The Gaslight Anthem – The 59 Sound Sessions

The Gaslight Anthem had all the highs and lows of a basement band’s rise to fame and fall from grace all in under a decade, eventually announcing a hiatus while frontman Brian Fallon entered his career as a solo artist.  While their lesser known debut album, Sink or Swim, truly alerted the underground to their presence, it wasn’t until the band joined SideOneDummy Records that they realized their potential as nostalgic dreamers.

The 59 Sound introduced the world to a modern, punked-up version of Springsteen-esque storytelling and musicianship.  During this era the band lived in two worlds: they hung on to the world of underground shows and hole-in-the-wall performances, while transitioning into the world of rising fame and billboard popularity.  In celebration of the album’s tenth anniversary, the band has released a nine-song retrospective of pre-studio tracks, originally recorded in one day, that would lay the foundation for the iconic sounds now remembered fondly.

Dubbed The 59 Sound Sessions, The Gaslight Anthem provide fans with an inside look into the studio evolution of one of this generation’s most cherished gems, both sonically and visually, accompanied by a full sixty page photo album, complete with liner notes and the band’s personal reflections and memories. As should become obvious early on, The 59 Sound Sessions is no replacement for the studio album, but rather a gift to the fans.

The 59 Sound Sessions is characterized by its identity as a collection of rough cuts and works in progress, with the heart of a band destined for greatness.  All of the tracks exist at different placed along the continuum, with some displaying minor differences, while others clearly had yet to undergo significant evolutions.  The title track, along with “Patient Ferris Wheel,” feel closest to the final products, only with less production and mixing, preserving more of the “live” sound you’d expect from a product with the name “sessions” in the title.  They lack the old-timey vocal distortion, and as is perhaps most clear in “Mile Daves & the Cool,” which is faithful in execution, but which channels a rougher delivery. Imagine if the band has stayed on XOXO Records and maintained a sound closer to Sink or Swim, and you should get the general idea.

Other tracks are less recognizable, and perhaps stand to tickle the curiosity of long time fans even more.  For instance, “High Lonesome” features an entirely different chorus, leaving out the iconic imagery of “Maria” from “Nashville,” while “Great Expectations” contains a chorus that had yet to include little backing vocal flourishes like the brief but singable ”dadadada-dadadada” section of the chorus.  Meanwhile, “Placeholder” serves as a very early, and only mildly recognizable version of “White Lincoln” that once again, would feel right in place on Sink or Swim.  

As the band reflects in the liner notes, writing a hallmark album is never a sure thing, rather “It’s a virtual stew of variables… personalities, discovering your sound and capabilities, family, timing, ambition, expectations, health, money, goals and, of course, straight-up dumb luck.”  If The 59 Sound Sessions were an essay, this would be the thesis of which The Gaslight Anthem’s retrospective  has supported very well.