Gaslight Anthem's "Handwritten" Will Save Rock and Roll

One of the best thing about The Gaslight Anthem, the up and coming punk-rock from New jersey is that they’ve got for themselves a very cool band name, like ‘hey, why haven’t we thought about that?’.

But that is just not the thing that is going on with  Brian Fallon and the rest of the band for now they’ve got for themselves an album that is creating a lot of buzz in the music world.

“Handwritten” is an album that speaks so much about the significance of The Gaslight Anthem, the feel of the work they have been releasing, the attitude on the stage, the whole band persona, everything is familiar and memorable, like the feeling of going home. 

Yes, Brian Fallow’s voice is yearning for the ethereal experience that every rocker worth his salt is looking for, to bring back the glories of rock and roll, and stamps validity into the importance of guitar riffs and dramatic drum rolls and angst in their statements.

In the first single “45”, the band suddenly burst into action, and announces with brevity that they mean business. “45” soars with a lively melody and bursting guitar that certainly introduces them as a new band to reckon with – that for a long, long time.

The song “Handwritten” follows vigorously from where “45” lefts off that it sounded like it was a merely continuation. Whether this was intentional or not, we could never know.

But Brian Fallow’s voice yearns further in “Handwritten”, a beautiful yearning that exceeds a sublime chemical mixture of angst, longing and aliveness.

“Here Comes My Man” has a slapping drum that is unique by itself and a stunning refrain “Listen honey, here comes my man”. This should be radio friendly of all, a catchy hook in the middle of the song. 

“Keepsake” reaches the peak of the band’s emotionality that my hair tingles on Fallow’s rising voice and the swooping riff that weaves a beautiful song all in all.

“Mae” is a narration of love, a magnificent rendition of love, one song that mellows down the album.

All in all, The Gaslight Anthem achieves greatly with the album “Handwritten”. It is the kind of album that rockers always want. And they are a band that epitomizes one that rock lovers wanted to come along for a long time, like upon walking in a desert and finding oases.

Heavily compared to the rawness of Bruce Springsteen, the band shows great promise in lyricism and musicality. With a little more effort and dedication, The Gaslight Anthem would for certain achieve the vastness of The Counting Crows and gain cult adulation reserve only for legends and exemplary icons. 

They could just be the one to save rock and roll for this time.