I know I've said this before, but "Have Mercy" is a Top 3 Brian Fallon song for me, could possibly even be #1. All of the bonus tracks from Get Hurt are great.
I saw them open with it on that tour (Have Mercy) and it was so so great. That's an example of "slow Fallon" that I just adore - that one, See You On The Other Side, She Loves You......those are very much MY SHIT
I've never understood the lack of love for songs like Red Violins, Selected Poems, feels like nobody likes those except me. Break Your Heart is never mentioned either. Overall I just really dig the album. Stay Vicious and Stray Paper are the ones I don't love and they are both fine.
Love everything he’s ever done except Local Honey. 59 Sound Sink or Swim Handwritten American Slang Painkillers Elsie Sleepwalkers Get Hurt History Books Local Honey
even though I don't love a few of the songs that people have mentioned as being great, and I do love most or all of the bonus tracks to the point where I think they should have been on the album (however that would've worked), Get Hurt the album is severely underrated and always has been
I just consider all the bonus tracks as part of the albums, whether right or wrong She Loves You brings American Slang's status way up for me as well, I love that song so much
Brian rankings are tough, because as much as I enjoy all his work, that 2008-2012 run is always going to take precedent for me. Just a super formative time for me, during which he was one of the 3-4 defining artists. Anyway: The '59 Sound Handwritten American Slang Elsie History Books Sleepwalkers Local Honey Get Hurt Sink or Swim Painkillers
I do have to say, again just my opinion, but I do think there is some possible recency bias for people with History Books - we were all so fired up to have them back and didn't expect it.....but now a few years away from it? Man I love the album too but I can't honestly say I like it more than Get Hurt or the better solo albums. It suffers a little for me by being too short and a little too slow in the latter half. Obviously being super nit picky here but I feel like that album needed 2 more bangers on it and 12 tracks. For that matter, Local Honey is too short as well, when comparing to all the other albums, it feels almost like an EP to me Sink or Swim at #9 position is some crazy work, Craig!
I think History Books is way, WAY better than Get Hurt. Just so much more what I want from them. Especially the first six songs. I'll grant you the fall-off on side 2, but even then, I think those songs are just Local Honey tier solo Brian songs. And sure, it definitely gets a bump for being the "I never thought I'd hear new music from this band again" album, but I don't think that's recency bias as much as it breathed completely new life into Gaslight. I loved it then and I still do, in a way that I never came to love Get Hurt. I like all the solo albums, but I think there's a different energy when the band is there. Sleepwalkers gets the closest to the magic, but I ding it just a little bit for being just a tad overlong and having half a dozen songs that could probably do with one fewer chorus repeats. Sink or Swim, I don't know what to tell you, lol. I got on board with The '59 Sound and it always felt like a much less good version of that album to me. A big part of it is that I hate how it sounds; I've said it before, but I enjoy those songs a lot more in the live show than I ever enjoy listening to that record.
Oh yeah, Sink or Swim sounds terrible, probably because I bet they recorded it for like $500. And it's interesting, I do think expectations come into play a lot. Like most, I heard 59 first, fell in love, then went backwards to SoS, expecting very little because I knew it was their lo-fi pre-fame album, expected it to be like basically bad demos or something, and then WOW THESE SONGS ARE GREAT TOO so it kinda just blew my expectations away. Much like recency bias, I think what your expectations are can color your opinion too. Just my 2 cents.
Agreed that on History Books track 7 is where it starts to fall off - also it must be noted that the remix they put out was just so much better. I'm not an audiophile AT ALL but the remixed version sounded so much more like TGA to me than the first version that was put out. It kinda blew my mind that the same exact songs could sound so much better.
I should say that I historically have a hard time going back to the rawer, less refined album in a band's discography if/when I climbed aboard with an album that's the perfect encapsulation of a band's "thing." See also: Motion City Soundtrack. My introduction there was Commit This to Memory, and I've always been a little bit cooler on I Am the Movie than everyone else. I can tell you that it would definitely not be ranked as high pre-remix, lol
Sink or Swim sounds great for the budget they had. I do not get the complaints on how it sounds at all.
I hear you, but "for the budget they had" is doing some heavy lifting in that sentence. It's not their fault they had no money, it came out the best it could I'm sure. But to compare it to the polish of their latter albums, it just isn't in that vein for good reason. I love the album regardless
I guess I just love the gritty punk sound of a lot of bands of that period. To me it sounds no worse than Chamberlain Waits, Sometime Things Just Appear, Broadway Calls self titled, etc.
SoS rules as-is but if they wanted to re-record it with a budget I would buy that as well and love both