For all their nods to things vintage (the record's title, previous album artwork, the sound of a needle dropping on vinyl at the beginning of Great Expectations, etc.), New Jersey's Gaslight Anthem have a clearly contemporary sound. Where peer bands like Nothington and Against Me have slightly punkier sounds, Gaslight Anthem walk the middle of the road, comfortably, in high-top sneakers, with straight-ahead drum pummeling and guitars that riff and clang but never really rage or scowl. Their songs have passion and punch, and the stories are told in lustrous detail with a kind of scrappy bravado. The title track starts things off with a high-energy outburst, guitars somewhere between Joe Strummer and Tom Petty, Brian Fallon's raspy voice bidding farewell (in a well-worn American pop tradition) to a sweetheart dying in a car crash ... yes, on a Saturday night. Sounds cliché, but it works. Throughout, a traditional, pop soulfulness pulsates, as if the Gaslight guys somehow grew up listening to 1960's AM radio, where the Box Tops would brilliantly seque into Sam Cook. The '59 Sound is a great soundtrack to a late summer night, or for cruising a highway without a destination; its confessional tones of uncertainty, yearning, and youth is deeply satisfying. - iTunes
CD Details
- Release Date: August 19, 2008
- Record Label: Side One Dummy
- UPC: 603967135824
- Number of Discs: 1
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