The Gaslight Anthem Band • Page 27

All criticism to people's takes in here is in jest, let me say. I think Gaslight might be that one act that hits all my sweet spots and I associate with too many dumb/young life experiences to look at objectively lol.

 

They aren't bad songs but they are the weak links.

 

Mojo Hand and Desire are the only bad songs he's put out on an album.

 

I can 100% cosign this take. The only two songs I would consider less than average.

 

If we count B-sides then their worst song is Sliver by a wide margin. I get that it's a cover but I count their rendition of House of the Rising Sun as one of their best as well.

 

I will happily take any of these songs over "Stray Paper."

I disagree that "Stray Paper" is like everything else on Get Hurt. It's the most overbearing song on the record in terms of orchestration, and it's a lyrical departure from what he'd done before. The most comparable track is "Selected Poems," but that song is more dynamic and less histrionic. The entire thing is just too much for me. The backing vocals, the self-serious refrain at the end, etc. To me, it's always sounded like an attempt to write a song in a different way for the sake of departure. It doesn't have any of the character or lived in charm of Brian's best work, imo.

"Helter Skeleton" is also not very good, but is at least more fun.

 

The "Sliver" cover is not good, but I also just don't like that song (and generally dislike Nirvana period).

 

I do enjoy the chorus of Sweet Morphine, but I'll never keep the song on long enough to get to it.

Mojo Hand is probably my least favorite song he's ever done.

 

Disclaimer: it's cool if you guys dig these songs. I love "Keepsake" and "Mojo Hand" and know a lot of people don't enjoy those. Get Hurt in general just steered clear of what Brian does well, IMO, so I have a lot of criticisms for it. More than I did when it came out.

 

Especially considering he released "Go Tell Everybody" and "Howl" before "Stray Paper" so it definitely can't be unlike his other works. Selected Poems feels like what you mean to be criticizing. Selected Poems just feels forced in there. Stray Paper is one of his most poetic works and again, encapsulates the entirety of the album. It's hard to find a song more vital to the record. Get Hurt, Dark Places, Underneath the Ground, Stay Vicious, and Stray Paper would be the EP tracklist if they chose to go that way. I don't hear how it sounds drastically different at all, certainly not forced or done just for the sake of doing it. There may not be a better sentence to sum up the album than "all my love becomes blood on stray paper."

 

I love me some "Mojo Hand"!!! One of my favorites on Painkillers! Although I will admit that I think a fully fleshed out, Butch Walker-produced version of the song Georgia could take its spot on the album and make the album a hell of a lot better.

Completely agree about "Desire" though. I just find it extremely generic sounding. Its like Gaslight-by-the-numbers. I don't actively dislike it like "Stray Paper" though. I think "Stray Paper" is actually just a terrible song. I have no idea why a song like "Stray Paper" bothers me yet I feel a song like "Ain't That A Shame" rips and doesn't get nearly enough credit.

 

THIS!!! 'Get Hurt steered clear of what Brian does well' is exactly how I would describe that album, even though I do like it a lot. I've tried summing up my thoughts on the album so many times and could never get it right. You have a way with words, Craig.

 

Yeah, there's nothing at all to Desire beyond face value. And it's not like they can't do the more upbeat sound, they did great with Howl. Desire beats you over the head with its message all while saying nothing at the same time.

 

This is also true. It's hard to do a great cover of a bad song.

 

Probably one of the first things I LIKED about Painkillers was his idea to return to his "comfortable space" when writing. They tried so hard to be different on Get Hurt and we got a directionless album all over the place. Stray Paper is the perfect example of "WTF you guys trying here?"

The first thing I texted my brothers during Painkillers was "fuck it. I want Brian singing about the radio and all his buzzwords if the songs are this good."

 

I agree 100%. I've never seen Brian's lyrics having similar themes and using a lot of the same words as weaknesses at all. It strikes me like any good writer there are usually similarities in a lot of their works. While I can see the desire to push yourselves and try new things, when you are so damn good at something and it got you this far, why completely abandon it?

Get Hurt is a good album but I would be lying if I didn't admit that I probably would put the never-actually-studio-recorded or released Molly and the Zombies Red Bull Sound Studio songs above it.

 

Is it though? Cause Underneath the Ground is far more unusual of a Gaslight song. Same with Helter Skeleton, Red Violins, Ain't That a Shame, Break Your Heart, Stay Vicious, 1,000 Years, and Get Hurt. Actually most of the album haha. Stray Paper I feel like is one of the more obvious and grounded songs. It's clearly a post-Crowes song; written as the Crowes but performed as Gaslight.

 

Yeah I always thought Stray Paper was one of the more by-the-numbers Gaslight songs on Get Hurt.

 

I don't really think "Go Tell Everybody" and "Howl" are comparable to "Stray Paper." Those are straight ahead barn-burners. "Stray Paper" is something more cerebral that, in my opinion, doesn't pan out. I almost think the poetic nature of the lyric holds listeners at arm's length, whereas Brian is usually incredibly adept at drawing you into his world. I see what you mean about it fitting the theme of the album (if the theme of the album is "divorce record"), but I think all those other songs have a lot more emotional punch. "Dark Places," for instance, feels like such an intensely personal song about the end of a relationship, the kind of song that just pours out of you. "Stray Paper," in contrast, strikes me as an "I'm going to write a heavy and emotional song," or maybe a "I wrote this poem, let's set it to music. It just feels less natural than what I'm used to hearing from him. I always think that the best songwriting should feel effortless, even though it probably isn't. You can hear him trying on that song.

And I respect them trying to do something different. But it's hard to escape the fact that the best songs on that record are the ones that are most like older Gaslight songs.

Definitely. It was a great back-to-basics record, while still not being quite a return to the older Gaslight sound.

 

I just gave "Stray Paper" a listen for the first time in a few years. I definitely still don't like it at all. I don't enjoy the song musically and I think the lyrics are really on the nose and pretty terrible. I will say that trying to listen objectively, its does sound stylistically similar to a lot of the other songs on the album, songs I like a lot.

 

More so lyrically I would say "WTF." The lyrics of that song almost mean nothing to me at all and come from left field. There's hardly a chorus or anything to it, it all just feels convoluted. I guess I could say the same for Red Violins, haha.

Underneath the Ground, I agree, is definitely out there musically. Lyrically I kinda enjoy it!

But yeah as a whole the album just felt all over the place with some highs and more lows. I wonder if it wasn't "Gaslight Anthem" and some random other band if I would enjoy it more without having the brutally high expectations of the previous albums?

 

The last two sentences strike me as odd considering that's why I dislike Butch Walker haha. But outside of that I do completely agree. It isn't as good as Dark Places and it certainly is more cerebral than "Howl". I don't think it sounds forced or anything and I think it definitely fits the narrative more than "Ain't That a Shame," "Red Violins," and "Selected Poems," the latter of which is essentially just a catchier "Stray Paper." Plus, it's always a good time when Fallon screams.

 

I don't think a chorus is necessary at all. As I'll continue to say until my dying breath, it fits the theme of the album better than most of the songs so I highly disagree that they come from left field.

 

"Now we're much too old for this and I don't feel those kinds of things." For a band that spent almost ten years writing song that romanticize everything, the declaration that now he's too old for the silver lining carries a lot of weight.

By the way, I'm at work and we're slow as shit. I don't actually care this much, I just want you all to keep me entertained haha

 

There's no better indicator to me that I'm out of place in this thread than that I really like Desire. To me, it's great musically and the lyrics, though expressing a simple sentiment, are effective enough.