Get Hurt is the fifth and final studio album by American rock band The Gaslight Anthem. It was released on August 8, 2014, by Island Records. It marks their first album on Island Records, which absorbed the band and its previous label, Mercury Records. Produced by Mike Crossey and inspired by vocalist and guitarist Brian Fallon's divorce from his wife of ten years, the band was influenced by artists whose albums represented "career shifts".
Writing
The band announced on July 4, 2013, via their Tumblr site, that they were "Working on new songs for a new Gaslight Anthem album in 2014." Fallon cites Pearl Jam's No Code album as an influence and inspiration for the album. In an interview with Rolling Stone published May 23, 2014, Fallon described the album as "completely different than anything we had ever done before. Instead of going that extra step of just adding some organ or some background vocals, this time we actually really changed up a lot of the sounds." In a posting on the band's official website fans were informed to "Get ready for some things you've never heard this band do!"
Recording
On March 10, 2014, the band entered Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, to record their fifth studio album. The band stated on April 14 that they had arrived at the "last week in the studio" of recording the album.
The lead single from the album, "Rollin' and Tumblin'", was released on July 1, 2014. The second single, "Get Hurt", was released on July 8, 2014. The third and final single, "Stay Vicious", was released on July 28, 2014.
Critical reception
Get Hurt received mixed reviews from music critics. Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average of ratings from mainstream critics, gave it a score of a 62, based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." In Absolute Punk, Craig Manning wrote, "It's disheartening that the album isn't the game-changing record Fallon promised, and it's too bad that it doesn't have the thesis-statement cohesion of albums like The 59 Sound and American Slang. But the songs are still great, the production is still excellent, and the performances of the band members have rarely been in finer form." Clash magazine's Mischa Pearlman rated the album seven out of ten, calling it "rock 'n' roll of the purest kind." Tim Jonze of The Guardian gave the album two stars out of five, saying "Get Hurt is nothing but the same old overblown rock sound with every dial turned up several digits past 11." Gregory Heaney of AllMusic rated the album four stars out of five, writing, "Get Hurt shows that so long as they're passionate about their music, it doesn't matter where the band are getting their inspiration from, because genuinely caring about something is always compelling."
Commercial performance
Get Hurt debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 33,000 copies in its first week. The album also debuted at number one on the Alternative Albums and Tastemaker Albums charts, at number two on the Top Rock Albums chart, and at number four on the Digital Albums chart.
Track listing
Personnel
Credits adapted from AllMusic: The Gaslight Anthem
