Album Review

The Gaslight Anthem - HandwrittenThe Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten

When The Gaslight Anthem released their second studio ‘The 59 Sound’ back in 2008 they were pretty much an unknown band but then suddenly they were featured on the front cover of a few major publications with these publications claiming that the Gaslight Anthem are about to become everyone’s new favourite band and they weren’t wrong as overnight thousands of people picked up ‘The 59 Sound’ and instantly became fans of the band and ever since then The Gaslight Anthem have been touring the world over many times and have even been invited out on a few occasions to support one of their main musical influences the boss Bruce Springsteen.

When it comes to releasing new material The Gaslight Anthem have stuck to a strict ratio of releasing an new album every two years which now brings us to the bands forth studio album ‘Handwritten’ which see’s the band up their game even more with a solid 11 track album which is full of stadium rock anthems and if the bands rapid rise to fame is anything to go by it won’t be long until The Gaslight Anthem start headlining stadiums and playing their perfectly written songs to their full potential.

The album opens with ‘45’ which happens to be the lead single from the album and it is one hell of beastly track which starts off sounding like a lost Foo Fighters song but as it progresses Fallon’s fierce melodic vocals grab you by the balls and spin you around leaving you on an almighty high, the drums beats are fantastic with Benny Harowitz seriously giving his kick a good pounding which leaves me wondering why when you get involved in a best drummer in the world conversation Harowitz is never brought up as he is super talented and obviously super under rated, and as for the rest of the instrumental work on the track it is just spot on with bouncy basslines and twitchy guitar work.

When I first put ‘Handwritten’ on I found it really tough to get past the opening track ‘45’ as it is just so good that I ended up having it on repeat for the best part of two hours and I am pretty sure it had a similar effect on anyone that has heard the song as it is easily the anthem of the summer, but as soon as I let the album progress I realised there was another 10 amazing tracks waiting to be listened to.

Title track ‘Handwritten’ is another solid radio friendly track which has a good potential to being a future single for the band, the lyrics are well written and sung in such an upbeat way whilst the band jam together letting off a slight retro sound which reaches your ears with pure bliss.

‘Here Comes My Man’ is quite a soulful sounding song with its catchy chorus of ‘Oh-Sha-La-La’. ‘Mulholland Drive’ is another rock anthem with some extremely tasty guitar work especially the solo towards the middle section of the song. ‘Keepsake’ opens up with some of the best instrumental work found on the album, whilst the album closing track ‘National Anthem’ sees’s the Gaslight Anthem take on an acoustic folk sound that is full of raw emotion and ballsy singing.

It would be a near on impossible task to pick a favourite album from The Gaslight Anthem as each album that they have released have stood out in their own little way and ‘Handwritten’ easily follows this routine on as it is crammed full of anthems and have a major last ability factor which will easily keep fans of the band happy for the next two years whilst waiting for album number five.

5/5

Review by Trigger

 Band Members

Brian Fallon
Ben Horowitz
Alex Levine
Alex Rosamilia
 Track Listing
1. 45
2. Handwritten
3. Here Comes My Man
4. Mulholland Drive
5. Keepsake
6. Too Much Blood
7. Howl
8. Biloxi Parish
9. Desire
10. Mae
11. National Anthem
 Band Related Links
The Gaslight Anthem Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?