Lullabies From New Jersey – Brian Fallon’s Local Honey

written by Nick Hopton

Truer words have never been spoken at this time of life. A time of uncertainty, a time of unknown. Yet we still have familiar faces and sounds to keep us moving forward through the uncharted darkness. Brian Fallon, widely known for his acclaimed work with The Gaslight Anthem, returns and embarks on a solo venture with Local Honey. A collection of subdued yet heart-wrenching songs that captivate from the opening line and keep you held close like the lover you wish had never left. It’s familiar, yet new. A back alley in which your heart tries to find answers to the questions that had been left from long ago….and the overwhelming thought of “what if?”.

We open with “When You’re Ready”, a fitting number that awakens the heart and starts the journey. Where did we go wrong? Why did it end? A call to love lost and wanting an answer to why. It’s the start of a common theme throughout the entire album. Regret. Remorse. A sense of guilt. Fallon takes us to the end of the story at the start, letting you know right away that there will be no happy ending here. That this album is real.

“21 Days” leads us back to that beginning. That new love feeling that is so incredibly pure, yet so incredibly fleeting. Nothing is quite like new love. That brand new feeling of openness with someone that is damn near indescribable, yet somehow Fallon manages to fit that feeling into three minutes and thirty-three seconds. Though it, like the rest of the songs on this album is, is a sad song, it’s full of true love. The time needed to get over someone you lost shows just how much you loved them in the first place.

“Vincent” is arguably the deepest track on the album (that’s saying something). It’s something that cannot really be put into words. It needs to be experienced. Felt. It will mean different things to different people. As all great songs should. Nothing should have a set meaning. The greats leave the message open-ended, left for discussion. A free-flowing, back-alley bar of a love and heartbreak tune. The one you hear at 1 am after a long night of drinking to forget about the past. Where time and heartbreak meet at a crossroads.

“I Don’t Mind If I’m With You” is a dreamy landscape of regret and want. An overwhelming feeling of “where am I at without you?”. It’s a recollection of better times, times spent with someone who truly mattered. Someone who made you feel alive even while walking the line close to feelings of death. Redemption in a sense, yet knowing that the feeling itself is fleeting. Something to hold onto. Something to believe.

“Lonely For You Only” might be the most upbeat song on the entire album in a collection of lowly tunes. Yet somehow, it feels like the weakest song on the album. Though its a deviation from the flow, it lacks the passion and feeling that the rest of the album brings to the table. It fits, but as a spacer or a filler. Not a bad song by any means, but there always has to be one. This is it.

We transition into “Horses”, the highlight of the album. One day I believe that we’ll be carried away by pretty horses. Chiming guitar leads, beautiful harmonies. A feeling of hope. It’s a New Jersey western; a song that transcends genres. A building rides down the Atlantic City Expressway towards a better life, a home that has been lo

nged for. Which itself is irony, as it is undoubtedly a very quick song, yet it stays with you the longest.

“Hard Feelings” is the beginning of the end. We find ourselves questioning what love really is. Was it all even worth it? The journey, the feelings, the end? How long will the pain last? How long can the resentment of a failed relationship carry on and keep your mind awake at night? Most importantly, where does the pain end?

We end our journey with “You Have Stolen My Heart”; an ode to the beginning. Fitting, as we started this at the end, it’s only fitting to end it at the beginning. Somehow knowing that things will not work out, that love, just as time, never lasts. We’re never meant to last forever, in life and in love. And though the time together fades, the love that carries through life never ceases to exist. There’s always something there. A spark, a feeling, a comfort. Time can’t take that away. Nothing can.

It’s a deviation from anything Brian Fallon has done thus far. An ode to the broken hearts, in a way that those hearts can truly feel. It’s one thing to express heartbreak in a rock and roll song. But it’s another to build an album around it. A leap of faith into the unknown. A prayer to the mending of a broken heart.

Love. That’s what it’s all about.