Brian Fallon of New Jersey punk band the Gaslight Anthem grew up in Springsteen Country — one of his boyhood homes was four blocks from E Street. The 30-year-old singer (and former carpenter) is at once totally earnest and supercharming — the type of guy who'd help you work on your car and then tell you his life story over a six-pack.

Gaslight's first two records were soulful punk albums that brought recovering emo kids and middle-aged dads into the fold. American Slang arrives with serious advance buzz: The choruses are more sculpted, but the band's tough-as-leather rush is as hard as ever, and Fallon howls so hard, he sounds like he's aiming to get a section of the Jersey Turnpike named after him.

Fallon's characters are the kind who often populate working-class anthems: "Boxer" is about a creative type who gets beaten up in the ring and in his head, and "The Queen of Lower Chelsea" is populated by desperate hustlers and rich girls losing themselves in the big city. American Slang can feel forced, as if Fallon is searching for meaning just beyond his fingertips. But when he attaches his howl to a first-class tune, he's unstoppable: "The Diamond Church Street Choir" is a bouncy number about the power of music with a touch of Billy Joel cheese. Like Fallon's best tunes, it treads the line between sublime and a little silly — and hits you right in the gut.

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.