The Gaslight Anthem Band • Page 185

Every August I revisit Get Hurt and even though I rank it towards the bottom of the Gaslight discography, I still find myself enjoying it every time.

It has its clunkers and its bad moments and isn’t as consistent as the others, but there’s still some great tracks and great moments. I’ll always appreciate it for what it was.

 

local honey is his best solo album and it isn’t close

 

Yes

 

Greatest sin for the Get Hurt record was making Have Mercy a bonus song.

 

Local Honey was my second favorite album of 2020.

 

I feel like having it as a bside is ok because it gave the song extra attention. It maybe didn’t flow with the songs as well but it’s so loved that it never hurt the song.

 

I would have loved to have seen what could have happened if they started the sequencing with Have Mercy and built around it, keeping what works and ditching what doesn’t.

 

Local Honey is a pretty album, and the songs are nice, but I haven't felt the need to return to it, and when I think about it it just feels slight to me. I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel to me like a slightly underwhelming result of Brian Fallon teaming up with Peter Katis and recording with some of the instruments / gear The National recorded with back in the day.

I have returned to Sink or Swim, the Señor and the Queen EP, The '59 Sound, American Slang, Handwritten, Get Hurt, The Horrible Crowes, Molly & the Zombies, Painkillers, the Georgia EP, Sleepwalkers and This Charming Man's Every Little Secret all more times than I can even count over the years without exaggerating, but I haven't really felt the need to go back and listen to this album much aside from the song "Hard Feelings".

A lot of times when I try to listen to Local Honey all the way through I find myself getting bored and skipping ahead to track 5, or track 6 or especially track 7, or just find something else to listen to. I would love to hear some of the tracks that didn't make the album that Brian described as slightly more upbeat, because I feel like this album could be amazing with a little bit of oomph or juice to kick it up just a tiny bit.

 

I consider it his worst by a fair margin.

 

My personal sequencing i've edited the album to is:
1. Have Mercy
2. Stay vicious
3. 1,000 years
4. Get hurt
5. Stray Paper
6. Underneath the ground
7. Sweet Morphine
8. rollin and tumblin
9. Red violins
10. Aint that a shame
11. Selected Poems
12. Hallaween
13. Break Your heart
14. Dark Places

 

ok

 

I saw them live on that tour and they actually opened with Have Mercy one night. It was cool.

 

Add in Helter Skeleton and Mama's Boys and delete Stay Vicious and Stray Paper and now we're talking

 

Pretty much agree with this. All the songs are good individually, but it's the first album of his EVER that I haven't had on repeat for like 4 months. It just didn't GRAB me as an album the way all the others did.

 

I know this board hates Stray Paper but I love it. Stay vicious as well.
Mamas boys is "fine".
Helter was the one song i really hated on the album.

 

That’s why I think this. It was an awesome opener.

 

Yeah we have talked about this before but Stay Vicious is just too off-brand for me, I don't like it. My least favorite BF song on ANY album. Stray Paper just sounds like Gaslight on autopilot. It's not BAD but it feels lazy.

 

I like it near the end. Feels like a moment of clarity kind of song after going through tough times.

 

I dig Helter. To each his own.

The underrated ones on that album to me are Red Violins and Selected Poems. I dig the hell out of those. I know I'm in the minority.

 

Stay Vicious grungier pet is a bit strange in their discography. They kind of had that feel on moments of Handwritten with Brendan, but it felt a bit more forced in Stay. It’s a fine song, but doesn’t fit in with Get Hurt as well.

 

I listen to Hurt a lot and the album and most of the tracks are way under appreciated.

 

Leave Stay Vicious out of this… that’s one of the best songs on the record.

 

I have played around with the tracklisting to Get Hurt so much over the years but I have not been able to come up with a satisfactory second half to the album. First half looks like this:

Stay Vicious
1,000 Years
Get Hurt
Selected Poems
Helter Skeleton
Underneath The Ground

One of the problems I have with the second half of the album is that I just don't think Dark Places works as the closer for this album. It's a great song, but I don't think the album should end on a high note type of song - this isn't a '59 Sound / Backseat situation here, whilst at the same time, Have Mercy is one of the greatest songs Brian Fallon has ever written and feels like the type of note this album should end on. I keep flip-flopping back and forth between having the closer be Dark Places and Have Mercy, and I'm constantly playing with adding and taking away Mama's Boys. Sweet Morphine is fucking amazing and always makes the cut.

I know people love Dark Places as the closer and think I'm nuts, but that's how I feel anytime anyone talks about not opening the album with Stay Vicious. It's weird, and it's not their best song by any means, but it's the perfect start to that album.

The tracklist I'm currently listening to has Have Mercy as the penultimate track in the Break Your Heart slot, which I just don't think is that great of a song, with Dark Places as the closer because that's how they did it.

 

I like Violins and Poems.

 

Helter Skeleton, Selected Poems & Red Violins are all great.

Break Your Heart is kinda boring and not that great.

Stray Paper is a bad song.

Mama's Boys is really good, Sweet Morphine is great and Have Mercy is a fucking masterpiece.