A.V. Club: Best of the Decade

There's No Love In This War

B+

  • The Gunshy
  • There's No Love In This War
  • Latest Flame
  • Rate It

    Submit
    • A+
    • A
    • A-
    • B+
    • B
    • B-
    • C+
    • C
    • C-
    • D+
    • D
    • D-
    • F
    • -
    login to rate
    Grade saved. Add a comment

    B+ av club rating

  • Related Reviews

"May 14, 1943" by The Gunshy

Effusive praise for "the greatest generation" has grown tiresome, as tales of the grunts fighting the last good war have been retold many times over. That fatigue doesn't really apply to The Gunshy's There's No Love In This War, though. For its fourth album, leader Matt Arbogast created 17 songs based on letters his grandfather wrote his grandmother from the European front lines in World War II. Arbogast's scratchy, Tom Waits-esque tone provides the perfect voice to the weary, sweetly lovesick notes. They're also well complemented by the group's (also Waits-ian) Americana, which varies from hushed ("August 13, 1943") to rollicking ("December 18, 1943"). All of it makes War an affecting, engrossing listen.

« Back to the A.V. Club home

Article Tools

the great avclub content auto-recycler-o-matic