Released as CD, Download, 2LP (45RPM), and in the USA 2LP (Deluxe Edition on Translucent Red Vinyl with 12 Art Prints)
Listen To Sleepwalkers Here:
Tracklist
A1 If Your Prayers Don't Get To Heaven 4:11 A2 Forget Me Not 3:49 A3 Come Wander With Me 3:58 B1 Etta James 4:50 B2 Her Majesty's Service 4:21 B3 Proof Of Life 3:48 C1 Little Nightmares 4:34 C2 Sleepwalkers 3:47 C3 My Name Is The Night (Color Me Black) 3:49 D1 Neptune 5:21 D2 Watson 4:21 D3 See You On The Other Side 4:05
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The second Solo Album from Brian Fallon I think is actually better than the first (Painkillers - 2015) and actually reminds me of the band he fronted (before going solo), The Gaslight Anthem (who have been on hiatus since 2015 but have been reactivated for some up and coming shows, see more below).
I won't say anything more about the album except that I really do like it a lot and I prefer to let the music speak for itself, so go on and have a listen (and if you want reviews there are some links down below). I highly recommend the album, and the fact that it's on my blog is clear enough that it must be good!
Brian Fallon Talks About New Music and The Gaslight Anthem Reunion with New Jersey 101.5
After a three year hiatus following the release and tour for their last album Get Hurt in 2015, The Gaslight Anthem are returning to play some shows to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the release of their most successful (saleswise) album The '59 Sound. Dates for the Tour you can find by CLICKING HERE.
Like many I was slightly disappointed with the last album by The Gaslight Anthem (Get Hurt), they seemed to be on some kind of spiral with every album getting poorer. I don't know why that was but maybe they had needed a break from the old routine or record, tour, record, tour..
Brian Fallon had actually begun writing some of the songs that appear on his debut solo album Painkillers prior to the recording of Get Hurt but put them to one side to focus on The Gaslight Anthem. Apparently he thought the songs would not fit with the direction that GA were going. It's a shame because some of these do actually sound that they would fit with GA and they are certainly a lot better than what ended up on the Get Hurt album.
Following the public announcement of a hiatus for The Gaslight Anthem in July last year Fallon entered the studio in Nashville and began laying tracks down for his his solo record.
Reviews for the album thus far have seemed quite favourable and I'm looking forward to hearing the whole album in its context rather than the plucking out a track here and there. Five of the twelve tracks have been released thus far with the title track being the latest just a couple of days ago.
I do wish they would stop comparing him to Springsteen though!
Two of the finest tributes to Joe Strummer and The Clash can be found in the first two songs. First one is from the Guitar and Drum album by Belfast's Stiff Little Fingers and the second from Sink or Swim, the Debut album of New Jersey's The Gaslight Anthem.
The third song in this little trio of tribute is by New Orleans based band Cowboy Mouth. It's actually a bit of a giggle about having to dump a girlfriend because she didn't know who Joe Strummer was!
The Gaslight Anthem are an American rock band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, formed in 2006. The band consists of Brian Fallon (lead vocals, guitar), Alex Rosamilia (guitar, backing vocals), Alex Levine (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Benny Horowitz (drums, percussion).
The Gaslight Anthem released their debut album, Sink or Swim, on XOXO Records in May 2007, and their second album, The '59 Sound, on SideOneDummy Records in August 2008. The band's third album, American Slang, was released in June 2010, and their fourth, Handwritten, was released in July 2012 through Mercury Records. The band's fifth full-length studio album, Get Hurt, was released on August 12, 2014, through Island Records.
Click on the links to enjoy the sound of The Gaslight Anthem.
Deciding on a comprehensive list of Debut Albums is no easy matter, I had intially thought of doing a Top 50 but clearly when my list reached over 200 that was clearly out of the question! So, what I thought I'd do is post maybe a couple at a time and try and say a few words about each one.
This then is post #1 in a series that might run for a wee while due mainly to the fact that there are so many great Debut Albums out there. I have puposefully decided to include only albums that have been released in my lifetime (1963 onwards), that sadly discounts a number of artist debuts like Johnny Cash, The Crickets, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, Eddie Cochran etc but does not take away the impressive array of LP's that have made their mark on me in one way or another over the course of what is almost 52 years of life. Of course, I wasn't buying albums when I was a little kid but once my love for music was set these are some of the things that excited me. I recognize that other people's choices will be vastly different to mine and so what I have also decided to do is to put out a couple of notices on a few FB groups and my own FB page to find out what my friends and other folks reckoned their favourite Debut Album was. In the coming few months I hope to do a number of posts focusing on some of their choices, allowing them the opportunity to share a few words about their picks. Already I have been quite excited at some of their choices and cannot wait to share them with you, the readers of this Soundtrack4Life Blog. As per usual click on the links to enjoy the music. If I'm unable to find a link for a complete album I will at least try to provide a couple of links to tracks from the specific album.
I hope that you will enjoy this series and maybe discover something that might be new to your own ears. Feel free as well to leave a comment sharing what your favourite Debut Albums are, you never know, I might be contacting you at some point to share a few words about your choices!
Enough warbling on, it's time, as The Doobie Brothers say, to 'Listen To The Music'.
I included above the Reissue of Buzzcocks' Debut Album mainly because there are so many fantastic extra tracks from Studio Sessions recorded for John Peel, Demos, Live Material, and Singles and B-Sides from the time that are worth listening to as well. The album was released on 10th March 1978 on United Artists.
The Original Tracklist
"Fast Cars" (Howard Devoto, Steve Diggle, Pete Shelley) – 2:26 "No Reply" (Shelley) – 2:16 "You Tear Me Up" (Devoto, Shelley) – 2:27 "Get on Our Own" (Shelley) – 2:26 "Love Battery" (Devoto, Shelley) – 2:09 "Sixteen" (Shelley) – 3:38 "I Don't Mind" (Shelley) – 2:18 "Fiction Romance" (Shelley) – 4:27 "Autonomy" (Diggle) – 3:43 "I Need" (Diggle, Shelley) – 2:43 "Moving Away from the Pulsebeat" (Shelley) – 7:06
The first thing about the album that is quite apparent is that there is no more Howard Devoto, he had left the band not long after the release of their Debut EP 'Spiral Scratch' and Pete Shelly took over vocal duties. Also by time the album had come around bassist Garth (who had appeared on their major label Debut Single 'Orgasm Addict') had also gone (fired for his unreliability).
The band of Pete Shelly (Guitar and Vocals), Steve Diggle (Guitar and Vocals), Steve Garvey (Bass) and John Maher (Drums and Vocals) is considered to be the classic line-up of Buzzcocks.
What set Buzzcocks apart from the likes of The Clash, The Damned and The Sex Pistols was there was a real edge of Pop Sensibility and on 'Another Music...' you can hear that right from the opening bass line of 'Fast Cars' to the crashing drums of 'Moving Away From The Pulsebeat'.They also managed to maintain a punky edge with the likes of 'No Reply', 'You Tear Me Up', 'Love Battery' and 'I Need'.
If I was doing a chart of my favourite Debut Albums this would easily be in the Top Ten.
Almost thirty years later comes the next choice for one of the Best Debut Albums:
The Gaslight Anthem
Sink or Swim
Released 29th May 2007
XOXO
Tracklist 1. "Boomboxes and Dictionaries" 3:11 2. "I Coul'da Been a Contender" 3:22 3. "Wooderson" 2:11 4. "We Came to Dance" 3:34 5. "1930" (Fallon, Rosamilia, Levine, Horowitz, Mike Volpe) 3:48 6. "The Navesink Banks" 2:48 7. "Red in the Morning" 2:51 8. "I'da Called You Woody, Joe" 3:21 9. "Angry Johnny and the Radio" 3:00 10. "Drive" 2:55 11. "We're Getting a Divorce, You Keep the Diner" 3:11 12. "Red at Night" 3:07
It's a common mistake to attribute 'The '59 Sound' as the Debut Album of The Gaslight Anthem, that's mainly due to the fact that they seemed to garner a lot more attention when they signed to SideOneDummyRecords in 2008 and they appeared to be everywhere from Magazines, Festivals, TV and on the Radio. Whilst that album is worthy of a lot of the praise heaped upon it, listeners miss out so much when they bypass the actual Debut, 'Sink or Swim'.
It's unsual for a band to Produce their Debut Album themselves but GA did just that alongside Josh Jakubowski. Twelve slices of New Jersey life. One website said, that this is "the type of record that most young bands wish they could create to launch their musical career." I totally agree, this album has it all, fantastic hooks, punk rock guitars, emotionally charged lyrics and it's almost like a manifesto that is shout to one and all that The Gaslight Anthem are a band who mean business. The same website also went on to say, "This is one of those incredible albums that leaves you wanting more..."
Enjoy, looking forward to sharing some more and as I mentioned before I'm also excited to share some choices from various other folks as well.
I
sat down a couple of nights ago and listened to all of the albums by The
Gaslight Anthem becasue I was trying to figure out how the new album 'Get
Hurt' fitted as part of their musical puzzle. What I discovered was
that each album is really a seperate puzzle and comparing the albums to each other doesn't really work so well, because they are all actually very different from each other (though of course the critics would say they are very much the same). The
other thing, it's easy to go with the flow of what critics say and
believe that GA, and especially Brian Fallon, have lost their way. But in doing
that we tend to forget a very vital thing: It's no easy matter coming up
with 10 songs (let alone the 16 that are on the Deluxe Edition of 'Get
Hurt') - if we think it's that easy maybe we need to ask Bono and crew
why it's been five years since the last U2 album! One
of the keys to this new album is the songwriting. Fallon seems to have
gone through a whole heap of valleys and heartache and personal hurt and
he's opened wide his heart and made himself vulnerable (not easy for
any man to do by the way) as he has put pen to paper. The results might
not be pretty in our eyes but one of the principal reasons people write
particular types of songs is to firstly be able to unburden their own hearts (some say it's cathartic) and then in
some small way hope that the songs, once the music has been added, are
able to connect with the listener.
(Just as an aside let me give you a great example of this. Earlier this year Stiff Little Fingers released a long awaited new album entitled 'No Going Back' and on it was a song 'My Dark Places'. Here's what Jake had to say about it in an interview with Cracking Vinyl:
The title of ‘My Dark Places’ paints a grave enough picture, as Jake goes on to explain.
“I went through a period of deep personal depression after I’d gotten
divorced and moved out, and you think you’re over the worst of it. I
thought I’d gotten through the whole thing pretty unscathed.”
However, things soon went downhill. “I think once you’re
actually a wee bit distant from whole thing, the enormity of it all
kinda hits you, and I did withdraw into myself and did hide away. I
wasn’t fun to be around.”
While being therapeutic for Burns, the song in question has also reached out and helped a lot of their fans.
“It seems to have helped a lot of people because, for some with this
depression business, there’s this weird stigma about it. People think
that you’re in some way impaired because you’ve gone through this and
don’t want to talk about it in public.”
That song, an experience of Jake's own life, made a connection and still continues to make a connection in the lives of listeners.) So,
with the new album I was a little fearful because after hearing a few
tracks I didn't get it and wasn't convinced I was going to like it but on hearing the last song on the Deluxe
Version ('Have Mercy') a connection was made. I think Fallon would say
that his job has been done! My
problem though is that I feel I want to connect with all the songs (and I'm sure you feel the same way also, especially as you are laying down your heard earned cash for the album in the format of your choice) but that
rarely happens and maybe that's why we struggle with Fallon and Co at
times because we can't always find ourselves in his lyrics. But I'm sure
if we listen and look hard enough then we will find one that jumps into
our heart and soul like a lightening bolt.
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