone from straight punk to something with a genuine blue-collar rock feel. It was with that last album, The 59 Sound, that TGA began catching the ears of mainstream audiences. As such, American Slang was in serious danger of pulling a sophomore slump and being nothing more than "The 60 Sound." Fortunately, TGA's crafted an album that shows off a sound wholly their own. No bones about it, this album is very, very good.

I'll start of by saying, if there's one problem with American Slang (or any TGA music), it's that many songs share a similar up-tempo and structure that can easily blend together in your memory. I suppose this is the potential curse of any rock band. TGA overcomes this hurdle by building songs around heartfelt, memorable lyrics and simple, yet catchy, guitar riffs. After a single listen, you'll have nostalgic lines of poetry about lost love and worn down cities swimming around in your head. This album pulls you back in with simple hooks that beg you to memorise them in their entirety.

From a technical standpoint, these guys aren't exactly pushing the musical envelope or shredding their guitars. Rather, American Slang's beauty lies in its poetry. It's lyrics drip withe pain of lost love, but then soar with optimism. The joyous, roaring sound of many of these anthems are often offset with a slight twinge of cynicism.

American Slang is also improved by ramping up the vocal texture of the songs. There is a good deal more layering of vocal harmonies in this album. Whereas The 59 Sound conjured up images of a lonely guy musing about the tragedies of life, Slang feels much more like a group of friends gathered around a bar booth swapping stories and just having a good time.

This album likely won't appeal to punk fans who leaned more towards TGA's debut album, Sink or Swim, but fans of The 59 Sound will most certainly fall in love with this step forward. I also wouldn't be surprised if this album gets them a fair amount of airplay, and you can expect to see their niche fan base erupt come June.

tdawg wrote:

Hey all, here's a review ....

Hi tdawg, I really enjoyed that. Keep it up.

If I didn't know any better,I'd think they're from New York

tdawg-
while i cant agree or disagree yet as have yet to give into the temptation, i did enjoy your review.

What does he say at the beginning of Boxer? Whatever it is, it's awesome.

steph wrote:

tdawg- https://thegaslightanthem.forumotion.com/login.forum?logout=true&sid=cc5d60bd3f0b5a10a5b8d14c7c59a6e9&key=fbd3ac
while i cant agree or disagree yet as have yet to give into the temptation, i did enjoy your review.

Indeed. The fact that everyone here loves it honestly makes the wait a little easier. (Still holding out for now... who knows if I'll make it). If everyone was down about it I'd probably go ahead a listen to it ("Might as well get the disappointment out of the way now"). But apparently its awesome and my anticipation is even higher now.

MCStevepants wrote:

What does he say at the beginning of Boxer? Whatever it is, it's awesome.

"You got your pride and your prose tucked just like a tommy gun somewhere in the smoke, just in case you need it"

which is also the first line after the guitar kicks in

Yeah, I thought it was prose, but I wasn't sure.

sticking to what i said, this is better than t59s. still dont love title track and i probably won't listen to we did it when we were young too often even though its good, just brings me down the way it sounds ha.

I don't think it's better than T59S, but it's certainly good. I think there's several songs here that have a chance to be favorites.

Regardless of how it ranks, as a whole, it's a very good album.

I love this more and more each listen. I loved it on first listen, but it's going to a whole new level. There's a very good chance that when all is said and done The Diamond Church Street Choir will be my favorite Gaslight song of all time. What's most impressive is that they've kept up their streak of not having a single song that ISN'T great. Only my opinion of course, but everything they've done has been fantastic and this just keeps up the streak.

I thought long and hard before listening to this, but in the end the tempation proved too much...

Having listened to it 4 times, my first thoughts are that this is a 'big city' record, whereas to me The 59 Sound was always a small-town kind of deal. Whether the removal of the character names have added in giving this a more wide-eyed perspective is up for debate, but some of the songs - I'm thinking mainly of 'The Queen of Lower Chelsea' and 'The Diamond Street Choir' - conjure up images of late-night bars and brightly-lit inner city streets when i hear them.

The lyrics, as is to be expected, are brimming with well-thought out prose and the increased use of backing vocals has given the melodies another dimension. However, they don't outstay their welcome and seem to be used purely to complement the lyrical themes rather just being there to to add some balls to the choruses.

If you put me in a corner and beat me until I could think of one small criticism it would be that some of the lead guitar parts are a little overdone and a bit too 'improv' for my liking. Whether it was a conscious decision that the split between the lead guitar and rhythm guirar would be more defined or not, it works in some songs and not so much in others. However, like i said, that's the tiniest of criticisms and it might just be because it's a lot more evident when listening on headphones in a darkened room.

In any case, my expectations for this record have definitely been met, which is great because i guess like many others i was seriously worried that i might end up disappointed. The 59 Sound has been such a crucial soundtrack for me personally over the past two years, i went through the break-up of a relationship and became a single dad so i was selfishly hoping that American Slang would not only be the next page for the band, but for me too. There's a freshness and a world-weary optimism about this collection of songs and it just suits me perfectly (like i said, i'm selfish, haha) - i guess i should have had more faith!

Overall, i think the best thing about this record is how it sets things up for the future. There are elements of both SoS and T59S on this album as well as the added soul touches. It seems to me that they've set themselves up so well that they could go in any direction they want with the next one and that's a seriously exciting prospect. I wouldn't be surprised if they went back to a full-on punk vibe and likewise i wouldn't be surprised if they took things one step further and had gospel choirs, saxophones, pianos, female vocals - the whole works. Right now though, i am just going to enjoy listening to this and discovering all the little bits and pieces that makes Gaslight such a special band.