The Gaslight Anthem Band • Page 126

I HATE how much stock Brian puts into reviews and how he much he overthinks what the reception is/is going to be. You're a brilliant songwriter and artist, if you think it's good, go for it!

 

5-way tie. They all slay.

 

Who's to say things won't change after they play a couple of shows. It took a reunion tour for Underoath to realize they should return. I still believe there will be another Gaslight record at some point. It's just a question of when.

 

I dunno, like ... fans fucking hated that album when it came out. I got screamed out for being one of the few that liked it in the forums from "fans" of the band. My twitter mentions after the GH podcast episode were brutal.

 

The internet is cruel. And people, maybe at some point, will realize their words mean something. Of course what people say about you can get to you and impact you in different ways. Look at the shit Lauren from Chvrches is going through right now to see it playing out in this same way.

 

Man, I don't know. I must've been in different forums from you.......or I could be mis-remembering I guess. All I know is I recall it as the reviewers had their knives out and I thought most of the fans were like me and loved most of it but thought 2-3 of the songs (out of fucking 16 !!) were maybe a little below par.

I think it's an outstanding album overall, even with the 2-3 songs I don't love. I'm so glad we have it, and I go back to it super often. If it's BF's worst album, so what? I only barely even will admit that may be true (Personally I like it more than the Elsie but I understand that is a super minority opinion). To me it's just BARELY behind his/their other stuff.

If anything, his mistake was being such a goddamn incredible songwriter that the bar was just way too high. The bar was set at near PERFECTION and nobody can continue to live up to that, album after album. BF comes the closest.

It floors me that this album is remembered that way.

And your point about the internet being cruel is very well-taken.

 

I mean, I ran the largest forum on the internet at the time. So, it definitely happened ... heh, you can still see it a little in this thread when the album comes up: https://forum.chorus.fm/posts/1908310. Thankfully more people have come around on the album.

People destroyed that album from the songs to the album cover "looking like a butt."

 

Yeah, this is what I remember:



Or, if you really wanna see some shit ... read these comments:

Music: The Gaslight Anthem: 'Get Hurt'

 

like holy shit people were fucking mean

 

Let me preface this by saying I love The Gaslight Anthem, The Horrible Crowes, and all of Brian's solo endeavors. My take from essentially day one is that Get Hurt is definitely a step down from the trifecta of The 59 Sound, American Slang, and Handwritten. There are great songs (title track is perhaps my #1 all time TGA song), really solid & interesting experiments that push their sound forward ("Under The Ground"), but there are also way more bad and -- at this point in their career -- by-the-number songs than on the previous three albums. It doesn't make me hate the band or anything, but it's how I feel.

 

Oh, and also people on the Internet are mean.

 

Get Hurt is honestly criminally underrated and I didn’t understand the hate for it then and I still don’t now

 

It’s not even that different from their other records, I never understood the reactions being that dramatic...

 

And yes I typed "gaslight anthem butt cover" into google to find those comments.

 

Are hearts looking like butts the pre-dated "Yanny or Laurel"?

 

Under The Ground is the best song on Get Hurt.

 

1000 Years, Stray Paper, and Dark Places are all excellent too. I don’t really find Get Hurt weaker than any other Fallon album tbh, and I say that as admittedly not a huge fan of his projects in general, but I still think GH is on par with the rest of Gaslight’s discography and better than either Fallon solo album.

 

Sure, if you prize sonic experimentation over everything else.

 

I understand that and why people won't think much of it but there's a lot to be had for that sort of organ sound (not the best at descriptions, sorry!) which gets in my head so much. I don't particularly think it transferred well live but as a song to listen to on an album, I think it's the best on it and the chorus lyrically is so outstanding.

I thought Mae was the best on Handwritten too. That's The Gaslight Anthem songs that get me the most. The Backseat too.

 

Holy fuck do I love this band. I have ONE more day of work standing in my way before I travel to DC.

 

I’m with you on “Mae” (that’s a top... 3? TGA song for me) and “The Backseat”. Both of them sound like beautiful apocalypses. I like “Under The Ground” quite a lot, but compared to something like the title track or “Dark Places” it lacks that emotional resonance that pulls me into their best houseburners. I’ll give the album another listen and report back though!

 

That’s a pretty big generalization. I feel like most real fans were too busy listening to the album to out there defending the album. Plus we knew some good people like you had it covered. I love Get Hurt. I do think the some of the songs transitions and track sequencing could have been different, but it’s passionate, raw and sounds great. I think people were thrown off by the change in lyriccal tone being a little more negative. Some of my favourite Gaslight songs on there. The same could be said about every release though.

 

It’s their worst selling and streaming album so, I dunno seems hard to say it’s a generalization.

 

The album definitely wasn’t received well from fans overall. I still enjoy most of it and thinks it’s a fine album, but there’s more misses and less cohesion on this than any past Gaslight album.

I just remember the press interviews leading up to its release were weird, the teaser with the Stay Viscous riff was off-putting, then the butt album cover. I didn’t have good vibes going in mixed with Thomas’s review on the Podcast not giving me the same hope as his Handwritten review.

Luckily I still enjoy 70% of that album and blast it in August every year.

 

ugh I can't believe I ever read PunkNews at all. Punk fans in general can be the biggest fucking babies ever. They're up there with people who throw hissy fits when WWII video games let you play as a woman.