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http://www.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/9eca25331852c2d731751e971149b579b7c71953.jpg Elsie

The Horrible Crowes

Elsie

SideOneDummy
Rolling Stone: star rating
Community: star rating
5 3.5 0
September 6, 2011

Click to listen to The Horrible Crowes' album 'Elsie'

On this side project, Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon trades his main band's Springsteenian punk for pianos and ballad choruses - moving up the East Coast corridor not far from Billy Joel country. Fallon drops his trademark cheap-scotch growl to a whisper, singing about loneliness ("Cherry Blossoms") and missed opportunities ("Blood Loss"). The songs are more subdued, but he doesn't skimp on conviction, often playing the patron saint of hard-luck cases (including his own). And while this is sometimes just a softfocus version of Gaslight's bruised romanticism, his weathered tenderness makes it stick. "Did you say you were afraid of dying?/I ain't lived a single day without you," he sings on "I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together." Call it corny - in his broken timbre, it's sad-sack gospel.

Related:
Gaslight Anthem Singer Goes Cinematic with Horrible Crowes

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