The Gaslight Anthem - History Books (October 27th 2023) Album • Page 35

Same with Benny in my opinion

 

thought this same thing during my two listens of the album

 

Sucks for them

 

Upon 2nd listen I can confirm Michigan, 1975 is the one.

 

I genuinely can't decide if I'm more excited about this or the new Crime in Stereo record tomorrow, huge day for me hearing music from bands I thought were done

 

Driving through New England fall with this album rules so hard

 

You guys keep saying fall gaslight....is that like "Underneath the Ground"?

 

I think I like every single song on History Books better than Underneath the Ground, not sure if that helps. As others have mentioned it's a mixture of pretty much everything, including Brian's solo stuff. Maybe Have Mercy is sort of a good "vibe" comparison

 

you should hear more of them

 

Ugh just got notification my vinyl is delayed from Brooklyn Vegan. Was really hoping to play it this weekend.

 

out of curiosity, which two? lol

 

Anyone have a link for a friend?

 

Really satisfied with this album. I especially think it'll age well once the singles don't jump out at me as more familiar than the other tracks. I wish I'd held off, especially knowing that the few high-energy songs were all ones I'd heard before the full listen. If you go in cold, "Little Fires" is a nice jolt of energy halfway through the tracklist.

My thoughts on the production now that I've heard the whole thing:

If the whole album had choruses in the vein of Positive Charge and Little Fires, I'd feel like this production was a serious miss. But as I suspected, it fits the more subdued tracks way better. Do I still 100% believe that the loud songs sound a bit off? Yes -- but they're the outliers of the album, so for the majority of the listen I'm not thinking about the production at all.

Brian's made a lot of sad songs but Michigan 1975 might be the most chilling thing he's ever written. Even though there are glimmers of hope in it, it's incredibly convincing at sounding like it's coming from the perspective of a deeply damaged person. His delivery of "Don't look now, the sun's gone forever/It's never coming back..." seriously freaks me out in a very effective way.

 

I haven't listened yet, and I love everything BF does, so I'm not worried about it. But I'm super surprised that after almost a decade away from the band, this one apparently isn't more "guns blazing". I just would have thought those would be the muscles he'd want to stretch rather than do more songs similar to his solo output.

Can't wait to hear it regardless.

 

Yeah, my hot take is that this is better than a "guns blazing" album, also to be fair there is a fair share of bangers on it too. I think people complaining that it sounds too similar to his solo stuff are over-generalizing a bit. But, idk I've always loved TGA's slower and more midtempo stuff anyway

 

Is there anything not released so far that has the energy of History Books or Positive charge?

 

Agreed on their slower stuff

 

Spider Bites and I live in the room above her (and Little Fires if you haven't heard it yet).

 

Not finding it. It would be awesome if someone could send a link my way!

 

Also in agreement that this is 90% a Brian Fallon solo album featuring Gaslight Anthem members. That isn't a bad thing, it just isn't quite Gaslight to me.

 

Is there anything comparable to keepsake on here?

that song has been on repeat for me all month.

 

no

 

I live in the room above her is probably the closest

 

seeing the fellas saturday night :'-)