The Gaslight Anthem
Sink Or Swim

THE REVIEW

Sincerity, in music, is a very subjective and much-debated quality that does not necessarily coincide with skill. Indeed, there are few artists who have both, and even fewer are the artists who, having both, achieve success.

These four musicians from New Jersey, however, are among the most sincere young artists I have heard in quite some time. Their debut album, "Sink Or Swim" (the English version of “O la va o la spacca”), with angry and gritty punk music and lyrics that pay homage – sometimes almost plagiarize – in a philological manner to the historical tradition of American songwriting, from Springsteen to Petty to Dylan to Waits to Creedence Clearwater Revival. The images, in particular, the stories of driving with old Cadillacs, diners open until dawn, and nighttime beach getaways recall the mythology of Springsteen's first three albums.

Let’s be clear, we are still looking at a rather unripe work, recorded with the urgency of a band that had found a specific sound and was eagerly longing to break into the scene; some songs, like Boomboxes and dictionaries or I’da called you Woody, Joe, a homage to the founder of the Clash, seem like fillers, and the song that closes the album, Red at night, is a bland country-folk tune that doesn't leave a mark.
However, in the middle section of the album, there is a beautiful selection of gems. From the nostalgia of We came to dance, which celebrates the death of rock and roll, to the explosive pain of 1930, dedicated to the singer's grandmother who died of Alzheimer's (You said "I love you more than the stars in the sky,/But your name just escapes me tonight."), to the Dantean darkness of The Navesink Banks, probably the most beautiful acoustic song the group has written so far, to the farewell of We’re getting a divorce, you keep the diner, which deserved to be the album’s closing track.

The singer doesn’t have a pitch-perfect voice, but despite his young age, it is hoarse and seasoned just right; the band is not composed of virtuosos, but the sound is tight and cohesive.

In conclusion, we are faced with an excellent debut album, despite some excesses and fillers, mistakes that the Gaslight Anthem have managed to refine in subsequent albums, perhaps losing a bit of the spontaneity that nevertheless continues to be one of their main qualities.