The Gaslight Anthem Let Go of the Past on History Books

Brian Fallon’s music has always had a nostalgic streak. His work fronting the Gaslight Anthem is full of signifiers of bygone days set alongside a yearning for a time when everything seemed simpler, before love fractured, friends died too soon and dreams withered. The band addressed those topics with the urgent fervor of youth, pushing the tempo on propulsive songs stacked with punk-rock power chords and a certain wringing emotionalism. Yet the nature of nostalgia shifts with age. The past doesn’t always seem so rosy when time seems to accelerate and our impermanence becomes ever more obvious.

Now 43, Fallon appears to have reached that point on the Gaslight Anthem’s latest, History Books, the band’s first new album since Get Hurt in 2014. Though he hasn’t completely shaken off the temptation to revel in the aching memory of a fleeting embrace, he’s more willing to stay rooted in the here and now. There’s still plenty of struggle in these 10 songs: Though it’s often freeing, letting go of the past isn’t always easy. That’s the subtext of the title track, a disillusioned brush-off to those who would drag you back to what you were in a less enlightened moment. It’s vintage Gaslight Anthem, with taut, chugging guitars and vocals that build from a murmur to full-throated. Bruce Springsteen sings some of them in a guest spot that closes the circle on all those comparisons the Gaslight Anthem has grown accustomed to over the past 15 years.

Elsewhere, the band’s approach is more measured. The guitars are still big and brawny on “Autumn,” but the song is unhurried as Fallon muses on the transience of our brief turn upon the stage. “I hate the way that time goes / Crashing over like a steamroller / I wish I could do my life over / I’d be young better now,” he sings. Though Fallon often sings as if he has wrenched every lyric out of his own experience, not all of his songs are autobiographical. “Michigan, 1975,” takes its inspiration from Jeffrey Eugenides’ 1993 novel The Virgin Suicides, with guitar parts that turn in a slow circle, almost like an old-fashioned music box.

The bombast is back on “Little Fires,” a gnashing fast-paced rocker that Fallon sings in a full-throated rasp while a barrage of guitars and drums churn around him. Overall, though, the tone on History Books is less frenetic and more reflective. It’s the work of a band that has arguably outgrown the fiery intensity of youth without losing the passion that made the Gaslight Anthem so compelling in the first place.

Read our recent feature with Brian Fallon here.

Eric R. Danton has been contributing to Paste since 2013. His work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe and Pitchfork, among other publications. Follow him on Mastodon or visit his website.