Handwritten

On Monday I did get around to listening to one of my new albums, Handwritten by The Gaslight Anthem - and have listened to it a couple more times since for good measure.

As a genre it's hard to correctly categorise, but after much thought I decided to term it wistful rock. It lacks the cutting edge of much of indie music nowadays, while also resisting the opposite indie pole, the tendancy to sink into mournful whining. The album is a confident echo of their most recent two offerings, The '59 Sound and American Slang, and many songs sound as if they could be direct continuations picked up from their predecessors.

Their sound is a comfortable, subtler ensemble - the nostalgic guitar parts in Keepsake, Mae (added to the long list of tracks named after a girl) and the title track Handwritten are particularly striking, while the lyrics are strong throughout, channelling simple, down-to-earth themes, and conjuring up an easy-to-relate-to mid-century small town America. It's this as much as the music that makes you feel their roots in Dylan, Springsteen and a nod to the blues tradition.

The only complaints are the length - at 11 tracks it feels shorter than the 41 minutes that it runs for, and that it mostly stays in its comfort zone - a solid basis, but it doesn't stretch much further than their previous albums and could almost be packaged as an expansion pack for them.

Well worth a listen.