I haven't listened to the album, but some of the songs ended up on my Spotify 2022 top list, and I have been listening to that playlist. Does this count? 😊
Nightshift topped mine. 😊I actually have been listening, doing the year's recap.... Each song on my playlist is there for a reason. Listening feels like going through old photos....
Yes, the list consists only of the songs I have been listening. But. Those algorithms are really intelligent. I have learned about and learned to love so much fantastic music because of the suggestions I get from Spotify. I love the app.
So I finally finished the album (some time ago, but just realized I hadn't posted and how you must all be simply hanging on my every word), and I really dig it. Sure, it'll be towards the bottom of any of my Springsteen album rankings, but it's not at the VERY bottom, and is above at least two or three others.
One of the things I really like is how committed he almost always seems to the material. I've seen it referred to as a karaoke album, and I don't think that's really accurate...but I have to admit I've felt that way about his covers this century far more than I've liked.
One of the many amazing things about Springsteen is just how great a cover artist he can be. Up through the Tunnel of Love Express tour, at the very least, he was up there with the Beatles as one of the truly great cover artists in history. Whether playing a cover more or less straight or deconstructing it, changing the feel, or stripping it down, his covers were almost without exception fantastic.
But this century it started to feel way more pro forma, starting with the Vote for Change tour. It was SO COOL to see him performing with the likes of REM or Pearl Jam, but especially towards the beginning of the tour, you got the feeling he didn't really know their songs and was just reading off the teleprompter, rather than truly feeling them. Compare and contrast that with not just his famous reimagining of "I Want You," say, or "Trapped," but even how clearly thoroughly he truly knew and loved "Running on Empty."
He obviously knew and loved these songs, and that alone made a big difference. And I'd love to hear subsequent volumes from him, including going into country, as he said. But I'd also fucking love it if he just released a series of, essentially, a solo tour of him going through his own catalog but even more covers--Elvis, Dylan, Seger, James Taylor, Elliott Smith, Nirvana, Prince, Wilco, whomever. Provided he actually put his all into it, and didn't just...you know...coast on being Bruce fucking Springsteen.
So I finally listened to the album today--or, rather, I listened to the first half. As you can probably tell by the delay, I was not terribly enthused. I wasn't disappointed, either, I was just kinda...there about it. Liked the first couple songs released, but... [insert shrug emoji]
But I had to drive somewhere, so I put it on and...I kinda loved it.
That may be too strong. I really, really liked it, far more than I might have expected. Although it makes sense, in retrospect. This weekend I put on, as I do about once every year or so, the 70s soul compilation Rhino put out years ago, Can You Dig It? And without exception, every time I put it on, it just makes me happy, and I listen for the almost entire 8 hours of its runtime.
I was trying to figure out why I love 70s soul so much, when for the most part soul from the mid-80s on up does little to nothing for me. I realized that part of it is very simply that back then they used real (and great) musicians. And the difference between having, say, Al Jackson Jr or Willie Hall playing drums and some Roland drum machine is simply night and day for me.
The other thing is that what draws me to popular music, in most cases, are the melody and the voice. I love a good guitar solo and I like kickass drums, especially if they've got the funk, but it's really the melody and the voice, in most cases. And it doesn't need to be a "good" voice--not only do I love Dylan and Neil Young and J Mascis but, for the most part, I don't actually like most of the famously "great" voices all that much--it just needs to be a voice that, for whatever reason, resonates with me.
Brilliant lyrics are a huge plus. But despite Dylan and Springsteen being amongst my very favorite favorites ever, they're really not necessary. As Peter Gabriel once said, "There have been many great songs which have had really appalling lyrics, but there have been no great songs which have had appalling music." So as long as the lyrics aren't actively bad, I'm good.
I admit, I can get a bit tired of too many straightforward love songs. On the other hand, as Aimee Mann once said, when asked why all the songs on her new album were about love, something like, "what else is there to write about? How tough life is for a musician on the road?"
Which means that I was primed, whether I knew it or not, for this new album. And damn if it hasn't work so far. The fact that several of the tunes have reminded me, in places at least, of Western Stars (mainly but not entirely the strings, I think) is certainly a point in its favor.
I remember a discussion, WAY back in the day--the old Lucky Town listserv, maybe? Or its successor, the Bruce's Place email list?--about what the truest of Bruce fans would rather listen to, a cover of a Bruce song, or Bruce covering a song. It wasn't even a close call for me. I'd almost always want to hear, in order, Bruce singing his own stuff, Bruce covering someone else's material or, in a very distant third, a cover of a Bruce song.
So. Will I come back to this often? I don't know. So far I vastly prefer it to The Seeger Sessions, but then I greatly prefer soul to folk. I suspect I'll listen to it quite a bit more often than High Hopes or Human Touch, but those are pretty low damn bars to clear. I reckon time'll tell.
I don't actually like most of the famously "great" voices all that much--it just needs to be a voice that, for whatever reason, resonates with me.
I am the same. And have always wanted to get the gist of why I Iike certain voices. Still don't understand why exactly some catch my attention, while others don't.
This many times over. Whitney Houston histrionicing her way through I Will Always Love You leaves me cold as a fish... Marianne Faithful, on the other hand, husking her way through, well, pretty much anything sends shivers down the spine.
Breaking news!! It's growing on me. I decided to listen whilst cooking as opposed to sitting down and concentrating on it and found myself singing along and having a little dance round the kitchen! I'm still not sure how often I will play it, but possibly more often than I originally thought.
If I run into Bruce, I'm pitching this show to him. I host and we visit Jersey diners where Bruce and I cook on the line and battle for best dish. Then we sing a song together.
Having listened to it again.... all I can say is... the voice. The FREAKIN voice.
When he made that intro video and joked about his bad ass voice... well, he was pseudo joking, in the way you would when you know you have fuckin' nailed it. This record exists for no reason other than the fact that Bruce wanted to showcase how good he can still actually sound. He sounds amazing, and he knows it. Fair play.
On the other hand... the music. Mmmm... this I'm struggling with. I was born in 1970, so before I became a real music fan at 11 or 12 years of age in the early 80's, my soundtrack was 70's AM radio. And, musically, a lot of this to me sounds like 70's AM radio as opposed to the spirit charging 60's soul it should be. So I'm torn by the fact that when I first discovered Bruce, among the things I loved was that he was nothing like 70's AM radio. At the same time, now at 52 years of age, hearing 70's AM radio type music is kind of nostalgically warm and fuzzy. So I really don't know if musically I like his or not...
I respect everyone's opinion. I can see where the disappointment comes from. What I love about this album is the back story, more than the album itself. I love that he has a creative idea, and just goes with it. I think of this record as a bonus record, I don't feel the need to compare or rank it. It is simply something he was intrigued enough to accomplish. I love some songs more than others, I forgot to be your lover, and Nightshift are my favorites. I have no idea how often I will be listening to the record. What I have noticed so far is that I need to feel joyous before putting it on. Have tried the other day and used it as a mood booster, and realized it wasn't working. Listen when feeling happy is my advice for this album.
I never thought I'd hear an album by Bruce Springsteen that reminds me of Rod Stewart. Not the Every Picture Tells A Story Rod Stewart, but the let's-move-some-product Rod Stewart. What makes it sadder for me is that I certainly don't think Bruce is turning this out with the obvious cynicism that Rod does. It just doesn't move me. I picture myself running across a reasonably priced used CD someday, and thinking "oh what the hell, it's the only one I don't own." And I don't think I'll have to wait all that long.
I Forgot To Be Your Lover is messing with my head, though. I've never heard the original, only the Billy Idol up tempo cover from the 80's... so hearing this slower Bruce version now just sounds like Billy Idol playing at the wrong speed LOL.
After two listens, I'm still on the fence with this one. Neither love it, nor dislike it.
What I do love, though, is Bruce's voice. Holy crap, it's like it was beamed in from 75 - 78... and then some.
Speaking of 78, this set reminds me a lot of The Promise album. There are musical and vocal moments that directly echo some of those songs. Listen to, say, The Brokenhearted from that album and then What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted here. A lot of the material on The Promise, while original, was just genre writing attempting to evoke the original music Bruce has covered on this new record. So I don't see this record as the outlying oddity some others do.
Ever since Darkness you’d ordinarily find me waiting outside the record shop door on release day. Today? Nah. I’ll pick up a (black) copy at some point for completeness sake, but fear it’ll be filled along the unplayed Broadway set.
The intense excitement that followed a new Bruce album release didn't happen this time. I can't help thinking that it's an old man's game: recording covers, because no new music presents itself to the song writer. I don't MIND the record, but that is saying I could take it or leave it - which I have never thought about any of his releases before.
I like your thoughtful review, but the album leaves me untouched.
One full listen in and I haven't really changed my mind. It's ok, but I just I can't imagine the circumstances when I'm going to pull this one out. I had to laugh at the end of Soul Days when he calls out "I want to hear some Sam & Dave" pretty much what I was thinking! I couldn't listen to 7 Rooms of Gloom, but then Four Tops were my teenage heroes, so no surprise there. On the other hand, I think What Becomes of the Broken Hearted is rather good.The set of liner notes which come with orders from Backstreets look really interesting and are the only thing which would tempt me to part with any cash for this.
Nicely written and thoughtful review! You are absolutely right when you point at “I Wish It Would Rain” and “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” as the highlights of the album.
April, 1966, 10th birthday. Dad took me to Western Auto and bought me a 16'' black Schwinn bicycle. Other than the Sylvania portable stereo I got for Christmas when I was 16, I never got so much use out of a gift. Thanks Ma & Dad.
There were 3 of us, and we all had the same name as far as my mother was concerned. "Jane-Billy-Maureen-whatever-your-name-is..."
That was really interesting. I have only heard the three songs so far and am finding them difficult to love. However, you have given me something to think about in linking them to Bruce's previous work. I think being so familiar with these songs from my long distant youth I am still hearing them as if I was 17 and not really making those connections. I have no idea whether this makes sense to anyone else but it does to me!
I know what you mean. I find it very strange hearing a song in a certain context and that trying to 'enjoy' that song in another one. Your mind keeps going back to where you first heard it and how you felt about it then, no matter how hard you try to focus on the now.
^ As it goes that might not make sense to any of you either. If so, we're at least in one boat, Anne, definitely hahaha.
Characters? I've called my kids the wrong name so often that nowadays I usually call them by where they fall in the birth order. "Hey, Two? Go fold the laundry, please. One and Three, go put the groceries away. Four, peel me a grape and cook me a chicken pot pie."
I haven't listened to the album, but some of the songs ended up on my Spotify 2022 top list, and I have been listening to that playlist. Does this count? 😊
So. It's been over a month—anyone have any different feelings about the album? Anyone still listening?
I've only put it on once since, but I do find myself singing the title track to myself several times a day, as I glimpse the album cover.
So I finally finished the album (some time ago, but just realized I hadn't posted and how you must all be simply hanging on my every word), and I really dig it. Sure, it'll be towards the bottom of any of my Springsteen album rankings, but it's not at the VERY bottom, and is above at least two or three others.
One of the things I really like is how committed he almost always seems to the material. I've seen it referred to as a karaoke album, and I don't think that's really accurate...but I have to admit I've felt that way about his covers this century far more than I've liked.
One of the many amazing things about Springsteen is just how great a cover artist he can be. Up through the Tunnel of Love Express tour, at the very least, he was up there with the Beatles as one of the truly great cover artists in history. Whether playing a cover more or less straight or deconstructing it, changing the feel, or stripping it down, his covers were almost without exception fantastic.
But this century it started to feel way more pro forma, starting with the Vote for Change tour. It was SO COOL to see him performing with the likes of REM or Pearl Jam, but especially towards the beginning of the tour, you got the feeling he didn't really know their songs and was just reading off the teleprompter, rather than truly feeling them. Compare and contrast that with not just his famous reimagining of "I Want You," say, or "Trapped," but even how clearly thoroughly he truly knew and loved "Running on Empty."
He obviously knew and loved these songs, and that alone made a big difference. And I'd love to hear subsequent volumes from him, including going into country, as he said. But I'd also fucking love it if he just released a series of, essentially, a solo tour of him going through his own catalog but even more covers--Elvis, Dylan, Seger, James Taylor, Elliott Smith, Nirvana, Prince, Wilco, whomever. Provided he actually put his all into it, and didn't just...you know...coast on being Bruce fucking Springsteen.
So I finally listened to the album today--or, rather, I listened to the first half. As you can probably tell by the delay, I was not terribly enthused. I wasn't disappointed, either, I was just kinda...there about it. Liked the first couple songs released, but... [insert shrug emoji]
But I had to drive somewhere, so I put it on and...I kinda loved it.
That may be too strong. I really, really liked it, far more than I might have expected. Although it makes sense, in retrospect. This weekend I put on, as I do about once every year or so, the 70s soul compilation Rhino put out years ago, Can You Dig It? And without exception, every time I put it on, it just makes me happy, and I listen for the almost entire 8 hours of its runtime.
I was trying to figure out why I love 70s soul so much, when for the most part soul from the mid-80s on up does little to nothing for me. I realized that part of it is very simply that back then they used real (and great) musicians. And the difference between having, say, Al Jackson Jr or Willie Hall playing drums and some Roland drum machine is simply night and day for me.
The other thing is that what draws me to popular music, in most cases, are the melody and the voice. I love a good guitar solo and I like kickass drums, especially if they've got the funk, but it's really the melody and the voice, in most cases. And it doesn't need to be a "good" voice--not only do I love Dylan and Neil Young and J Mascis but, for the most part, I don't actually like most of the famously "great" voices all that much--it just needs to be a voice that, for whatever reason, resonates with me.
Brilliant lyrics are a huge plus. But despite Dylan and Springsteen being amongst my very favorite favorites ever, they're really not necessary. As Peter Gabriel once said, "There have been many great songs which have had really appalling lyrics, but there have been no great songs which have had appalling music." So as long as the lyrics aren't actively bad, I'm good.
I admit, I can get a bit tired of too many straightforward love songs. On the other hand, as Aimee Mann once said, when asked why all the songs on her new album were about love, something like, "what else is there to write about? How tough life is for a musician on the road?"
Which means that I was primed, whether I knew it or not, for this new album. And damn if it hasn't work so far. The fact that several of the tunes have reminded me, in places at least, of Western Stars (mainly but not entirely the strings, I think) is certainly a point in its favor.
I remember a discussion, WAY back in the day--the old Lucky Town listserv, maybe? Or its successor, the Bruce's Place email list?--about what the truest of Bruce fans would rather listen to, a cover of a Bruce song, or Bruce covering a song. It wasn't even a close call for me. I'd almost always want to hear, in order, Bruce singing his own stuff, Bruce covering someone else's material or, in a very distant third, a cover of a Bruce song.
So. Will I come back to this often? I don't know. So far I vastly prefer it to The Seeger Sessions, but then I greatly prefer soul to folk. I suspect I'll listen to it quite a bit more often than High Hopes or Human Touch, but those are pretty low damn bars to clear. I reckon time'll tell.
I can only make it through one song.
The rest is utter nonsense.
Breaking news!! It's growing on me. I decided to listen whilst cooking as opposed to sitting down and concentrating on it and found myself singing along and having a little dance round the kitchen! I'm still not sure how often I will play it, but possibly more often than I originally thought.
Having listened to it again.... all I can say is... the voice. The FREAKIN voice.
When he made that intro video and joked about his bad ass voice... well, he was pseudo joking, in the way you would when you know you have fuckin' nailed it. This record exists for no reason other than the fact that Bruce wanted to showcase how good he can still actually sound. He sounds amazing, and he knows it. Fair play.
On the other hand... the music. Mmmm... this I'm struggling with. I was born in 1970, so before I became a real music fan at 11 or 12 years of age in the early 80's, my soundtrack was 70's AM radio. And, musically, a lot of this to me sounds like 70's AM radio as opposed to the spirit charging 60's soul it should be. So I'm torn by the fact that when I first discovered Bruce, among the things I loved was that he was nothing like 70's AM radio. At the same time, now at 52 years of age, hearing 70's AM radio type music is kind of nostalgically warm and fuzzy. So I really don't know if musically I like his or not...
I respect everyone's opinion. I can see where the disappointment comes from. What I love about this album is the back story, more than the album itself. I love that he has a creative idea, and just goes with it. I think of this record as a bonus record, I don't feel the need to compare or rank it. It is simply something he was intrigued enough to accomplish. I love some songs more than others, I forgot to be your lover, and Nightshift are my favorites. I have no idea how often I will be listening to the record. What I have noticed so far is that I need to feel joyous before putting it on. Have tried the other day and used it as a mood booster, and realized it wasn't working. Listen when feeling happy is my advice for this album.
I never thought I'd hear an album by Bruce Springsteen that reminds me of Rod Stewart. Not the Every Picture Tells A Story Rod Stewart, but the let's-move-some-product Rod Stewart. What makes it sadder for me is that I certainly don't think Bruce is turning this out with the obvious cynicism that Rod does. It just doesn't move me. I picture myself running across a reasonably priced used CD someday, and thinking "oh what the hell, it's the only one I don't own." And I don't think I'll have to wait all that long.
I Forgot To Be Your Lover is messing with my head, though. I've never heard the original, only the Billy Idol up tempo cover from the 80's... so hearing this slower Bruce version now just sounds like Billy Idol playing at the wrong speed LOL.
After two listens, I'm still on the fence with this one. Neither love it, nor dislike it.
What I do love, though, is Bruce's voice. Holy crap, it's like it was beamed in from 75 - 78... and then some.
Speaking of 78, this set reminds me a lot of The Promise album. There are musical and vocal moments that directly echo some of those songs. Listen to, say, The Brokenhearted from that album and then What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted here. A lot of the material on The Promise, while original, was just genre writing attempting to evoke the original music Bruce has covered on this new record. So I don't see this record as the outlying oddity some others do.
Ever since Darkness you’d ordinarily find me waiting outside the record shop door on release day. Today? Nah. I’ll pick up a (black) copy at some point for completeness sake, but fear it’ll be filled along the unplayed Broadway set.
😕
The intense excitement that followed a new Bruce album release didn't happen this time. I can't help thinking that it's an old man's game: recording covers, because no new music presents itself to the song writer. I don't MIND the record, but that is saying I could take it or leave it - which I have never thought about any of his releases before.
I like your thoughtful review, but the album leaves me untouched.
Which makes me sorry...
One full listen in and I haven't really changed my mind. It's ok, but I just I can't imagine the circumstances when I'm going to pull this one out. I had to laugh at the end of Soul Days when he calls out "I want to hear some Sam & Dave" pretty much what I was thinking! I couldn't listen to 7 Rooms of Gloom, but then Four Tops were my teenage heroes, so no surprise there. On the other hand, I think What Becomes of the Broken Hearted is rather good. The set of liner notes which come with orders from Backstreets look really interesting and are the only thing which would tempt me to part with any cash for this.
Just listened to it right through and I really enjoyed it, great fun.
Nicely written and thoughtful review! You are absolutely right when you point at “I Wish It Would Rain” and “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” as the highlights of the album.
April, 1966, 10th birthday. Dad took me to Western Auto and bought me a 16'' black Schwinn bicycle. Other than the Sylvania portable stereo I got for Christmas when I was 16, I never got so much use out of a gift. Thanks Ma & Dad.
There were 3 of us, and we all had the same name as far as my mother was concerned. "Jane-Billy-Maureen-whatever-your-name-is..."
That was really interesting. I have only heard the three songs so far and am finding them difficult to love. However, you have given me something to think about in linking them to Bruce's previous work. I think being so familiar with these songs from my long distant youth I am still hearing them as if I was 17 and not really making those connections. I have no idea whether this makes sense to anyone else but it does to me!
An excellent review. Worthy of any magazine.
Psssst...go check the title of Hey, Western Union Man. Western Auto was a discount store.
As always, something for the weekend. Looking forward. 👍