After performing with Bruce Springsteen at the Glastonbury Music Festival in 2009, the music world at large proclaimed that the Gaslight Anthem was the heir to the great Springs- teen tradition. But the New Jersey quartet’s newest LP, Get Hurt, proves that this assessment is wrong. Even in his latter-day phases, Springsteen never released an album this overproduced, overdone, and ultimately plodding.

Get Hurt starts off fine enough, with its first five tracks full of loud guitars, pounding drums, and evocative choruses from frontman Brian Fallon. But by the second half of the album, these sounds get tiresome, and the band keeps slogging through monotonous ballads about an idealized New Jersey. Fallon can write beautiful, poignant songs—he has done so before. This ability, however, is rarely showcased on the album, although notable exceptions include “1,000 Years” and the first single, “Get Hurt.”

The Gaslight Anthem’s previous releases, especially 2008’s The ’59 Sound and to a lesser extent 2010’s American Slang, covered familiar tropes—recall the song “Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts”—but were effective. The songs on those two albums, with their stripped-down sound and gracefully subdued melodies, made us feel the sadness of loss. But Get Hurt contains none of that subtlety. Fallon’s voice is almost comically gravelly at points, the guitars sometimes resemble Metallica, and the lyrics devolve into “sha-la-las” worryingly often. By the final two tracks I had lost interest entirely in these shoddy imitations of 1980s hard rock bands. Perhaps the Gaslight Anthem intended this album to shed the specter of Springsteen, but they should not forget the Boss entirely. They could benefit from incorporating some of his temperance and moderation into their work.

The Gaslight Anthem showed considerable promise five years ago; I can only hope that their next release will demonstrate that brilliance once more and in the process make us forget this dishearteningly miserable album.