Third album from Springsteen-influenced New Jersey (former) punks.
New Jersey quartet The Gaslight Anthem would be the first to admit that they share more than a home state with Bruce Springsteen. However, there’s nothing wrong with being heavily influenced by another artist so long as you still have something of your own to bring to the table, and on 2008’s superb breakthrough The ’59 Sound, The Gaslight Anthem did indeed bring something. While frontman Brian Fallon’s rugged but sensitive vocals and wordy blue-collar lyricism may have seemed familiar, the fact is that these guys were punks, something that Springsteen never, ever was. Sure, the music was anthemic, but the mix was rattling, rough, raw and thrilling.
Despite coming in shy of 35 minutes and retaining the services of ’59 Sound producer Ted Hutt, American Slang is an altogether cleaner-sounding affair than its predecessor. As such it’s not so much a bad record as a weirdly redundant one: four talented, passionate musicians do a perfectly reasonable job of making a record that sounds a good deal like vintage Springsteen, but fail to really leave their own mark on the music.
Lees de rest van deze review op BBC CD recensies (Engels)
Bron: BBC Music