Brian Fallon & The Painkillers

With his new album ‘Not Bad for New Jersey’, singer/songwriter Brian Fallon doubles down on the defiant romanticism that’s always fueled his songwriting, resisting any impulse to grow more guarded with time.

Before bringing his fifth solo LP to life, the Gaslight Anthem frontman returned to the fatalistic love songs that rewired his brain as a child—moody radio mainstays authored by rock icons deep into their second act, voiced by wild-eyed dreamers he alternately refers to as “beautiful losers” and “desperate lunatics.” As he assembled a set of songs populated by characters who love too hard and risk too much, Fallon built up a body of work that charges forward with a reckless momentum: the singular internal motion of someone who’s been knocked off course more than once but still chooses to believe, refusing to surrender to cynicism’s easy gravity.

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