“See, I was playing a show down the road when your spirit left your body.”

I thought the Counting Crows were in the most torrid throes of the ten-years-post-radio-popularity critical nadir, but here come The Gaslight Anthem, referencing “‘Round Here” with incredible blatancy  (“Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand/I always kinda, sorta wished I looked like Elvis,” “High Lonesome”) - and riding critics into town as they do so. And the Springsteen; when did that become cool? After the Killers’ Sam’s Town got assaulted on those grounds for having a bit of high fast piano and a touch of the grandiose, did everyone suddenly feel safe admitting that, of all their parents’ artists, he was always their favorite?

But this is just crap; I love the Gaslight Anthem, I’m just marveling at their critical popularity because I didn’t know pastiche artists got popular in the indie era. And after Amy Winehouse last year, I shouldn’t have been surprised even on the former count. Of course direct pastiche is still popular; direct pastiche is always popular. In fact, it’s a legitimate route to legitimacy – I have in my hand (ladies and gentlemen of the Senate) a list of artists of the top rank who’ve avoided it, but to get the patina of greatness rubbed all over you, one option is certainly to adopt some major aspect of a previously successful style. Just give it a twist, for God’s sake. Appropriate someone else’s stuff when you’re a totally different race or gender or social class. Grab hold of something whose datedness has quietly expired, and use it. For one trick that’s popular and not played-out yet: be men, but take from girl groups. Surely there’s a bit left in girl groups still.

The Gaslight Anthem are pastichers of high artistry; like Glasvegas, they amuse the ironist with displays of ironylessness. But, again, this is crap. I am simply saying this because I can’t currently express my admiration of The Gaslight Anthem via a higher form than psudeo-academic language. They play very well, they have the kind of bravery that takes influence from anyone who offers it, and write a clear, faceted lyric, graceful lyric.

The way they place all the different threads around each other – the different deaths, the scene-setting and shifting, the related but dissimilar parts, so that when the sentence fits together at the end, the key turns and it repeats and repeats – it’s the second perfect lyric I heard for the first time this week (the first was Belle & Sebastian’s “We Rule The School.” I’ve been living in a bomb shelter since 1995).

The appearance of Jacob Marley’s ghost, and Marley’s chains, is also wonderful (citation: I was not the first in my immediate circle to pay attention to this). Since 2001 or so, when I first heard one, I’ve been vaguely attuned to songs that reference A Christmas Carol - here are two others:

Kristeen Young – Marley’s Ghost (1997)

Aimee Mann – Jacob Marley’s Chain (1992)

-both songs I love, Mann’s for its enigmatic dignity, and Young’s -incredibly Young, first album- for its total vocal exuberance and insanity and also my favorite “BAY-BEE!” For the image of the chained ghost, it seems appropriate that these artists wield it, examine it, and dress up as it and run screaming around the room, respectively.