The '59 Sound - sounding dated already?

Lately I've been listening a lot to Sink or Swim, The '59 Sound and Senor and The Queen, as I am still trying to place American Slang in the overall scheme of things.

I adore Sink or Swim, I reall enjoy Senor and The Queen, and I love the songs on The '59 Sound, but ... I suddenly feel that the '59 album sounds dated and overproduced (there are all these ambient sounds/sound effect). The songs certainly stand the test of time, as any live performance will tell, but playing live is a great leveller (when you don't try to reproduce the album sound). I don't get the same sense with SOS or SATQ, nor with American Slang, which is a wonderfully tight sounding album, even if it is the most varied muscially.

The only thing that really bothers me about the album is the reverb on Brian's voice. I sometimes get annoyed by that listening to it now, doesn't really sound outdated to me though.

Yeah, I agree. It's the album I listen to least these days, even though it used to be my favorite. It doesn't hit me the same way it used to. Doesn't have the edge their other stuff does.

Doesn't mean I don't still love it though.

this is annoying.

amberfoyd wrote:

this is annoying.

What is? Surely not my opinion, which is as ever aimed at eliciting other's opinions and generating discussion.

Personally it was never my favourite Gaslight output. It took me quite a while to get into it and to enjoy it. And after a while I started to dislike it a bit. There was a time I couldn't even listen to Great Expectations because the needle on the record at the beginnning started to grind my gears.

Having said that, the songs hold up very well live and quite a few are perfect arena songs.

amberfoyd wrote:

this is annoying.

Why?

It still sounds great to me. I'm okay with different production and techniques from album to album.

The '59 Sound always was and still is my favourite song by Gaslight. I agree though, most of the album is getting a little boring really. I haven't listened to it in quite a while actually.

i popped the 59 Sound in the other day after only listening to American Slang for a while as far as Gaslight goes. i still love it. the first two songs beat anything else they've ever done, as i see it.

It's funny because to me The 59 Sound is growing and growing in stature every time I hear it. I had always like Sink or Swim more, but I think T59S might be the better record- its the perfect combination of all of Gaslight's influences (punk, soul, heartland rock, etc) together with their own brand of sound.

Its funny to me how much they've talked about "finding their own sound" on this 3rd record, because I think T59S was the perfect "sound" and American Slang (like it or not) sounds to me like it could have been written by any of numerous punk/alternative bands. In their search to make their own sound, they've partially abandoned what made them so unique (wearing their influences on their sleeves and being the perfect blending/combination of these influences) and gone to more of a generic sound. They could have still made a record that was THEIRS by just abandoning the direct Springsteen/Waits/Strummer quotes and keeping their sound the same. Things like using the same type of re-verb that Springsteen used in Born to Run to create the echos in the vocals was a really cool touch that, though coming from one of their influences, helped to establish clearly THEIR sound.

Sorry for the rambling post, but I guess, if anything, The '59 Sound continually gets more impressive as to how everything came together perfectly in those 40 or so minutes. I don't think it can possibly be dated because it TRANSCENDS TIME with the combination of all the influences from different eras of music. If anything, American Slang is already dated because it sounds like a record that many 2008-2010 alternative bands could have written.

The '59 Sound is a modern classic and I think it might be hard for some to appreciate that now because American Slang is the new shiny toy distracting us from the old one that we played with for two straight years. While we grew to love that toy, we've witnessed and grown bored of its (very few) flaws and are happy to have something new to play with and may have forgotten just how near-perfect that other toy actually was.

you lost me with that bullshit metaphor about toys. american slang is brilliant. try to find a song on the radio with the lyrical depth that also has the lead guitar riffs of american slang. american slang is far more complex musically. deeper lyrically and overall a better album. dont get me wrong, i llove the 59 sound. i think there are lots of great tunes on there, but if you want to talk about generic sounding songs look no further than great expectations, which i'd say is far more generic than anythign on american slang..... im sorry alll my sentences run together, my enter key is broken but i could not disagree with you more ndtga.

it just seems disrespectful, to me.

rkirkpatrick25 wrote:

you lost me with that bullshit metaphor about toys. american slang is brilliant. try to find a song on the radio with the lyrical depth that also has the lead guitar riffs of american slang. american slang is far more complex musically. deeper lyrically and overall a better album. dont get me wrong, i llove the 59 sound. i think there are lots of great tunes on there, but if you want to talk about generic sounding songs look no further than great expectations, which i'd say is far more generic than anythign on american slang..... im sorry alll my sentences run together, my enter key is broken but i could not disagree with you more ndtga.

First, I never said I didn't like American Slang and I never referenced songs on the radio at all. What I mean is that American Slang could have been written by Against Me! or other bands of the same type. Honestly, American Slang sounds a lot like New Wave to me. That's what I mean by saying the sound is generic.

Secondly, we're just going to have to disagree on the merits of AS vs. T59S. I think in terms of lyrical depth, again its hard to argue but songs like "Miles Davis and the Cool" "The 59 Sound" and "Here's Looking at You, Kid" are much deeper than most songs on American Slang. I think T59S has better song writing too-

But boys will be boys and girls have those eyes that will cut you to ribbons sometimes.
And all you can do is just wait by the moon and bleed if it's what she says you oughta do

...That lyric and many others just paints a vivid picture to me that I don't get on a lot of AS songs.

I don't want to make this a T59S vs. AS debate because I enjoy both albums, but I'm just trying to say T59S isn't dated to me, if anything it gets better over time

(As for GE being generic, I think the opening guitar notes with the record skipping set a nostalgic/retro tone and then completely explodes out of the gate. "It's funny how the night moves, humming a song from 1962" is a reference to Bob Seger, showing an appreciation for rock classics that isn't found in a lot of modern songs. The outro with the bells and guitar sounds like heaven and to me nothing about the song is generic)

At the moment, I prefer 59 sound to AS because I have more memories with the 59 Sound. But i was in the same situation with 59 sound came out. I didn't really really get into in until like six months after its release cause I was till knee deep into sink or swim

The '59 Sound is timeless to me. Not only is the music amazing, but the songs are filled with allusions to old hollywood and some of my favorite movies and artists. I love listening to The '59 Sound because it's like a movie that everytime you watch, you discover something that you never noticed before. To me, that makes it timeless. But to each their own

Little Eden wrote:

The '59 Sound is timeless to me. Not only is the music amazing, but the songs are filled with allusions to old hollywood and some of my favorite movies and artists. I love listening to The '59 Sound because it's like a movie that everytime you watch, you discover something that you never noticed before. To me, that makes it timeless. But to each their own

very nice.

Little Eden wrote:

The '59 Sound is timeless to me. Not only is the music amazing, but the songs are filled with allusions to old hollywood and some of my favorite movies and artists. I love listening to The '59 Sound because it's like a movie that everytime you watch, you discover something that you never noticed before. To me, that makes it timeless. But to each their own

Nice post.

ultimately it truly is just a matter of opinion. i think that as was a huge step forward for them musically and lyrically.... ill admit when i first heard it, i thought a lot of the songs sounded the same and sounded generic.... then as i listened more and more, i peeled back more layers of it and truly fell in love. i dont htink as is as readily accesible as t59s but i think it ends up rewarding the listener more whereas i was immediately drawn in by the 59 sound but i dont crave hearing it, i dont sing certain lyrics in my head while im somewhere else....also, i would argue that there's never been a song as lyricallly deep as bring it on by the gaslight anthem... 193o comes close but simply the raw emotion and the lyrics that brian conveys in bio are unparalled and honestly, i would not be surprised if they never write a song that good again... i feel like a band can only write so many perfect songs and for ga, that one might be it.. but once again, that's just my opinion im sure other songs hit hpeople just as hard as bio hits me... i dont mean to be rude r disrespectful and im still sorry my keyboard i is broken.... really love this topic tho

rkirkpatrick25 wrote:

ultimately it truly is just a matter of opinion. i think that as was a huge step forward for them musically and lyrically.... ill admit when i first heard it, i thought a lot of the songs sounded the same and sounded generic.... then as i listened more and more, i peeled back more layers of it and truly fell in love. i dont htink as is as readily accesible as t59s but i think it ends up rewarding the listener more whereas i was immediately drawn in by the 59 sound but i dont crave hearing it, i dont sing certain lyrics in my head while im somewhere else....also, i would argue that there's never been a song as lyricallly deep as bring it on by the gaslight anthem... 193o comes close but simply the raw emotion and the lyrics that brian conveys in bio are unparalled and honestly, i would not be surprised if they never write a song that good again... i feel like a band can only write so many perfect songs and for ga, that one might be it.. but once again, that's just my opinion im sure other songs hit hpeople just as hard as bio hits me... i dont mean to be rude r disrespectful and im still sorry my keyboard i is broken.... really love this topic tho

bring it on is my favorite from as.
what about t59s?

my favoite from t59s would have to be owl, the lyrics take me back to an ex girlfriend who was perfect until she ended up showing her true colors four years later..... the chorus doesnt speak to me, but the 2nd verse... and i miss you sometimes, shaking likea leaf on the corner of life.... she was pretty unstable but i kinda held things togeher and then it got real ugly....

NDTGA wrote:

It's funny because to me The 59 Sound is growing and growing in stature every time I hear it. I had always like Sink or Swim more, but I think T59S might be the better record- its the perfect combination of all of Gaslight's influences (punk, soul, heartland rock, etc) together with their own brand of sound.

Its funny to me how much they've talked about "finding their own sound" on this 3rd record, because I think T59S was the perfect "sound" and American Slang (like it or not) sounds to me like it could have been written by any of numerous punk/alternative bands. In their search to make their own sound, they've partially abandoned what made them so unique (wearing their influences on their sleeves and being the perfect blending/combination of these influences) and gone to more of a generic sound. They could have still made a record that was THEIRS by just abandoning the direct Springsteen/Waits/Strummer quotes and keeping their sound the same. Things like using the same type of re-verb that Springsteen used in Born to Run to create the echos in the vocals was a really cool touch that, though coming from one of their influences, helped to establish clearly THEIR sound.

Sorry for the rambling post, but I guess, if anything, The '59 Sound continually gets more impressive as to how everything came together perfectly in those 40 or so minutes. I don't think it can possibly be dated because it TRANSCENDS TIME with the combination of all the influences from different eras of music. If anything, American Slang is already dated because it sounds like a record that many 2008-2010 alternative bands could have written.

The '59 Sound is a modern classic and I think it might be hard for some to appreciate that now because American Slang is the new shiny toy distracting us from the old one that we played with for two straight years. While we grew to love that toy, we've witnessed and grown bored of its (very few) flaws and are happy to have something new to play with and may have forgotten just how near-perfect that other toy actually was.

I am with you.

AS is a great album, but it's not special and unique to me as The '59 Sound was and still is.

rkirkpatrick25 wrote:

my favoite from t59s would have to be owl, the lyrics take me back to an ex girlfriend who was perfect until she ended up showing her true colors four years later..... the chorus doesnt speak to me, but the 2nd verse... and i miss you sometimes, shaking likea leaf on the corner of life.... she was pretty unstable but i kinda held things togeher and then it got real ugly....

i'm sorry to hear that.

simo wrote:

Yeah, I agree. It's the album I listen to least these days, even though it used to be my favorite. It doesn't hit me the same way it used to. Doesn't have the edge their other stuff does.

Doesn't mean I don't still love it though.

Exactly. American Slang just speaks to me in ways that 59 Sound never did as corny as that sounds.

My original post, which started this thread, focused on the sound and the production of T59S, not the merits of the lyrics or the songs as such (which, as I thought I made clear, I consider as good as any they have written). This is what intrigued me; did others think it sounded dated.

I doubt i will ever get sick of this album, i think its one il always enjoy going back to for nostalgia or whatever. Its quite possibly my favourite album of all time so not really agreeing with the dated thing in any aspect.