Published on July 25th, 2012 | by Scott Francis
0The Gaslight Anthem: Handwritten:: Review
At Cincinnati’s Bunbury Festival a couple of weeks ago, I was walking around wearing a Gaslight Anthem t-shirt and some dude I’ve never met gave me a bro-hug.
Now I’m sitting here listening to Gaslight’s new record Handwritten, and I have to say… I get it. There’s a reason these guys have been compared to Bruce Springsteen countless times, have opened for Social Distortion, and get props from Eddie Vedder himself for their flawless cover of Pearl Jam’s “State of Love and Trust.” These guys are just that freakin’ good, and not liking them is pretty much un-American.
Handwritten, their fourth album, doesn’t really cover any new territory, but it seems to take their faded-blue jeans, blue-collar, leather jacket message and hone it to as near perfection as punk rock is allowed to get without loosing it’s street cred. The guys from Gaslight Anthem wear their hearts on their sleeves, from the first track “45” which is all about listening to records (but, you know, as a metaphor for all kinds of other stuff we all go through) to “Howl” where front man Brian Fallon sings “If you wanna, you can find me on the hood [presumably of some mid 20th century Chevy] under the moonlight … do you believe there’s still some magic left somewhere in our souls?”
So yeah… this record makes me want to lace up my Chuck Taylors, eat a slice of apple pie, drink a cold beer, and walk down some railroad tracks somewhere with my bros. [High five. Bro-hug.]
Rating: 
Related Posts
Titus Andronicus: Local Business:: Review →
The Gaslight Anthem iTunes Session Release Date Moved To October 18th →
The Horrible Crowes : Elsie :: Review →