One of the things I love about my wife is the way she\u2019s able to cut right to the heart of an issue \u2013 for example, when she got in the car with me the other night with this album playing, listened for a couple of songs, and abruptly announced: \u201cBruce, you\u2019re getting old.\u201d<\/p>\n
And there you have it.\u00a0 In a career during which Springsteen has frequently acted his age, but has rarely sounded less than vital, on Working For A Dream<\/i> he makes an album that often sounds like it was recorded by a man nearing 60.\u00a0 Where so much of Springsteen\u2019s work is full of propulsive forward motion of one sort or another, this album constantly looks back.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wistful, nostalgic collection of songs featuring several tracks layered with strings and stacked harmonies that feel like Bruce wallowing self-indulgently in the comfort-food early-60s-pop of Magic<\/i> \u2019s \u201cGirls In Their Summer Clothes.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Much like in that song, you can feel a melancholy running through these tracks, an insecurity felt mostly in the way they\u2019ve been packed with dense layers of sound.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing raw or powerful about this E Street Band album; it feels much of the time like Bruce and producer Brendan O\u2019Brien are going to great lengths instead to dress these songs to the nines and try to make them pretty.\u00a0 Right there is a huge problem; Bruce\u2019s voice is a lot of things, but it\u2019s never been pretty.\u00a0 Pretty, in plain fact, doesn\u2019t really work for Bruce.<\/p>\n
Which is not to say the album is a complete stiff.\u00a0 The lyrics aren\u2019t among Springsteen\u2019s best, but they aren\u2019t among his worst, either.\u00a0 He remains a keen observer of human foibles, and on the musical side it must be said that \u201cMy Lucky Day\u201d might be Bruce\u2019s strongest hook in years; certainly the people who\u2019ve compared its instant appeal to \u201cHungry Heart\u201d are on the money.\u00a0 An album full of this kind of energy, drive, and impact would have been a definite winner.<\/p>\n
If only it were so, but it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 The disc falters before it really starts as Springsteen sabotages himself by shoving aside the obvious opener \u201cMy Lucky Day\u201d in favor of the overlong and overcooked Old West pseudo-epic \u201cOutlaw Pete.\u201d\u00a0 There are a couple of good lines, but they don\u2019t alter the fact that this is a strange, eight-minute near-parody of a western outlaw song, with clip-clopping rhythms interrupted by the existential plea \u201cCan you hear me?\u201d as if Bruce was trying to put spurs on The Who\u2019s iconic Tommy, a man untethered from the world and searching for connection. Two words: nice try.<\/p>\n
The title track is \u2013 let\u2019s just go ahead and say it — a Brian Wilson song in every sense save that Bruce is singing it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a pleasant enough lyric, but \u2013 and here\u2019s the issue at the core of this album \u2013 it ultimately has little impact.\u00a0 On an awful lot of Springsteen\u2019s albums, even the ones all about New Jersey street rats, the lyrics feel significant, whether because of their poetry or because of the moral heft of their subject matter.\u00a0 There is something powerful, even visceral about the best of them.\u00a0 There is nothing visceral about this album.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
For an illustration, look no further than the next cut, \u201cQueen Of The Supermarket.\u201d\u00a0 Fountains Of Wayne would play this song as a supermarket version of \u201cYolanda Hayes,\u201d straight on the surface but with a big, obvious wink audible underneath.\u00a0 Springsteen never even hints at a wink; he\u2019s in love with a shy supermarket checker and he sings of that love with dead-serious conviction as the strings layer and the harmonies stack and I\u2019m left wondering if I\u2019m supposed to be laughing, or cringing, or what.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s oddest in this moment is that it almost seems like the notoriously neurotic and meticulous Springsteen is suddenly fine with making an entire album of the kind of misfit-toy-type cuts that populated his massive leftovers box set Tracks<\/i>.\u00a0 In fact, it almost seems like that\u2019s what he\u2019s going for, like he\u2019s decided he doesn\u2019t need to make \u201cimportant\u201d albums anymore and can just play.\u00a0 In that sense, my hat\u2019s off to the guy; he\u2019s loosened up, he\u2019s comfortable in his own skin and making the music he feels like making, it\u2019s just that the music he feels like making has no edge to it; there was more at stake lyrically in the otherwise unremarkable Human Touch<\/i> than here.<\/p>\n
The middle section of the album is where this becomes crystal clear.\u00a0 You get a feeling for what he\u2019s reaching for with \u201cThis Life\u201d \u2013 that big glossy Phil Spector uplifting-harmonies thing.\u00a0 Unfortunately, not even a sweet Clarence Clemons sax solo and layered Mamas-and-Papas-style ba-ba-bas can change the reality that this song veers dangerously close to Neil Diamond territory.\u00a0 Yeah, I said it; Neil frigging Diamond.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a relief, then, when he comes in on the next track (\u201cGood Eye\u201d) with a dense, heavy blues full of growly, echoey vocals and wailing harmonica that reminds you of the dark vibe of Lucky Town<\/i>\u2019s \u201cSouls Of The Departed,\u201d albeit without the thundering electric guitars.\u00a0 It\u2019s a highlight, a truly different and distinctly gritty moment on an album that\u2019s otherwise too lightweight\u2026 as evidenced by \u201cTomorrow Never Knows,\u201d a pedestrian country-folk number that sounds like a Seeger Sessions<\/i> outtake overdressed with out-of-place strings.\u00a0 \u201cLife Itself\u201d finds drummer Max Weinberg sounding seriously bored, but at least it\u2019s an easier listen than \u201cKingdom Of Days,\u201d where Bruce declares his utter contentment with love, life and the world while backed by a string arrangement that makes \u201coverwrought\u201d sound like a compliment.<\/p>\n
Next up, \u201cSurprise, Surprise\u201d is an old-school pop song whose rhythm guitar line sounds like it was lifted out of a Dion & The Belmonts track circa 1961.\u00a0 Overall the track is well-done, endearing and fun, but the fact that it\u2019s one of the best songs on this album tells you a lot.\u00a0 It\u2019s cute, and Bruce Springsteen has typically aimed a lot higher than cute.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Ah, but what\u2019s a Springsteen album without a shot at redemption?\u00a0 And Bruce does come through at the end.\u00a0 \u201cThe Last Carnival\u201d is a gorgeous, heartfelt tribute to fallen bandmate Danny Federici (lost to skin cancer last March) that deftly evokes the boardwalk life they experienced together as young musicians starting out in Asbury Park a lifetime ago.\u00a0 Bonus track \u201cThe Wrestler\u201d is a nice piece of work as well, and shows how skilled Springsteen has become at writing for the screen; he\u2019s done it a lot in the last 20 years and has adapted well to that stark, sweeping, melodramatic style.<\/p>\n
In the end, I have to concede the point to my wife.\u00a0 Bruce sounds old on Working For A Dream<\/i>, and with good reason.\u00a0 This is, for the most part, back-porch-rocking-chair music, fundamentally nostalgic and, compared to the rest of the man\u2019s catalog, often startlingly inconsequential.\u00a0 There are a few special moments buried in these grooves, but not nearly enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5832],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-41350","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bruce-springsteen","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41350"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}