The Gaslight Anthem, We Did It When We Were Young
American Slang (2010)
It is kind of funny as I go through the stuff I've listened to the most this year...it all reminds me of airports or hotels or driving on unknown freeways. I know I've done a little more traveling this year than in the past, but I didn't quite realize how much that would impact what I listen to. Most of the albums that I've listened to in their entirety over and over again have been when I'm on the road.
This one definitely is. Awhile back I had to go to this dinky little town in New Jersey, and so I flew into the Newark airport not realizing that it would take me an hour and a half on the Jersey Turnpike to get to where I was going (if I had flown into Philadelphia, I would have been about fifteen minutes away...live and learn). It was a Tuesday night in November and I remember listening to the election returns come in and all the voices on the radio talk about Tea Parties and Republicans and all their bullshit. It bummed me out so I turned off the radio and put on my iPod and scrolled around.
This song came up, and I took it off shuffle and went through the whole album. It's kind of corny, because I was in New Jersey and that's where these guys are from, but it just made a perfect soundtrack. I wasn't in the Garden State long enough to really get a sense of it, but there's no doubt, there's a kind of blue collar, been-kicked-in-the-teeth vibe to the parts I drove through, and that really comes through on this album. Describing the association of this album and that particular trip threatens to make the whole "life is a journey" metaphor a bit too literal, but really, listening to this album makes you think about growing up and moving on and all that stuff. It's pretty good, and it's also pretty good rock and roll. Think Bruce Springsteen meets Social Distortion and you've got a pretty good idea of what these guys are like.
0 comments:
Post a Comment