I genuinely can't decide if I'm more excited about this or the new Crime in Stereo record tomorrow, huge day for me hearing music from bands I thought were done
I think I like every single song on History Books better than Underneath the Ground, not sure if that helps. As others have mentioned it's a mixture of pretty much everything, including Brian's solo stuff. Maybe Have Mercy is sort of a good "vibe" comparison
Ugh just got notification my vinyl is delayed from Brooklyn Vegan. Was really hoping to play it this weekend.
Really satisfied with this album. I especially think it'll age well once the singles don't jump out at me as more familiar than the other tracks. I wish I'd held off, especially knowing that the few high-energy songs were all ones I'd heard before the full listen. If you go in cold, "Little Fires" is a nice jolt of energy halfway through the tracklist. My thoughts on the production now that I've heard the whole thing: If the whole album had choruses in the vein of Positive Charge and Little Fires, I'd feel like this production was a serious miss. But as I suspected, it fits the more subdued tracks way better. Do I still 100% believe that the loud songs sound a bit off? Yes -- but they're the outliers of the album, so for the majority of the listen I'm not thinking about the production at all. Brian's made a lot of sad songs but Michigan 1975 might be the most chilling thing he's ever written. Even though there are glimmers of hope in it, it's incredibly convincing at sounding like it's coming from the perspective of a deeply damaged person. His delivery of "Don't look now, the sun's gone forever/It's never coming back..." seriously freaks me out in a very effective way.
I haven't listened yet, and I love everything BF does, so I'm not worried about it. But I'm super surprised that after almost a decade away from the band, this one apparently isn't more "guns blazing". I just would have thought those would be the muscles he'd want to stretch rather than do more songs similar to his solo output. Can't wait to hear it regardless.
Yeah, my hot take is that this is better than a "guns blazing" album, also to be fair there is a fair share of bangers on it too. I think people complaining that it sounds too similar to his solo stuff are over-generalizing a bit. But, idk I've always loved TGA's slower and more midtempo stuff anyway
Also in agreement that this is 90% a Brian Fallon solo album featuring Gaslight Anthem members. That isn't a bad thing, it just isn't quite Gaslight to me.
I'd have 59 Sound then Elsie second. Sink or Swim, American Slang and Handwritten could all be third depending on my mood. Usually it's Handwritten. Of the true solo albums I'd say Sleepwalkers (highest highs), Painkillers (so many great tunes) then Local Honey just feels like a less interesting version of Elsie to me unfortunately.