The Gaslight Anthem come back with History Books, an album of ten tracks that runs 40 minutes and trades youth for something quieter in feeling but plainer in sound. This is a band looking at growing older straight on, weighing memory against the weight of time passing. The old rock drive still runs, but the band lets it ease long enough for the songs to open up.
Side One: Spider Bites Through Michigan, 1975
Spider Bites opens the album with a full charge, all guitar and force, setting the tone before the title track, History Books, settles into something more measured and direct. Autumn passes by without much friction. Positive Charge picks the energy back up, a song built for a full room to sing along with. Michigan, 1975 closes the first half with a clear sense of place and memory that grounds the record instead of leaving it vague.
Side Two: Little Fires and What Follows
Little Fires is the clear high point of the second half, a song that finds the exact balance the whole record is chasing between pain and hope. The Weatherman and Empires follow along the same path without matching that height, solid but a little worn in their chorus writing. I Live in the Room Above turns further toward the quiet mood the album favors throughout. A Lifetime of Preludes ends things on a soft note, closing the book gently rather than shutting it hard.
What the Reviews Said
Classic Rock Magazine praised the record’s mix of hard rock energy and deep feeling, noting the presence of much hurt and hope alongside the band’s familiar drive. One Metacritic critic called the album a major success, calling its handling of life and death both clever and deeply felt, and fitting for this moment.
Metacritic has the album at 76. Both scores on record point the same way: a strong record with no serious complaints against it.
The Numbers
| Source | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 76/100 |
| Second review score | 70/100 |
Verdict
History Books works because The Gaslight Anthem stopped trying to be the band they were and started writing as the band they are now. Little Fires, Positive Charge, History Books, Spider Bites and Michigan, 1975 carry the record, and they carry it well. The weaker songs — The Weatherman, Empires — never bring things down, they just sit in the middle without adding much. At 40 minutes, the record ends before it grows dull.
This is a mature return to form. It keeps the passion that built the band’s name while adding a care in the writing that was not always there before. The chorus formula shows up more than once, and it is the one real mark against an otherwise strong record.
- Spider Bites4:19
- History Books3:53
- Autumn4:01
- Positive Charge4:06
- Michigan, 19754:15
- Little Fires3:25
- The Weatherman4:27
- Empires4:23
- I Live in the Room Above4:17
- A Lifetime of Preludes3:18
