4/5
Rewriting History.
After a hiatus, some bands become history. Others go back to hitting the great American songbooks. Now, after nine years and some stunning solo work from singer Brian Fallon ('Painkillers', 'Sleepwalkers', 'Local Honey' and the 'Night Divine'), The Gaslight Anthem reunite for their sixth sense of a new album for the 'History Books'. Bringing that '59 sound back like Gayle finally called. And you can thank the New Jersey angel's for the album's self-tilted single featuring the God Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen. Singing, "I'm keeping time, one day goes by/I try to live 'til the next one/But these history books, full of haunted looks/From people I don't want to see again", over a vivid video of this is America traditional testimonial. All as Brian broods' "You just remind me of the nights of smoke and dirty jokes/Darkened rooms with lonely ghosts/And they were beautiful some time ago/But time keeps rollin' us on." Rolling on and reminding us of a 2009 time Hard Rock Calling headliner Springsteen joined Fallon on stage by gaslight for an anthem before his own London set in Hyde Park. Sharing the mic like a last cigarette.
The fall of this 'Autumn' that came all too soon crackles over your record player like fallen leaves at your feet. Singing "No more spring into summertime/Ѕo can I hold you underneath October?/Black jeans in autumn leaves falling down/I hatе the way that time gоes/Crashing over like a steamroller/I wish I could do my life over", as that summer love just feels like yesterday, and time, last year's calendar that will soon line the wastebasket of new year with that party hat. On the Marshall like music video they raise the amps. After marching on to a reunion early last year, Gaslight recorded this album of Rich Mahogany like a Burgundy leather-bound book in Windmill Lane, Dublin. Bold in beautiful Branagh 'Belfast' like black and white for the musing album artwork. It's a 'Positive Charge' like the lightning bolt of a lead single that tells you this band with a vintage and still fresh sound like no other is back, together again. Forever. "I wanna live, I wanna love you a little longer/I was invincible many years ago when I was so much stronger/I wanna smile like a letter from an old friend/My arms are wide as oceans/How I've missed you, and feelin' good to be alive."
"Arms as wide as oceans" is pure poetry. Followed by the second single and the 'Little Fires' before 'Autumn'. Burning and yearning like, "The wind iѕ howling lіkе the wоlves that wait outside the door/I’ve gotten usеd tо them but уou’re suppoѕed to be my bloоd/And when you comе to crash we never seеm to see the wаve/Вut we fеel it coming", just like fire would. There's no more reason to 'Get Hurt' like this after their last classic of the same name. The COVID pandemic and the Foo Fighters losing their beloved Taylor Hawkins told Brian and the band one thing, "all of this is temporary, and you've got to enjoy it while you can." Amen. Thanks to a talk with the Boss, who made his own way back to E Street, through a divorce and a 'Tunnel Of Love', it was suggested they make music together. And a song to stir the project from page to jumbotron screen. With those history making moments and the chapters of Fallon's life of therapy and medication, this book turned into one of a brutal, but beautiful life ready to breathe again. The 'Spider Bites', but sometimes you come out swinging and singing.
This next phase dubbed by Fallon of the band is one to celebrate in crowds touring around the world they reached a decade before. 'Michigan, 1975' feels so alive, like that time, Detroit spinning. Whereas 'The Weatherman' reports, "I didn’t keep a lot of souvenirs after the war/And I put aside my strongest desires that ruled me before/And I took all the pain I could find ’till I exploded in electric light/Now I wonder the open skies waiting on a storm." Legacy making lyrics from legends to be, co-signer by an icon who is already in the rock and roll Hall of Fame like a rolling stone. One week after 'Hackney Diamonds' and one before The Beatles' last ever song. 'Have Mercy' on the way this band finishes albums like their epic 'Empires'. 'I Live In The Room Above Her' is a storybook one that even Dylan and Tom Waits would be proud of. Springsteen on Bob's 'I Want You' or Japanese/British author Kazuo Ishiguro were right. For as great as the lyrics are to go, it's the way someone sings them that really brings the emotion and expression. The hurt and the art. It's worth 'A Lifetime Of Preludes' as the 'Handwritten', 'American Slang' concludes, "But in my dreams I was in your arms/And the lives we’ve lived they seemed so far/And I can feel your heartbeat mix with mine/And I slipped a different lifetime." Killing it in the same weekend as the 'God Games' of The Kills. There's no gaslighting here. The anthems are back by the book. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'History Books (Feat. Bruce Springsteen)', 'Autumn', 'Michigan, 1975'.
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