The Gaslight Anthem Band • Page 29

Literally the only pre-Handwritten song I've listened to in years is Stay Lucky.

 

Dude.

 

*takes deep breath, slowly walks away from keyboard*

 

You can definitely hear Butch Walker's influence in "Mojo Hand" and for that reason alone I love it.

 

I'd love him to do a cover of that. Honestly, that song would fit better on Stay Gold than it does on Painkillers, and I think it being kind of out of place is part of the reason people don't like it.

 

Haha, I was just thinking the same thing. Would've been cool if Butch did a version of it for his album, although it probably would've ended up sounding too similar to really justify a separate version.

I agree that it feels out of place on the album. I would've been fine having it as a b-side or bonus track, but it's just so much fun I'm glad it exists.

 

It used to throw me off more, with where it is on the album. Now I love how jarring it is in the penultimate slot.

 

It's different from the rest of the album for sure. And Georgia should be on the album, MAN is that a good song.

 

I totally get why most people in this thread don't rank Sink or Swim among their best but it's an album I will always have a special connection to because of how revelatory it was for me personally. I listened to a lot of metal and hardcore before listening to it randomly on the recommendation from a friend who worked with me at the college radio station I DJed at during my undergraduate days. I think that was during the fall 2007 semester if I'm recalling correctly. The entire thing just blew me away. From the bounciness of We Came To Dance to the rawness of Red in the Morning...SoS just blew me away. Gaslight's later albums might be stronger, more coherent efforts but SoS will always be an emotional favorite of mine.

 

I still wonder if I would rank Sink or Swim higher if I got into it BEFORE I fell in love with the 59' Sound.

 

I honestly think if I listened to SoS first I might not have even given Gaslight another try, just because it was so vastly different from the music i was listening to at the time. The rawness of it, even the recordings, took me a while to get used to even when I knew that I loved this band after hearing 59 Sound & AS (i got into TGA right before the release of AS so SoS was my 3rd experience with them).

very thankful that I heard the other albums first, and very thankful that i allowed SoS to grow on me haha

 

I just did a listen through to all the Gaslight albums, Horrible Crowes & Brian Fallon solo album in chronological order while I mowed the lawn. Some thoughts I took away from that:

• American Slang is f---ing incredible. However good most people say it is, it's still underrated.
• Elsie is really, really, really great but it would have been an all-timer if it was just the Gaslight album that came in between American Slang and Handwritten.
• If you asked me a couple years ago I would have said Sink or Swim & '59 Sound were their two best albums and it's been a slight case of diminishing returns since then - but I don't think that's true at all anymore. Entire discography is fantastic and each of the albums have strengths and weaknesses.
• Sink or Swim still holds up and goes toe-to-toe with any of their other albums. The production might be a little less glossy than later albums but the songs are so good they make that not matter at all.
• Brian Fallon definitely has a bad habit of leaving some of the best songs from each recording session off of the albums as b-sides and bonus tracks. Like songs that are so good they would be album-defining standouts, centerpieces that the sound and themes of the album are built around, only they're not actually on the album.
• This guy has been great since before Sink or Swim, as the This Charming Man EP is really damn good, but it the production of Sink or Swim bothers you I don't think you'll be able to look past the production of it.

 

I always forget just how much I love Sink or Swim until I'm seeing Gaslight live and they play one of those songs. They always get me the most excited. I spent a lot of time with that album the summer Handwritten came out as well, it will always be a very special record to me.

 

Jason and I discussed on Twitter my theory that Mexican Coke and Mojo Hand were written in the same session.

 

I would believe it.

 

Mojo Hand took me almost a year to come around to. I love it now.

 

How big is your lawn?!

 

Ha. It's a combo of pretty big lawn and really crappy push mower that's on its last leg, so it takes me forever. But I get my excercise and get to work on my tan, plus get to listen to music like I did today.

 

I actually enjoy mowing the lawn on summer evenings, when it's still warm out but not too hot. I usually only get through an album or so, though.

 

Songs could have been solo bsides.

 

If he'd saved them for Painkillers and done them with Butch, I would probably like them better. "Sweet Morphine," at least.

 

Break Your Heart doesn't get enough love. My boys know all the lyrics to that song. It simple, but really encapsulates a feeling, and has a home on an album called Get Hurt.

 

They feel like they were written around the same time as the Mly and the Zombies songs. I have no problem with them,they just feel less Gaslight and more solo, and don't fit into the flow of Get Hurt coming of Dark Places and moving into Halloween. I'll never say no to a band releasing bsides though. Maybe Brian was secretly experimenting.

 

I like Keepsake and Mojo Hand too. I really like the Keepsake/Too Much Blood double. I remember listening to Handwritten and thinking whoa, they're really going for it, and it kicked ass. I can definitely see how people find it too much (pardon the pun). But for a good while Too Much Blood was my favourite song on that album. Probably my favourite song of the year aside from half of MBDTF.
Too Much Blood is whiskey with two ice cubes, Stray Paper is the same glass half hour later when the cubes are melted.

 

MBDTF came out two years earlier!

"Too Much Blood" is still a little overwrought for me, but I agree with your assessment that "Stray Paper" feels like a watered down version of it.