Handwritten.

I'm by no means a music reviewer, music is something I enjoy but I know fuck all about. However to me Handwritten is truly special and one album I would feel wrong for not talking about so I hope you enjoy! (also reading this back, this is possibly the most pretentious and uneducated review I have ever written, I just love this album).

As a student I go to clubs, I have friends doing all sorts of courses with all sorts of tastes, so I end up being exposed to a lot of music and as much as I hate to admit it, a lot of it simply washes over me, there is so much of it that it all starts to bleed into each other. I go through a lot of albums where I half listen to it once and don't bother listening to it again, through albums where one track happens to stick out so I stick with that one and abandon the rest or albums I largely forget about and discover sometimes years later but really what I mean by all this is despite calling myself a music fan my music 'collection' on my phone, is basically one long playlist, a scattering of artists across basically every genre with very little of it listened too, I am not an album guy, I'm a singles guy. However The Gaslight Anthem, the artist behind 'Handwritten' is a band I completely stumbled across by accident. I'm not a guy who listens to the radio so I had no idea these guys were huge. I knew nothing about the band then and still know very little about them now. Keep that in mind if you're expecting me to really talk about them in any detail. I'm here for the music man, you should be too.

 I heard '"45"' the opening single on their album and it was a song that appealed to me on almost every level from basically the first chord. I had to have this album, I just knew it. I began playing through the album, used to my usual disappointments when exploring an album that surrounds the great single I discover in the first place however it almost immediately grabbed my attention.

Music is something that always accompanies something else for me, but as '"45"' moved into the self titled track 'Handwritten' and that moved into 'Here Comes My Man' I had dropped everything. I was transfixed in that way you get when a woman walks past with a truly beautiful bottom. Except this time my ears were getting the treat for once, not my eyes. I didn't want anything distracting me.

I sat there for the entirety of the album simply listening, absorbing and doing nothing else. I did something I never did, I gave the album my exclusive attention. It's easy to do too, considering that this is one of the few albums I've heard that has clear structure. It builds and builds and builds, exploding with 'Keepsake' and the dust doesn't really settle until it hits the track 'Desire' where the whole thing begins to slow into its beautiful finish. It's like being fucked by a Goddess.

Days passed without listening to it again but every day that passed without a listen didn't even really count because the album looped around in my head, snippets of lyrics and hums of tunes kept escaping my lips, my brain was absolutely obsessed and so I had to give the album another listen. Once again, from start to finish with my exclusive attention, I couldn't help it.

And the second time, it was even better. Songs that I originally felt were weak aspects to the album, upon a second listen, showed me all these charming aspects to themselves I never noticed the first time around. And although I won't say I love every song equally, every song had at least one part that I adored. And once again, I turned off the album and this time I didn't even give it a day, with the album like a muscle memory, I'd stop playing it but it'd continue roaring in my head in all its glory.

I didn't bother with writing this, not at first, but weeks passed and my love never faded. I tried to listen to other music for fear of growing bored of the album but I had to keep going back to it. I had withdrawals almost the moment I stopped the album, it was like my brain was punishing me for not listening to it by playing my favourite moment of every track in my head on repeat until I was forced to sing it out loud in a way that does the music no justice at all, diving me back in for another listen. And on each listen, I would fear the album would grow tiresome but no, I kept falling into an even deeper love. If this was a woman, I'd have proposed by now.

Honestly, I cannot tell you what it really is about Handwritten that appeals to me on every single level. Maybe it's the way they manage to make big, epic, heartfelt rock songs without sounding insincere or corny. It's this beautiful blend of music that sounds like it belongs in a stadium with the heart and honesty of a kid who just wants to write songs about his ex and pluck on some acoustic strings. The kind of depressing musical content artists are quick to wallow in, have The Gaslight Anthem telling everyone in the room to jump around. And you dance and you're smiling, while the memories of past heartbreaks are leaving tracks on your cheeks but as melodramatic as it is, The Gaslight Anthem understand you and that is exactly why they are both making you face the pain and thrash all of it out of your fingers and your toes while doing it. They want to tackle those classic stories of heartbreak but don't want to leave you a crying mess, they aren't here to hurt but to heal. Plus, and I guess above all this pretentious bullshit, Handwritten is grunge without the shitty production values that they hold so dear for some reason.

One of the biggest joys of the album has to be Brian Fallon. As a guy who has friends who play bass and drums, I know how annoying it is when people key into vocals specifically and forget there is a whole other band behind them. And I can assure everyone, the whole band do a fantastic job. Alex Rosamilia gets some awesome solos and Levine and Horowitz control and guide the piece beautifully but Fallon's vocals just really stick out for me. Not only does he sound deeply attached and like he is thoroughly enjoying singing his handwritten lyrics about his own life, he sounds like Eddie Vedder. And Pearl Jam are one of the most important bands in the shaping of my music taste. And the Pearl Jam sound is unsurprising considering who produced this and that they are one of Fallon's favourite bands.

So do I recommend it? Handwritten is like heroin in music form and I am a junkie and a half. I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to end this review, I need another fix. The Gaslight Anthem made very different music before this album, so I won't ever be claiming them my new favourite band but this is by far my new favourite album and I gave this a month of solid playing before I admitted that, so I know it wasn't just a phase. This album deserves your attention, utterly and completely.

Think About It!

-Locke