Two more things to love about the new Gaslight Anthem album

Handwritten, the album that the Gaslight Anthem released last Tuesday, has been on heavy rotation for me since I received it.  I've recommended it before, and I do so again, but here I wanted to draw your attention to two nifty facets of it.

The first is, oddly enough, the liner notes intro, which Nick Hornby wrote.  (If you don't know Hornby's work, get busy and read some.)  In particular, I love this bit, in which he's discussing how you write--the advice applies to songs or books or whatever, though here he's talking about songs and music--in a world in which it's all been done before.

...you think, write, play and sing as though you have a right to stand at the head of a long line of cool people - you recognise that the Clash and Little Richard got here first, but they're not around any more, so you're going to carry on the tradition, and you're going to do it in your own voice, and with as much conviction and authenticity and truth as you can muster.

The second is this bit from the title track:

There's nothing like another soul that's been cut up the same.
And did you wanna drive without a word in-between?
I can understand, you need a minute to breath.
And to sew up the seams...after all this defeat.

Yes.

Do not miss this album.