Review: Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream

Sometimes, I think, it’s got to be hard to be Bruce Springsteen. Even as he nears 60, there are many, many great expectations placed upon his music. While Dylan fans never know what to expect and are thrilled when Bob releases an album good enough to put his 80’s output further in the rearview mirror, hard-core Bruce fans expect something that is more than just good – at our core, we still hope and expect that he’ll deliver his best music yet. Not Born To Run II mind you (although I’m sure there are some fans who’d be thrilled with that), but something that powerfully and intensely illuminates and deepens our own lives and experiences – like a combination of The River and Tunnel Of Love. And Springsteen has been so remarkably consistent throughout his career, with such an incredible body of work that it almost seems unfair to judge him against his past, but fair or not, that’s how the great ones are judged.

I’ve been trying to write a review of his new album, Working On A Dream, for the past week. But I have found myself confounded by it. On one level, it contains some of the most beautiful music he’s ever made, grand and orchestral, with swirling string sections, stately melodies and symphonic pop that goes in directions that Bruce has never quite gone before. But on another level, at least half the songs feel somewhat hollow at their core. The resonance of Springsteen’s greatest music – where the song hits you right where you live, in the most authentic part of your being, well, in that context, the tank is running low here. Somehow, Bruce Springsteen, an artist who has made his career subverting form for content, has made a record that uses form to disguise the fact that most of his new songs aren’t great.

You can hear what’s wrong with Working On A Dream on “Outlaw Pete,” an Ennio Morricone influenced tall tale that isn’t funny enough to be taken satirically, nor is it affecting enough to be taken seriously as an epic. The music soars at moments, but it never fully lifts off. It’s stuck in some sort of weird middle ground, and at 8 minutes, it goes on for about four minutes longer than necessary. It’s all very interesting – interesting and a little cerebral as opposed to viscerally powerful the way great Springsteen music is. “Queen of the Supermarket” is another interesting song – Bruce being enraptured by the sensuality of the truly super market, and falling in love with the cashier. It occurs as a clichéd parody until the last verse, when Bruce drops an F-bomb that brings it all back to reality, and you end up wondering whether the whole song is brilliant – or just a very interesting songwriting device by a master writer. If you have to ask…

“My Lucky Day,” “This Life,” “Good Eye,” “Tomorrow Never Knows,” "Surprise, Surprise," “What Love Can Do,” “Life Itself…” none of these songs are bad. Hell, If Tom Petty wrote “My Lucky Day,” it’d be heralded as a classic. There are lovely melodies, exuberant choruses, plaintive sentiment…and it just doesn’t doesn’t work at Springsteen’s usual level.

Only on two songs, “Kingdom Of Days” and “The Last Carnival,” does Springsteen hit the levels we're accustomed to. “Kingdom Of Days” is a soaring mid-tempo reverie of a love and life that is made more resonant by the consciousness of its finiteness. The towering melody, lovingly detailed lyrics and especially the gorgeously romantic instrumental bridge are the sound of peace, gratitude and acceptance – it’s as though Springsteen has finally arrived in the spot he wrote about in "Born To Run;" where he's gotten to that place he's wanted to go, and is walking in the sun.

“The Last Carnival,” a meditation on the death of founding E Street Band organist Danny Federici, is an out and out Springsteen classic. Over a simple guitar riff, gorgeous background vocals that sound like they’re out of a Simon & Garfunkel song, and lyrics that recreate the circus life of “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” from The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle, the song is a tear-jerking elegy to a fallen comrade that transcends mere sentimentality. It’s a sublime love song.

Musically, the album showcases Springsteen’s love and exploration of the sound of the white pop/rock of his adolescence. The Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Byrds, the Righteous Brothers and Roy Orbison are all present and accounted for. It's a sound that works well, but the lushness and prettiness of the sonic template doesn't always feel a match for Springsteen's grittiness. Where Springsteen's soul sound always feels like can extension of the man himself, these pop sounds occur more like a coat he's trying on temporarily.

Working On A Dream is a good album. Sometimes it is very good. But Bruce Springsteen is capable of making a better one. Perhaps that is harsh. I consider it a compliment. When no one expects greatness from Bruce Springsteen anymore, he’ll truly be finished.

New Springsteen Single: "Working On A Dream"

Bruce Springsteen's new single, "Working On A Dream," is the free download at iTunes today. It's a "nice" song - Bruce is in early 60's pop/Roy Orbison mode, and the song has a pretty lilt to it. It's a ditty, but it's a good one. There is no threat of it ever being considered one of the great Bruce Springsteen songs. My guess is that they released it as the single because it's "thematic" in some fashion, related to Obama's election (Bruce debuted the song at the last rally he played for Obama) and inauguration.

What's interesting about the song is that it once again shows what an utter anachronism Bruce is. He's always been somewhat of an anachronism - mining veins of early 60's rock, pop and soul that no one else even thinks about anymore. He would have been an incredible house writer for Atlantic Records in 1962.

I can't say that "Working On A Dream" is making me impatient to hear the new album, but it's a hell of a lot better than "Radio Nowhere," and I ended up loving Magic. So there.

Here's a quick ranking of Bruce's lead singles:

1. Born To Run (Born To Run, 1975)
2. Dancing In The Dark (Born In The U.S.A., 1984)
3. Brilliant Disguise (Tunnel Of Love, 1987)
4. Hungry Heart (The River, 1984)
5. Badlands (Darkness on the Edge Of Town, 1978)
6. The Rising (The Rising, 2002)
7. Better Days (Lucky Town, 1992)
6. Human Touch (Human Touch, 2002)
7. Blinded By The Light (Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, 1973)
8. War (Live 1975-1985, 1986)
9. Working On A Dream (Working On A Dream, 2009)
10. The Ghost of Tom Joad (The Ghost of Tom Joad, 1995)
11. Radio Nowhere (Magic, 2007)

Note: The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle and Nebraska did not have official singles released in the United States. (A video of "Atlantic City" was released to MTV in the fall of 1982, but I'm not counting that.) And I am ashamed to admit that I have no idea what the lead single was for We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. I'm pretty sure it was "Pay Me My Money Down," but I'm not sure if ever had an official release other than to AAA radio.