Description
The Gaslight Anthem – Get Hurt – Vinyl Record
Get Hurt is the fifth studio album by American rock band The Gaslight Anthem, released on August 12, 2014, through Island Records. Known for their gritty heartland rock infused with punk spirit and Springsteenian storytelling, Get Hurt marked a significant stylistic shift for the band. It was their most experimental and emotionally raw album to date—born out of a period of personal turmoil for frontman Brian Fallon, particularly the end of his marriage, which heavily influenced the record’s tone and lyrical content.
Where earlier albums like The ’59 Sound (2008) and Handwritten (2012) leaned on vintage rock ‘n’ roll, anthemic choruses, and New Jersey blue-collar romanticism, Get Hurt moves into darker, moodier, and more introspective territory. Fallon cited artists like Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, and Queens of the Stone Age as sonic influences, and those references are evident in the album’s grunge-tinged guitars, brooding atmosphere, and more layered production, courtesy of Mike Crossey (Arctic Monkeys, Foals).
The album is steeped in pain, disillusionment, and self-examination. The opening track, “Stay Vicious,” explodes with a heavy riff and snarling vocals, signaling the album’s grittier intentions. Yet tracks like “1,000 Years,” “Break Your Heart,” and the piano-led “Underneath the Ground” showcase a vulnerable side, with Fallon grappling with the emotional fallout of heartbreak and change. The title track, “Get Hurt,” is a soaring, aching ballad about emotional risk and regret: “I came to get hurt / Might as well do your worst to me.”
The album varies more than any previous Gaslight release. Songs like “Helter Skeleton” and “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” still deliver the band’s trademark energy, while others like “Red Violins” and “Selected Poems” are more atmospheric and contemplative. This diversity earned the band both praise and criticism—some fans admired their willingness to evolve and push beyond their comfort zone, while others missed the raw immediacy and sing-along urgency of their earlier work.
Get Hurt debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, making it their highest-charting album to date at the time. However, it received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. Some praised its ambition and emotional honesty, while others felt the band was stretching too far into unfamiliar territory. Fallon later reflected that the album, while artistically necessary, was also a difficult one, both to make and to revisit, given the personal upheaval behind it.
Following the tour cycle for Get Hurt, The Gaslight Anthem announced an indefinite hiatus in 2015, making the album something of a closing chapter for that era of the band. When they returned in 2022 with History Books, it was with a renewed focus and a sense of distance from the emotional weight that Get Hurt had carried.
Get Hurt stands as the band’s most polarizing and daring record, a vulnerable and sonically diverse exploration of heartbreak, identity, and transformation. It’s not as instantly anthemic as The ’59 Sound, but it reveals new depths with each listen, offering a more complex and layered side of a band known for its big, beating heart.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
Stay Vicious
1,000 Years
Get Hurt
Stray Paper
Helter Skeleton
Underneath The Ground
Rollin’ And Tumblin’
Red Violins
Selected Poems
Ain’t That A Shame
Break Your Heart
Dark Places
