Get Hurt (album)

Writing

The band announced on July 4, 2013, via their Tumblr site, that they were "Working on new songs for a new Gaslight Anthem album in 2014." Fallon cites Pearl Jam's No Code album as an influence and inspiration for the album.

In an interview with Rolling Stone published May 23, 2014, Fallon described the album as "completely different than anything we had ever done before. Instead of going that extra step of just adding some organ or some background vocals, this time we actually really changed up a lot of the sounds."

In a posting on the band's official website fans were informed to "Get ready for some things you've never heard this band do!"

Recording

On March 10, 2014, the band entered Blackbird Studios in Nashville, TN to record their fifth studio album. The band stated on April 14 that they had arrived at the "last week in the studio" of recording the album.

Promotion

On June 16, 2014, the title of the album was announced as Get Hurt. A teaser video was released on the same day that provided a snippet of a new song that featured a hard-rock sound.

In support of the album, the band has scheduled tour dates across North America and Europe during the summer and fall of 2014. Various dates include other artists such as Jimmy Eat World, Against Me!, Bayside, and Deer Tick. Festival stops at Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Ottawa Folk Festival are also part of the band's dates.

On August 5, 2014, the entire album was made available to stream via iTunes Radio.

On August 18, 2014, the band performed "Get Hurt" on Late Night with David Letterman.

Singles

The lead single from the album, "Rollin' and Tumblin'", was released on July 1, 2014. The second single, "Get Hurt", was released on July 8, 2014. The third single, "Stay Vicious", was released on July 28, 2014.

Album

Get Hurt was released in the UK on August 11, 2014, through Virgin EMI, and in the United States on August 12, 2014, through Island Records.

The album was originally scheduled to be released one week later than its eventual release date.

Critical reception

Get Hurt has received mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, they assign a "weighted average" rating out of 100 to selected independent ratings and reviews from mainstream critics, and the album has received a Metascore of a 62, based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

Writing for Absolute Punk, Craig Manning states: "It’s disheartening that the album isn’t the game-changing record Fallon promised, and it’s too bad that it doesn’t have the thesis-statement cohesion of albums like The 59 Sound and American Slang. But the songs are still great, the production is still excellent, and the performances of the band members have rarely been in finer form." Clash magazine's Mischa Pearlman rated the album seven out of ten, calling it "rock ‘n’ roll of the purest kind." Tim Jonze of The Guardian gave the album two stars out of five and writes "Get Hurt is nothing but the same old overblown rock sound with every dial turned up several digits past 11." Gregory Heaney of AllMusic rated the album four stars out of five, writing "Get Hurt shows that so long as they're passionate about their music, it doesn't matter where the band are getting their inspiration from, because genuinely caring about something is always compelling."

Chart performance

Get Hurt debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 33,000 copies in its first week. The album also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Albums chart, No. 4 on the Digital Albums chart, No. 2 on the Top Rock Albums chart and No. 1 on the Tastemaker Albums chart.

Track listing

All tracks written by Brian Fallon, Alex Rosamilia, Alex Levine, and Benny Horowitz, except where noted.

Personnel

Credits adapted from AllMusic: