magazine etc. reviews/ratings of 'Get Hurt'

http://www.underthegunreview.net/2014/08/12/review-the-gaslight-anthem-get-hurt/

If you spend too much time attempting to vivisect the songs that make up The Gaslight Anthem’s fifth album, Get Hurt, you may very well miss it entirely. As listeners, we are used to the blue collar, Americana themes presented by the act, traversing through narratives of Saturday nights, lost loves, heartbreak, and a consistent theme of lessening within our lives. Attempting to deduce each track individually, grouping each experience with past Gaslight albums such as Handwritten, American Slang, and The ’59 Sound, will only drift you farther away from the experience that the band has consciously constructed during their time creating Get Hurt. This isn’t your normal Gaslight Anthem album, and it surely shouldn’t be.

enola wrote:

http://www.underthegunreview.net/2014/08/12/review-the-gaslight-anthem-get-hurt/

If you spend too much time attempting to vivisect the songs that make up The Gaslight Anthem’s fifth album, Get Hurt, you may very well miss it entirely. As listeners, we are used to the blue collar, Americana themes presented by the act, traversing through narratives of Saturday nights, lost loves, heartbreak, and a consistent theme of lessening within our lives. Attempting to deduce each track individually, grouping each experience with past Gaslight albums such as Handwritten, American Slang, and The ’59 Sound, will only drift you farther away from the experience that the band has consciously constructed during their time creating Get Hurt. This isn’t your normal Gaslight Anthem album, and it surely shouldn’t be.

I sat next to this guy in a class for a semester last year. Nice to see he's a fan.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/get-hurt-mw0002693389

Allmusic Review by Gregory Heaney

"There's always been something a little nostalgic about the earnest, rust belt rock of the Gaslight Anthem, and it wouldn't be unfair to say that the band has been looking to the past with a laser focus on the rugged songwriting of New Jersey's favorite son, Bruce Springsteen. On Get Hurt, the fifth studio album from the Garden State rockers, the band expand their influences to create what might be their most unique album to date."

I always imagine, what if the negative reviewers were members of the band? Would their opinion change if they had been a part of it, or would they have shot it down anyway?

Pitchfork gave it a 3 lol

mja271 wrote:

Pitchfork gave it a 3 lol

It's unduly harsh, grade-wise, but the review itself is actually hilariously targeted snark. If you can step back and pretend it's not a band you love, there's some killer lines.

Yea I laughed at the review itself. It was kind of hilarious

mja271 wrote:

Pitchfork gave it a 3 lol

Well I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like the album has been completely validated.

Harry Lime wrote:

mja271 wrote:

Pitchfork gave it a 3 lol

Well I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like the album has been completely validated.

Pitchfork might be a site of pretentious pricks and I might often disagree with their tastes, but I can't ignore the fact that they do well-written reviews that are knowledgeable and compelling.  A bad Pitchfork review never automatically means a good album.  Regardless of how much I disagree with them, they know their stuff.  Some of my favorite albums have been rated a 10 on Pitchfork, as well as some of my most hated albums, and likewise with their low ratings - some of them I love, some of them I hate.  Unfortunately, as much they piss me off sometimes, it's a great music site.

I don't inherently disagree with a lot of the points in the Get Hurt review to be honest. They go about it in the snarkiest possible way, but there are some valid criticisms.

I do have to give Pitchfork credit for mentioning the Afghan Whigs in comparison to Stray Paper. I thought I ws the only one. However, unlike Pitchfork, I love SP and think it's worthy to compare it to the Whigs.

Ian Cohen is Pitchfork's worst writer, and that's saying a lot.

mja271 wrote:

I don't inherently disagree with a lot of the points in the Get Hurt review to be honest.  They go about it in the snarkiest possible way, but there are some valid criticisms.

Agreed. The thing about Pitchfork is, if they are writing a good review, they only write the things they like, and if they're writing a bad review, they only write the things they dislike (with their level of enthusiasm/snark varying in accordance with the numerical score). They have a thesis and they stick to it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

jzancan wrote:

Harry Lime wrote:

mja271 wrote:

Pitchfork gave it a 3 lol

Well I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like the album has been completely validated.

Pitchfork might be a site of pretentious pricks and I might often disagree with their tastes, but I can't ignore the fact that they do well-written reviews that are knowledgeable and compelling.  A bad Pitchfork review never automatically means a good album.  Regardless of how much I disagree with them, they know their stuff.  Some of my favorite albums have been rated a 10 on Pitchfork, as well as some of my most hated albums, and likewise with their low ratings - some of them I love, some of them I hate.  Unfortunately, as much they piss me off sometimes, it's a great music site.

I couldn't disagree more. Pitchfork is a godawful music site. Being pretentious pricks isn't just a characteristic of the site, it's what defines them. Their ability to string together some well written sentences doesn't change the fact that the reviews themselves are atrocious. Regardless of whether or not I agree with their reviews (they love Japandroids and Titus Andronicus just as much as I do), nothing they put out has anything to do with music and everything to do with their brand as insufferable hipsters. Their reviews feel entirely disingenuous. They just write whatever makes them seem more "Pitchfork-y".

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/gaslight-anthem-get-hurt-review/

Semi-positive piece from Grantland's great writer Steven Hyden, especially considering he slammed Handwritten.

Also this makes me laugh:

On previous Gaslight Anthem albums, Fallon affected a storyteller’s stance, spinning yarns about girls named Maria who listen to Elvis on the radio. On Get Hurt, Fallon sticks to first-person narratives drawn from his recent divorce, though his nonfiction is as lacking in specificity as his fiction. “I have pills for this, and tabs for that,” he says on “Stay Vicious.” “I keep my wounds without a bandage, baby,” he says on the title track. “I’m on the 99th floor of apathy,” he says on “Helter Skeleton.” Are these confessionals or lines from a Vin Diesel movie? On Get Hurt, Fallon is livin’ his life a quarter-mile at a time.

pleasepassthesoup wrote:

jzancan wrote:

Harry Lime wrote:

mja271 wrote:

Pitchfork gave it a 3 lol

Well I don't know about anyone else, but I feel like the album has been completely validated.

Pitchfork might be a site of pretentious pricks and I might often disagree with their tastes, but I can't ignore the fact that they do well-written reviews that are knowledgeable and compelling.  A bad Pitchfork review never automatically means a good album.  Regardless of how much I disagree with them, they know their stuff.  Some of my favorite albums have been rated a 10 on Pitchfork, as well as some of my most hated albums, and likewise with their low ratings - some of them I love, some of them I hate.  Unfortunately, as much they piss me off sometimes, it's a great music site.

I couldn't disagree more. Pitchfork is a godawful music site. Being pretentious pricks isn't just a characteristic of the site, it's what defines them. Their ability to string together some well written sentences doesn't change the fact that the reviews themselves are atrocious. Regardless of whether or not I agree with their reviews (they love Japandroids and Titus Andronicus just as much as I do), nothing they put out has anything to do with music and everything to do with their brand as insufferable hipsters. Their reviews feel entirely disingenuous. They just write whatever makes them seem more "Pitchfork-y".

Different strokes.  I've always thought they capture an album well as a whole - the nuances of the work (even if I disagree with what they think of those nuances) - much better than others.  Underneath the pretentious, self-absorbed tone of their writing, there's good insight.  

Taking their aura of self-importance as seriously as they do validates it.  That's why so many people that hate the site still focus so much on what they say.  It's like the token asshole in a group of friends that is so in love with their own opinion, getting a compliment from them means more. (Ever wonder how assholes get girls to date them?  That's how.)  I'm not trying to make any statement about you, specifically, but just in general.

eagles1139 wrote:

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/gaslight-anthem-get-hurt-review/

Semi-positive piece from Grantland's great writer Steven Hyden, especially considering he slammed Handwritten.

Also this makes me laugh:

On previous Gaslight Anthem albums, Fallon affected a storyteller’s stance, spinning yarns about girls named Maria who listen to Elvis on the radio. On Get Hurt, Fallon sticks to first-person narratives drawn from his recent divorce, though his nonfiction is as lacking in specificity as his fiction. “I have pills for this, and tabs for that,” he says on “Stay Vicious.” “I keep my wounds without a bandage, baby,” he says on the title track. “I’m on the 99th floor of apathy,” he says on “Helter Skeleton.” Are these confessionals or lines from a Vin Diesel movie? On Get Hurt, Fallon is livin’ his life a quarter-mile at a time.

"The Gaslight Anthem is a rock band from New Jersey. Get Hurt is their fifth album. The Gaslight Anthem is frequently compared to Bruce Springsteen, for reasons that are superficial (they’re both from Jersey) and substantive (GLA’s singer-songwriter Brian Fallon is clearly aping a Boss-like gruffness in his vocals). Fallon naturally hates being compared to Springsteen, with some justification. In reality, GLA is to Springsteen what Muse is to Radiohead — an exaggerated reflection as seen through a fun house mirror."

That's awesome

Prisoner wrote:

"The Gaslight Anthem is a rock band from New Jersey. Get Hurt is their fifth album. The Gaslight Anthem is frequently compared to Bruce Springsteen, for reasons that are superficial (they’re both from Jersey) and substantive (GLA’s singer-songwriter Brian Fallon is clearly aping a Boss-like gruffness in his vocals). Fallon naturally hates being compared to Springsteen, with some justification. In reality, GLA is to Springsteen what Muse is to Radiohead — an exaggerated reflection as seen through a fun house mirror."

That's awesome

Any review that combines my two favorite things (Gaslight Anthem and bad Vin Diesel lines) is ok by me.

eagles1139 wrote:

Prisoner wrote:

"The Gaslight Anthem is a rock band from New Jersey. Get Hurt is their fifth album. The Gaslight Anthem is frequently compared to Bruce Springsteen, for reasons that are superficial (they’re both from Jersey) and substantive (GLA’s singer-songwriter Brian Fallon is clearly aping a Boss-like gruffness in his vocals). Fallon naturally hates being compared to Springsteen, with some justification. In reality, GLA is to Springsteen what Muse is to Radiohead — an exaggerated reflection as seen through a fun house mirror."

That's awesome

Any review that combines my two favorite things (Gaslight Anthem and bad Vin Diesel lines) is ok by me.

Yeah, that sentence in the review made me laugh out loud