Local Honey

The Gaslight Anthem frontmans third solo effort, Local Honey pivots toward the Nebraska and Ghost of Tom Joad end of the Springsteen spectrum, delivering a mostly stripped-down set of Americana-leaning country-folk-pop songs that favor introspection over arena-ready grandeur. Chalk it up to the uneasy times or having turned 40, Fallon is reckoning with his past while trying to mitigate the opaqueness of the future. He tackles fatherhood on the heartfelt opener When Youre Ready, telling his children When youre ready to choose someone make sure they love you half as much as me. Follow-up 21 Days wrestles with the grief and acceptance needed to break a longtime cigarette habit, while the waltzing Vincent goes the classic troubadour route by way of a richly detailed #Me Too-era murder ballad. Echoes of Jason Isbells hard-won wisdom and blue-collar earnestness color Lonely for You Only and affirming closer You Have Stolen My Heart, the latter of which sees Fallon occasionally falling into a lovely falsetto. Alarmingly short by traditional LP standards, the eight-track sets brevity helps to drive home the themes of family, faith, and reconciliation, and the melodies, while bracingly familiar, feel crystallized rather than rote. Local Honey is an inside record thats better-suited for humid mornings and overcast afternoons than the open highway. In looking stridently inward, Fallon has crafted his most homespun and relatable outing to date. ~ James Christopher Monger