THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM: Handwritten
Mercury Records, 41 minutes

Rating: 3/5

The Gaslight Anthem’s fourth album is called Handwritten. It was produced by Brendan O’Brien and features liner notes (remember those?) by Nick Hornby. It opens with a song called “45,” and features individual credits and photos for each band member on the cover.

Individually, these facts don’t mean a whole lot, but together they cry: real rock and roll! If your favourite music criticism comes from comment pages on Pearl Jam YouTube videos, here is your album of the year. Gaslight Anthem don’t sound like Pearl Jam, but they share the same sense of puritanism disguised as authenticity. What Gaslight forgets is that, at the end of the day, authenticity means jack to quality songwriting and that the most admired classic rock bands, from The Who to Led Zeppelin, Queen and Pink Floyd, got big by standing out from their peers, not living up to some imagined ideal of rock music.  

Handwritten isn’t a bad record, by its own limited standards, and frontman Brian Fallon’s snarling-yet-quivering vocals are anything but ordinary. Its cringe-worthy lyrics aside, “45” is a pretty slick tune and there’s a lot of power in the anthemic “Desire.” The requisite acoustic closer “National Anthem” fulfills its purpose well enough. The rest sticks too close to a formula. Tellingly, two covers on the album’s deluxe edition – Nirvana’s “Sliver” and Tom Petty’s “You Got Lucky” – are so faithful, it might qualify as copyright infringement.

DJ KENTARO: Contrast
Ninja Tune, 30 minutes
Rating: 3.5/5



Electronic music is currently enjoying its biggest commercial success since the late ‘90s, but that might have more to do with the marketing of artists – the outspoken deadmau5, populist Skrillex – than the music.

Because, truthfully, acclimating oneself to new electronic music can be a challenge for the average listener, and I include myself in that. I’ve gone through Contrast, DJ Kentaro’s first record in five years, several times and will admit its quality takes some patience to hear. It’s a brief but incredibly dense album, the sound constantly jumping and swerving like a TRON light-cycle race between your ears. Guests help ground the material – notably MC Zulu on “Big Timer” and Kid Koala on the lucid “Crossfader” – but it remains big and overwhelming, ultimately to great effect.

JESSE LABELLE: Two 

Wax Records, 34 minutes
Rating: 2.5/5

I.D. was a short-lived Canadian boy band best remembered for including nunchucks in its video dance routines. It also launched the career of Jesse Labelle, now a singer-songwriter, whose solo work struggles with pop affectation. He has a habit of writing strong melodies, then obscuring them to suit the worst radio clichés.

Check the contrast between the opening songs on his sophomore record Two: “Won’t Let You Down” is a chilly, almost minimalist declaration of love that builds steadily, with purpose. It follows with “Heartbreak Coverup” (subtitled ‘Radio Version’ on the album, through I doubt there’s a 10-minute dubstep remix kicking around), a cheesy slice of Top 40 bait with duelling ambitions of R&B crossover and stadium anthem potential. Because it’s obvious Labelle can write well, it’s unfortunate he seems so resistant to leaving these songs be, letting them breathe a little. With less studio interference “Moment That We Stop” and “There She Goes” might’ve stood out as strong cuts for an adult pop fanbase. Only “Kryptonite,” essentially Labelle alone with his piano, avoids distraction. In any case, Two must have had some great demos.