Three out of four ain’t bad. The Gaslight Anthem’s follow-up EP to their super-duper 2007 full-length Sink or Swim (XOXO) retreads much of the same grizzled, Jersey punk their fans have come to love. It works most of the time. The EP’s title track, however, sounds like a watered-down, hastily-written and recorded version of their stronger material. The “shake shake shake shake shake senora” comes too close to the triteness of Fall Out Boy telling everyone to “dance dance.”

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Luckily, the rest of the EP more than makes up for that slight error in judgment. “Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis?” has a great background vocal line and build, and is one of the band’s catchiest. “Say I Won’t (Recognize)” conjures up images of a sweaty kid swinging from water pipes in a dingy Jersey basement show. In fact, if that song were played in a basement in New Brunswick, it would be declared ‘The Most Jersey Moment Of All Time.’

For the closing track, The Gaslight Anthem slows it down a notch and does their best Springsteen impression. Delicate, female backing vocals create a nice contrast to the vocals of Brian “I gargle with Jack and gravel in the morning” Fallon. “Blue Jeans and White T-Shirts” might be one of the best songs about being very young and stupid that I’ve ever heard. It might sound like they belong in a Livejournal tagline, but boy, do these lyrics bring a nostalgic tear to my eye; “We sing with our heroes, thirty three rounds per minute / we’re never going home until the sun says we’re finished / I’ll love you forever if I ever love at all / wild hearts, blue jeans and white t-shirts.” Sigh.

Tags: Album Review, The Gaslight Anthem, record review //