Brian Fallon had already carved out a very successful place for himself as frontman for The Gaslight Anthem, whose workingman’s rock n’ roll had honest emotion without going overboard. Yet he still decided to do a very Gaslight-ish solo album, Painkillers (QRO review), in 2013, and now comes another solo record, Sleepwalkers. Again, it has all the hallmarks of Fallon & his Anthem, with even more standouts, though also some filler (and we still hope he’s got time for his ol’ Gaslight).
Brian Fallon’s ability to make anthemistic but authentic emotional rock is definitely in Sleepwalkers, with pieces like “Forget Me Not” and the rollicking “My Name Is the Night (Color Me Black)”. The solo nature of the album does mean that there is more acoustic strum material than is completely necessary, and with the same singular voice, his songs do run together a bit.
In The Gaslight Anthem, Brian Fallon has been rather following the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ philosophy, and it certainly isn’t broke, solo or together.
