Episode 259 - Sink or Swim by The Gaslight Anthem

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Much like Lil Kim, we announced our intention to do an episode on The Gaslight Anthem some time ago. But alas, it did not transpire, and it festered for a wee bit, hung over us, filled us with dread. But we’ve now finally exorcised it from our system with the help of emo scholar Marisa Androvik.

Despite coming from the very fertile New Jersey punk and emo scene in the late 00s, The Gaslight Anthem sound nothing like their peers. On the album we’re covering this week, you may very well get hints of Hot Water Music. Perhaps also Alkaline Trio. As far as contemporary points of reference go, that’s about as many as you’ll find. 

For musicians from New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen looms large. Usually, artists will faintly acknowledge it, merely nod to it. Never embrace it. Unlike those bands The Gaslight Anthem wear the influence of The Boss firmly on their sleeve. Indeed, it is one of the defining features of their sound.

But it’s not as pronounced on their first album, 2007’s Sink or Swim. The influence of Bruce Springsteen can certainly be heard, but it’s not as apparent as it would later go on to become.

Only a year after their debut album the band released their second record, The ‘59 Sound. Their sound had shifted, they leaned more into their heartland rock/Jersey Shore Sound influences. They became much more evident but not overdone (well, depending on who you ask of course), and their trajectory changed. Rapidly.

Once The Boss himself had gotten wind of the band, their star began to ascend at speed. In the albums that would follow (with the exception of their fifth album, 2014’s Get Hurt) they began to incorporate more of Springsteen’s varied influences, not just writing the big obvious rock bangers that he did, but augmenting their sound with elements with the of soul, RnB which always peppered his music. They also added in Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and a sprinkling of Social Distortion to boot. 

As the acclaim, and the record sales, and the size of their tours, began to grow, eventually Mercury Records came calling and what followed were two big rock records. It was the latter of the two, the aforementioned confused and confusing Get Hurt, that led that band to announce a hiatus in 2015, shortly after its release.

As of 2022 they’re now a “full time band” again. What does the future hold? Well, with a new album in their sights, perhaps they can improve on the misfire of their last record and craft something closer to the soaring radio rock of 2012’s Handwritten.

Or maybe they’ll go all the way back to the source and become a punk band again like they were on their debut album, which is the subject of this very episode. Who's to say. In the end, only one question really matters - is Sink or Swim an unsung classic? You decide.