The Gaslight Anthem have shared a new single featuring Bruce Springsteen and announced their first album in nine years, ‘History Books’.
The New Jersey four-piece are due to release the 10-track record on October 27 via their own label Rich Mahogany Recordings – pre-order/pre-save it here. Following on from 2014’s ‘Get Hurt’, the upcoming collection was first previewed earlier this year with the song ‘Positive Charge’.
Today (July 21) sees the arrival of the title track from ‘History Books’, a “heavy-hearted” team-up with fellow New Jersey native Springsteen.
Speaking about how the single came about, Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon explained: “When Bruce Springsteen said I should write a duet for us, I think my head exploded.
“It will never get old to me that one of the greatest songwriters in the world, and the voice of one of my heroes will forever be captured in a song I wrote at a small wooden desk, in October, in New Jersey.”
Per a press release, the collaboration explores “the power in letting go of what no longer serves you”. Fallon added: “I think forgiveness is so important on so many levels, but I’ve learned that in some cases you need to cut ties with the people who’ve done you harm.”
The band have previously joined The Boss on tour and on stage numerous times, including during TGA’s set at Glastonbury 2009.
As for The Gaslight Anthem’s sixth studio album on the whole, Fallon said: “In some ways, each song is a history book – they each tell a story of the past, and all the things that we’ve left behind.”
The LP delves into “everything from mortality to mental illness to the more precarious dimensions of human connection” throughout, and “achieves the tremendous feat of hitting every raw nerve while endlessly inspiring wildly triumphant singing-along”.
Fallon has also expressed his appreciation for where The Gaslight Anthem find themselves in 2023. “When you have a band reach any level of success or popularity, that’s a gift,” he explained. “It’s truly a miracle to be able to do your art for a living.”
The frontman continued: “Having the band come this far and be able to still find inspiration and connection in our music is a treasure. We’re thrilled to be back, and we thank you for allowing us time to regroup.”
You can see the official cover artwork and full tracklist for ‘History Books’ below.
- ‘Spider Bites’
- ‘History Books’ (feat. Bruce Springsteen)
- ‘Autumn’
- ‘Positive Charge’
- ‘Michigan, 1975’
- ‘Little Fires’
- ‘The Weatherman’
- ‘Empires’
- ‘I Live In The Room Above Her’
- ‘A Lifetime Of Preludes’
The Gaslight Anthem are set to play a run of US headline shows throughout September and October. See the full schedule and find any remaining tickets here.
Fallon and co. went on hiatus in 2015 before reuniting in 2018 for a string of gigs to mark the 10th anniversary of their second album, ‘The ‘59 Sound’. They resumed their hiatus shortly afterwards, but confirmed in 2022 that they were back in the studio working on a new LP and announced a world tour.
In other news, Bruce Springsteen played two huge outdoor concerts in London this month as part of BST Hyde Park. Read NME‘s five-star review of the first gig here.
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