Brian Fallon - Local Honey (March 27, 2020) Album • Page 48

Elsie: incredible mood throughout, some of his best songs (Sugar, Ladykiller, Crush, Blood Loss)

Painkillers: really good but doesn't hit the same heights and a couple of tracks I can't get into like Steve McQueen. Nobody Wins is my fav. When I re-listen I'm often struck by how much I like most of it including Long Drives and Open All Night.

Sleepwalkers: the least consistent of the 3 but has his best solo track (Etta James juuuust beats out Blood Loss for me) plus Watson and See You On The Other Side are classics.

Local Honey: I like half of the songs but overall it feels slight and underwhelming. If the album is short and kinda one-note I need to like more than half the tracks to rate it highly. Vincent, Don't Mind and Lonely are my 3 favs.

 

I love all of his albums. If I had to pick which one I think is the weakest and I just answer quickly without thinking too much I think I go with Sleepwalkers, which is crazy considering how many amazing songs are on it. I absolutely adore the title track and love that it's something a bit different for him. Etta James is an all-timer. Watson is incredible. Neptune and Little Nightmares are both killer. I guess I consider it an album that is half absolutely amazing songs and half songs that are just really great. There isn't a bad song on it though. My least favorite is probably "Her Majesty's Service", and even that is still a pretty good song.

I suppose it's a testament to how much I love his songwriting that the album I just described would be his "weakest".

If I do think about the question for a while, I think I'd say Local Honey is his 'weakest', if only because it's so short and so has less amazing songs on it simply down to math. I do wish it was about 2 songs longer.

 

Aka the true precursor to Local Honey

 

You have reminded me of Her Majesty's Service which is indeed one of his worst.
But you also reminded me of Watson which is one of his very best.

 

I love Her Majesty's Service haha

 

some wild takes lol steve mcqueen and her majesty’s service are two of his best

 

What’s wild to think, regardless of some slight differing opinions, is that he truly has never put out a mediocre album let alone a bad one. Everything he’s put out with and without TGA has been quite good to absolutely incredible. I feel really lucky.

 

I've said it a lot on this here website, but I was super late to The Gaslight Anthem/Brian Fallon fandom. Sleepwalkers was actually my gateway (despite trying to get into TGA several times during their initial active years).

For whatever reason, Sleepwalkers was the first BF project that clicked with me. Pretty much immediately too.

I'll always have a soft spot for it, even though after getting into all the TGA/BF/THC albums, it would probably be lower on the list.

 

Sleepwalkers does have some absolute gems: If your prayers don't get to heaven, Come wander with me, Neptune...all total bangers

 

He's the most consistent songwriter of this era. All killer, extremely little filler

 

i like him a lot but do not agree at all. isbell basically fills the middle ground between brian’s solo sound and gaslight’s sound and is a better writer

 

But I don’t listen to Isbell

 

Pray tell, what makes Jason Isbell a "better writer" than Mr. Fallon? I don't know if that's true, perhaps they're just different and both great at what they do?

 

Arrest yourself.

 

someone actually kinda touched on this in the gaslight thread. i would link but it would take forever to find it. but they write about a lot of similar themes and jason is better at showing what he means and not having to tell/spell it out for you in a way brian does sometimes.

it's splitting hairs. brian is a great writer and one of my favorites. but there are definitely a handful doing it better than him right now. i know he's sung jason's praises in the past, i don't think he'd disagree lol

 

In fairness, he's also so self deprecating he'd say you, me and Dupree are all better songwriters haha. But yeah, he LOVES Isbell.

 

This is bringing to mind something I think about often in regards to my favorite lyricists (people like Brian, Matt Berninger, Greg from the Menzingers, Elena from Daughter/Ex:Re, Chris/Brendan from the Lawrence Arms, etc.). I sometimes wonder what the difference between "good" and "bad" lyrics and how much does it just have to do with who is singing them and how are they delivering them? I read this Steven Hyden quote about Bono's lyrics recently and it's hilarious but also true "though Bono's most essential talent is delivering his bullshit with such conviction that it becomes profound" lol.

 

Isbell is awesome, in fact I am seeing him TONIGHT and can't wait. I adore Isbell

But Brian is my guy.

Isbell is probably a better lyric writer, I can give you that.

 

I love Brian and his work, but Isbell is definitely the better pure songwriter. His narratives have clearer throughlines, his characters are more nuanced, and he's got more of a knack for a beautiful turn of phrase. None of this is a knock on Brian at all, who I think writes especially well about nostalgia and memory. The way he juggles references and interpolations with his own experiences on The '59 Sound is some of my favorite writing, and is a potentially gimmicky approach that he somehow manages to turn into such transportive, deeply-felt songs. But, IMO, there's not a songwriter working right now who writes with more empathy and with more mastery of language than Isbell. In terms of writers whose songs give me either the "Man, I wish I'd written that" reaction or the "How did this songwriter know that extremely specific detail about my life?" reaction, Isbell is number 1 on both lists.

 

In the past 8 days I have seen Isbell once and TGA twice. HELLUVA RUN FOR ME

 

Isbell’s band is off the charts tight/clean. Incredible sound.

 

yep

also jason's instrumental prowess leads to more complex writing in the form of the song, outside of lyrics, as well

 

I have to thank you all who mentioned Isbell. I had never really dipped my toe, but I've been listening to him a ton since this thread. I'm sure it's kind of a basic take but "If We Were Vampires" is immediately one of my favorite songs ever. Just absolutely destroys me.

 

So damn good.

 

Definitely one of my favorites.