Wings For Wheels

OK, I never got around to devoting individual posts to my favorite albums of 2008 like I said I would. My friend Aaron had the right idea. His annual Best Of a given year wouldn’t come out until a year later. This was he could catch up with albums he missed and also see if some of them don’t stand up to repeated listenings. The second part of that equation is the most important. Too often you get thrilled by something, listen to it like crazy for two months and then realize it’s actually kind of boring. This is known as Every R.E.M. Album After “Automatic For The People” Syndrome.

A far better test of a great album is when you’ve listened to it for the same two months and, in that time, you have five or six favorite songs. The most recent example of that is The ‘59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem. I first heard of this shortly after it came out last summer. Then Michele said she loved it, so I bought it and was subsequently floored.

The ‘59 Sound is the sound of four guys looking back over their twenties as 30 comes up on the horizon. Frontman Brian Fallon’s songs are filled with nostalgia, loss, divorce, and even death. But the music is balls-to-the-wall, four-chord pop-punk, and refuses to let them wallow in their pain. Like the best Springsteen anthems, the music offers redemption from the sins and helps you rise above it. In a year in which I’ve had to deal with a lot of that stuff (but with ten more years under my belt), this CD hit me in a way that no other did this year, especially on the standout, Meet Me By The River’s Edge.

We’ve been burned by all our fears.
Just from growing up around here.
Our father’s factories marked our cards.
While Eden burned against the stars.

And Sally said, Sally said.
I can’t take no more regret.
It cut us too deep into our souls.
Came and climbed into our bed.
And Sally said, Sally said.
Meet me by the River’s edge.
We’re going to wash these sins away.
Or else we won’t come back again.

The opening track, Great Expectations:

I admit there’s a similarity to a lot of the tracks. Fallon often relies on the same melodic hook, starting a line low for a few notes, then going to the top of his range and working his way down. But it’s still very effective, as seen on the title track, performed here on Letterman.

They also have pretty good taste in covers. Tim sent me this today, of them singing The Replacements’ Left Of The Dial. The only thing that’s upsetting is that apparently only one kid in the crowd knows the damn song.

Anyway, I’m seeing these guys in a few weeks at The Bottom Lounge, and I can’t wait.