New Jersey rockers The Gaslight Anthem return on July 24 with “Handwritten,” their first album since 2010″s fine “American Slang.”
The set, the group”s fourth album-but first for Mercury Records- was produced by Brendan O”Brien, who has also helmed records for the band”s hero, Bruce Springsteen, as well as Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots.
The band will be previewing new material from the album starting with a show at Brooklyn”s Music Hall on May 16 and Lost Angeles”s Roxy on May 18, with a number of festival dates, including Bamboozle, Metallica’s Orion Festival, and Lollapalooza, to follow.
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Advance track “45,” available on iTunes on May 8 is a rollicking slab of rock about moving on, or as the song refers to it: “Turn the record over…see you on the flip side.” It uses the vinyl analogy (for those too young to remember, you used to turn albums over) to address moving on from a relationship. It’s clear that moving from an indie to a major hasn’t diminished their raw, shaggy power.
Band leader Brian Fallon tells Rolling Stone, “This song felt to us like we still had something to say in the long line of rock & roll tradition.” The song was one of the first tunes written for “Handwritten” and helped set the tone. “It made the path clear as to what we should do next,” he said. “Sometimes you just have to leave thing behind…turn the record over.”