The album cover is one of the most important parts of the record buying experience. If you’ve never heard a note of a band’s music, a cool cover often makes the difference. I’ve discovered many of my favorite bands this way. Butch Walker, Iron Maiden, Guns n’ Roses and The Replacements were once nothing but pictures on a sleeve. To the MP3 generation, the album cover has become less important. I hadn’t discovered a band this way in a few years, relying more on record reviews and word of mouth.
I’ll be blunt, the cover of The ’59 Sound was impossible to ignore. It was the first album cover I’d seen an ages that actually looked like an album cover. The band was front and center, the title was huge and the record company insignia was on the upper right hand corner. These dudes don’t want you to download the album on iTunes, they want you to actually purchase it…at *gasp* a record store. One of the songs was an overt reference to Miles Davis, which was the clincher. The Gaslight Anthem was worth the risk.
One of the dangers of music criticism is that it’s very easy to become jaded. If you review three records a day, there is a good chance that at least one of them is mediocre. The day I bought The ’59 Sound, I reviewed 50 Cent’s Before I Self Destruct. I was not in a charitable mood when I pressed the play button on my stereo, prepared for nothing more than a pleasant diversion.
The ’59 Sound begins with the crackles, hisses and pops of a worn piece of vinyl and only gets better from there. Songs about dead end kids in dead end towns have become a familiar rock n’ roll archetype, but miraculously it doesn’t feel like a Born to Run clone. Springsteen is an obvious influence, but The Gaslight Anthem doesn’t sound like the E-Street band. The band’s sound is a hybrid of pop punk and rockabilly. The guitars are jangly and mellow, but the bass and drums provide a propulsive backbeat. The music provides the right canvas for lead singer Brian Fallon, whose soaring vocals are the band’s best attribute.
The lyrics are the best part of The ’59 Sound. Many bands employ literary references these days, but The Gaslight Anthem is smart enough to slip them in subtly. “Great Expectations” is an obvious allusion, but the references to Jacob Marley’s chains in the title track reveal themselves over several listens. The lyrics are often painfully honest, as in “High Lonesome,” when Fallon says he “kinda sorta wished he looked like Elvis.” A lesser band would have stopped there, but Fallon adds that he “kinda sorta wished he was someone else.” It reads like a trite piece of melodrama, but Fallon’s matter of fact delivery gives it a layer of pathos.
It’s too early to compare The ’59 Sound with a classic Jersey record like Born to Run, but they share a distinct similarity. No matter how bad things get or how hopeless a town might seem, things can and will get better. The Gaslight Anthem has made a giant statement with this record. Do not hesitate to buy The ’59 Sound. Very few albums released this year contain such a large amount of heart and passion.
