What's It Called?
What's The Story?
The Gaslight Anthem hail from the city of New Brunswick, New Jersey, a factoid which is useful to know if you're going to argue with your friends that they're Canadian because they're from New Brunswick. The '59 Sound is the title track from their second full length album.
Who's To Blame?
A vegetarian cyclist who teaches teenagers French.
Anyone who grew up as I did (in the late 80's & the 90's and pretending to skateboard and play music) is undoubtedly familiar with Pennywise's tune, Bro Hymn. I hope that kids growing up in the oughts find/found the same things in this song that we found in that one.
First, I'll draw some parallels: the song is pretty simple on any instrument really; any thirteen year old learning to play could aspire to play the catchy guitar lead or solid drum beat. The lyrics are energetically heartfelt: not all young teens have lost someone close, but they recognize the significance of it, no doubt. Those characteristics alone gave a generation an attachment to that Pennywise song.
But, I'm almost willing to venture that the most glaring difference between the tracks is that The Anthem's song is just better. The instrumentation, although simplistic, has a voice that doesn't get old quite as quickly, and the lyrics are markedly more clever while maintaining the heartfelt theme. SPIN magazine, among others, have approached The Gaslight Anthem by praising their "Bruce Springsteen-like" sensibility. Attaching that sensibility to a fun and energetic punk rock sound as they do could well pave the way for a rehash of some of the less forgettable music from the 80's. Probably not, but this song gives me at least a little hope for popular bands in the '10s.
If nothing else, though, listen to this tune just once to hear the delivery of the lyrics. It's worth that.
No comments:
Post a Comment