Brian Fallon - Local Honey (March 27, 2020) Album • Page 27

I liked it better live, too, but I just think Fallon has such an incredible catalog at this point and I wouldn't consider that song in the top tier.

 

Here’s something: I think Have Mercy is essentially a perfect song, but I also think I agree with you that it isn’t a top 30 Fallon song. Brian Fallon is awfully good at writing songs, is the point.

 

I also just tend to value album tracks more than b-sides, maybe just because I inevitably end up spending a lot more time with them. I can't think of many artists where I'd put a b-side or outtake up there with their best stuff.

 

I definitely get that. Funny story though: for the longest time, I thought that WAS an album track because I didn’t notice I’d bought the deluxe version of the album. I’m actually not sure what the extra songs are offhand, and when I’ve listened, it’s just been part of it. So sometimes being wrong about something can really change your perspective lol.

 

Blue Dahlia for me is a top TGA song, might be in my top 3!

 

I can completely understand thinking "Dark Places" is the perfect closer and that nothing should come after it, but my personal connection to "Have Mercy" is too strong to accept that it should have ever been left off of an album. There is just no way that song is b-side material. I would say the same thing about "Blue Dahlia" as well. Both songs should have absolutely made their respective albums.

 

blue dahlia absolutely should've been on handwritten. it would probably be the best song on that album

 

I do love "Blue Dahlia," but it's probably not in the top half of Handwritten for me. I have a similar stance on "She Loves You" and American Slang.

 

She Loves You seems like a universally loved b-side that I think a lot of fans would have that up there on their lists. It really seems like core the Gaslight Anthem sound.

I tend to enjoy lots of bands b-sides that I would put a bside as a favourite because there can often be something distinct about that sound that could still be good, and just not fit with other songs that make up an album. I can think of a long list.

 

"She Loves You" is great, but I totally get why it was left off that album. Definitely does not fit the vibe. He maybe should have saved it for Elsie.

 

I do think Blue Dahlia was a good b-side choice. I like Desire, and I think it fits better on the base version of the album. I think Blue Dahlia’s cool impact comes for me starting g right after the softer National Anthem. It’s like an unexpected burst of energy or plot twist, and the song itself does a lot of shifting.

I don’t think having it on the album would have the same impact, and I also don’t know if it would be as well liked if it didn’t have that separation.

 

I actually think it’s is the American Slang Vibe. It fits with the city imagery reflected on the album cover and grit.

I think We Did It When We Were Young could have bit more of an Elsie vibe, but both songs share elements where they bridge over to Elsie quite nice.

She Loves You is way up there on Brian related favourites, but that top of the list is crowded.

 

She loves you is whatever

 

"We Did It When We Were Young" is really the album's themes in microcosm, though. I think that, if "She Loves You" goes in, you have to put it where "Queen of Lower Chelsea" is, and I just think "Queen" fits the album a lot better.

 

I find this is true for a lot of artists, but especially for Gaslight / Brian Fallon, but I tend to really enjoy b-sides a lot more than a lot of songs that make an actual album. I would say I like "Blue Dahlia" better than at least 50% of the songs that did make Handwritten, easily.

"She Loves You" is a little harder because all of the songs on American Slang are amazing. I actually think it is a better straight song than "We Did It When We Were Young" but WDIWWWY is a better closer to the album, if that makes any sense. For me I just have it as the penultimate song at Track 10 and WDIWWWY as Track 11 / the closer. For me, personally, it is just too good of a song to leave off the album but I would never argue with anyone who says American Slang is perfect the way it is.

 

I don’t think that song makes the top six on handwritten

 

I tried to think of artists who have B-sides that are just as good as the songs that made their albums and the first to come to mind was Carly Rae Jepsen

 

She Loves You is awesome. It’s the closer on my own American slang track list

 

"Old Haunts," "The Spirit of Jazz," and "We Did It When We Were Young" is just such a great 1-2-3 to close out that album. That's really the issue: I've never been able to figure out where "She Loves You" fits on that album.

 

american slang is an absurdly well sequenced album

 

American Slang may have the world’s most perfect sequencing, of any band, any record, anywhere. I just can’t imagine replacing anything, adding anything, or taking anything away.

(Related: I hold that as the unquestioned best Gaslight album)

 

This completely makes sense to me, which is why I said "She Loves You" is harder than "Blue Dahlia".

For me, Handwritten is by no means as consistent of an album as American Slang. There is at least one absolute dud of a song and one song that really overstays its welcome, while "Blue Dahlia" truly feels to me like it perfectly captures the sound they were going for working with Brendan O'Brien.

Every time I listen to American Slang I am blown away by how fucking great of an album it is, and I almost always just randomly text my brother something like "AMERICAN SLANG IS FUCKING AMAZING" out of the blue with no context whatsoever.

 

They could have easily had She Loves You right before We Did It When We Were Young.

The real issue is they just write too many good songs. Which, is in fact not an issue.

 

On the subject:
I would put "Radio Sweetheart" and "Stranger in the House" up their with Costello's best songs; "Seaside Bar Song" "Talk To Me" and "Where the Bands Are" up their with Springsteen's best; "Acquiesce" and "Talk Tonight" in the top 20 Oasis songs; "Shallow Days" and "Good Luck" for Counting Crows; "She Loves You" in the top tier of American Slang songs; "Singular Girl" as quite possibly the best Old 97s song; "You Were Cool" in the top 10 Mountain Goats; and "Follow You To Virgie" as my favorite Tyler Childers song. Basically...I don't think whether or not an artist put a song on an album has anything to do with how good it is.

 

Right off the top of my head I have to agree with Oasis as another band who had some absolutely incredible b-sides back in the day, easily as strong as some of their album songs.