Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Album: Working On A Dream
Year: 2009
Grade: 3 pretzels
How can we judge albums by artists this far past their sell date? There comes a time when even the best musicians stop releasing records that reverberate throughout the world. A specific album could be individually excellent, but the artist producing it has lost the ability to make the entire world sit up and discuss their music. There are a few exceptions (Dylan/Tom Waits/Brian Eno for example) who’ve still maintained a level of relevance through the years. Bruce Springsteen, however, the Boss behind many classic records of the 70s and 80s…well, he’s not one of them.
Working In A Dream is definitely not a bad record. There are some lovely songs here, particularly the short, country-ish “Tomorrow Never Knows”, all banjo and pedal steel and fiddle. The eight-minute-long opener, “Outlaw Pete”, is another clear standout. Springsteen is still an incredibly accomplished and capable musician. He’s just lost the spark of relevance, some sense of “contemporary-ness” that makes records transcend merely being good.
The record does hit a few speed bumps along the way. Springsteen records tend to be haunted by a pretty clear formula: He sings! He rocks! He scores! However, too much reliance on the Jersey blue-collar flag-waving can be a bad thing. My favorite Springsteen record is the skeletal, unsettling Nebraska from 1982, mostly because it breaks from the Springsteen traditions that can weigh down good songs. Working On A Dream isn’t as lucky. “My Lucky Day” is very big, very loud, very epic…and very boring (ironic title, no?). And while there’s nothing as irritatingly repetitive as “Radio Nowhere” from 2007’s Magic, you certainly won’t forget any of the song titles, since Bruce repeats them eighty-million times (give or take) in each chorus. The sharp, barbed songwriting from Born To Run has definitely started to fade, oh, thirty-five years later! The Boss’s age is showing a bit.
Working In A Dream is definitely not a bad record. There are some lovely songs here, particularly the short, country-ish “Tomorrow Never Knows”, all banjo and pedal steel and fiddle. The eight-minute-long opener, “Outlaw Pete”, is another clear standout. Springsteen is still an incredibly accomplished and capable musician. He’s just lost the spark of relevance, some sense of “contemporary-ness” that makes records transcend merely being good.
The record does hit a few speed bumps along the way. Springsteen records tend to be haunted by a pretty clear formula: He sings! He rocks! He scores! However, too much reliance on the Jersey blue-collar flag-waving can be a bad thing. My favorite Springsteen record is the skeletal, unsettling Nebraska from 1982, mostly because it breaks from the Springsteen traditions that can weigh down good songs. Working On A Dream isn’t as lucky. “My Lucky Day” is very big, very loud, very epic…and very boring (ironic title, no?). And while there’s nothing as irritatingly repetitive as “Radio Nowhere” from 2007’s Magic, you certainly won’t forget any of the song titles, since Bruce repeats them eighty-million times (give or take) in each chorus. The sharp, barbed songwriting from Born To Run has definitely started to fade, oh, thirty-five years later! The Boss’s age is showing a bit.
We clearly can’t blame Bruce for this, but, as I mentioned in my Franz Ferdinand review, artists will always be measured by their best previous work. Here’s the truth: this album is not another Born To Run. It’s not another Born In The U.S.A.. It doesn’t even have “born” in its title. So…what do we do with it?
As token grew-up-in-Jersey girl, I apologize for my state's insistence to behave as if The Boss still matters. Clearly, sane people are aware that it's no longer 1982, but New Jersey is the kind of place where the parkway shuts down for a Bon Jovi concert, so I'm pretty sure Springsteen will keep selling mediocre records in Wal-Marts across the Garden State for as long as he wants to.
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