Bruce Springsteen: HE GASLIGHT ANTHEM will return to the studio after a nearly decade-long break on October 27 with the release of their sixth album, History Books. On the title track, which you can hear right now, however, Bruce Springsteen joins them.
“When Bruce Springsteen said I should write a duet for us, I think my head exploded,” Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon says in a statement. “It will never get old to me that one of the greatest songwriters in the world, and one of my hero’s voices, will forever be captured in a song I wrote at a small wooden desk, in October, in New Jersey.”
“We’d like to recharge and take a step back until we have something we feel excited about rather than going right back to making a record just for the sake of making the next record,” the band wrote in a statement. “We all feel this is the best decision we can make and it feels like the right one for us.”
They reformed in the summer of 2018 for a brief tour to commemorate the tenth anniversary of their 2008 album The ’59 Sound, but no new material appeared, and Fallon remained focused on his solo career.
Between 2016 and 2022, Bruce Springsteen recorded four solo albums and performed all over the world. On the other hand, The Gaslight Anthem returned to the road in 2022 and began writing new songs with producer Peter Katis.
“When you have a band reach any level of success or popularity, that’s a gift,” Fallon said in a statement. “It’s truly a miracle to be able to do your art for a living. Having the band come this far and be able to still find inspiration and connection in our music is a treasure. We’re thrilled to be back, and we thank our fans for allowing us time to regroup.”
According to Fallon, the album will not represent a significant stylistic departure from their previous work. “None of us wanted to make a very somber or serious record showing how much we’ve matured,” Fallon said. “We’ve all changed and grown and learned so much, but the overall mood was a feeling of excitement to be back together and making music that means something to us.”