The Gaslight Anthem - The Backseat [Single]

Side One Dummy

September 10, 2009, 03:21 PM

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We're on familiar ground here with The Gaslight Anthems latest single from their breakthrough '59 Sound' album. I can't mention this song (and this band) without bringing up the obvious Springsteen influence, it's just too obvious and all encompassing to ignore. What The Gaslight Anthem have managed though is to not only strip back the E-Street bands bombastic sound, but they have also updated it just enough so it rings true with a modern, young audience. The Killers tried this on their 'Sam's Town' album but that record had much more variety and a larger demographic to please, this is essentially as close as you're going to get to a modern day 'Born To Run'.

The sound is open, crisp and clean with the slight delay and space on singer Brain Fallon's voice lending the song a wider tonal range than just crunch and pound. 'The Backseat' lacks the powerhouse chorus of the album's title track but it has a much larger scope, with a defiant swagger that would sound as at home in a football stadium as it would blasting out of a dusty old car stereo. The bridge pulls the obvious trick of building us back into the final chorus but it works, it gives the song a tremendous emotional heft and it's hard to deny a cliché if it works so well.

A good song then that sounds great as the last song in the context of the album, as a stand-alone single though it never really delivers that killer hook. I'd definitely recommend you check out the album if this song sparks your interest.

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