If it aint broke, don’t fix it. On their third studio LP, New Jersey’s hearty punks are back with more punch than ever before.
American Slang, while staying true to the band’s previous sound, features cleaner lines and noticeably less chaos than their first two albums. It retains the band’s angst ridden roots but explores more mature lyrics of family and fortune—real life issues, not the nostalgic themes, of, say, the 50’s. In “Orphans”, Brian Fallon sings “you can find some local libertine to take your daughters out on the town”// “I can feel it in my aging bones”. “Boxer” circles around The Clash’s timeless punk classic, “Tommy Gun”, both lyrically and energy wise. The band no longer tries to blur lines of genre; they have picked up a fiery punk blaze on the road and have stuck to it. “Old Haunts” seems to declare the band’s determination to press onward, as individuals and as musicians.
American Slang moves away from Springsteen and rather embraces a racy, in the moment force that is holistically representative of the band’s explosive live shows. The dancing guitars which introduce “The Queen of Lower Chelsea” later colour the poignant anthem as Fallon laments the paradoxical struggles of the nation’s female population.
American Slang is not a concept album. It is not a belaboured effort. The Gaslight Anthem are demons of punk, and they’re not hiding behind anything anymore.
4.2/5
The Gaslight Anthem - Orphans [mp3]
