Brian Fallon - Local Honey (March 27, 2020) Album • Page 40

The demo absolutely had the better lyrics that actually meant something, but the album version is still pretty amazing.

 

Recorded Have Mercy might be my favorite Brian Fallon song. Definitely Top 3.

 

Honestly though for as much as I loved this band from like 08-15 I rarely listen to them anymore.

 

I love the live version of Have Mercy with the Chelsea Hotel ending!

 

I'd like the record to reflect that I this has always been my stance. It's one of the few albums I can think of that I'd really love a re-recorded version of, because I like a bunch of the songs but don't think Brian had found his singing style yet and don't care for the production at all.

A few swaps, but pretty close to what mine was.

It kind of feels like his Sirens of the Ditch, honestly. I'm guessing we'll hear better versions of this album in the future.

See, to me, that album is distinctly different from the previous two. It's them absolutely swinging for the fences and trying to take their throwback rock 'n' roll sound and blow it up to arena-sized proportions. Arena rock isn't super fashionable and I know it's not everyone's bag, but I've always loved Handwritten as their "let's be rockstars" album. And then Get Hurt is a rebellion against that in both interesting and not-that-interesting ways.

 

I feel like American slang has its share of arena rock and roll - title track, orphans, old haunts, spirit of jazz - and its all done better than nearly anything on handwritten haha

 

Hard disagree that Sleepwalkers isn't good.

 

This is where I stand on Long Drives. It took me a while to get used to the Painkillers version of Red Lights, so maybe one day I'll come around to its version of Long Drives, but boy does it just sound wrong to me every time I go through that album. Also, we agree on Get Hurt - Have Mercy not being on the main album is such a miss.

Agree with this - all those extra songs/B-sides are better than a few songs on the album.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand people ranking Handwritten so high. It has some really interesting stuff with Biloxi Parish, 45, Mae, Blue Dahlia but there are some songs on there that are just so forgettable to me - Desire is probably the poster boy for it and the song I would point to in order to support your 'autopilot' argument. I felt like American Slang had its own style after 59 Sound while also feeling like a natural evolution, but Handwritten is the first time I see them as kind of bored.

I should say that I was not a fan of Sink or Swim until I saw them live for the first time on the American Slang tour, and after that show immediately went home and fell in love with it. I think it's really hard to get into without seeing some of those songs live.

I never thought about Handwritten in that way, but there are enough traditional Gaslight songs on there that just don't seem like they would play in an arena. Can you imagine a stadium singing along to Here Comes my Man?

 

The “problem” (if there is one) is that at his core Brian tends to write to pretty standard I-V-vi-IV punk progressions. When he’s not intentionally trying to break out of that mode the songs and choruses can sound same-y. They perfected that on 59 Sound, which is why Elsie and American Slang are so good... songs like “Diamond Church Street Choir” and “I Witnessed A Crime” are substantial breaks with the Gaslight sound. In a lot of ways, Local Honey just feels to me like an acoustic Gaslight record with a few stylistic flourishes. Except “Vincent”, which is like AHHH good.

 

I can absolutely picture that. It’s basically a Tom Petty anthem (and I believe it’s actually their highest charting single). Just because songs like “45” and “Howl” are more urgent and driving doesn’t mean they’re better suited to large crowds.

 

I actually saw a good bit of it live back in 2012, which was the most I ever appreciated those songs. I just think they mostly fall flat on record. It's never the album I reach for it I want a Gaslight album.

100 percent, yes!

 

This point couldn't have been hammered home any harder than him literally re-writing a gaslight song by mistake haha

 

It's gone down for me, but 59 Sound is always the album I kick off June with to announce that summer is here.

I just listened to Here Comes My Man again and can kind of hear the Tom Petty angle, but I still have trouble seeing it be a huge arena hit.

 

Handwritten is my favourite Gaslight record. I'm a sucker for the big, 'going for the radio' albums from bands though. Some of the choruses on that album are the biggest they've written.

I always pair it with White Crosses in my mind, not sure if it's the kind of production both bands went for on those two.

 

If Handwritten is them absolutely swinging for the fences of major rock radio play in an era where that whole idea almost doesn't exist in the way that it used to, the changing of the lyrics from the demo version of Biloxi Parish to the album version is their Icarus moment and they stumbled and made a really fucking great song out of what could have been an all-time masterpiece.

The killer is though that I honestly feel that the original lyrics would have lead to exactly the type of song they were going for! What do I know though, I'm not Brendan O'Brien.

 

'Here Comes My Man' is probably the closest Gaslight ever came to writing a mainstream radio hit

 

White crosses is the best against me album

there, now I think I’ve made everyone as mad as possible in this thread

 

The demo of Biloxi had some clunky lyrics, the Asbury line. The album version is much better IMO

 

Totally agree

 

Hear hear!

 

I could not possibly disagree more!

 

delete the post

 

I enjoy white crosses but it is not the best against me! album. That’s crazy talk.

 

I don't like anything pre new wave

 

I dunno, White Crosses felt like Laura met that sweet mix of angry punk and great, accessible song writing the best. I love the production on that album too. I like TDB but it was them reverting back to that garage band sound after WK.