Dez Reviews: Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream, 2009

Let's address the most obvious issue with Bruce's latest release first. That would be the ridiculous album cover. As one reviewer on Amazon.com stated, it looks like a bad velvet Elvis. Worst Springsteen cover ever. OK, on to the music...

Here's the thing about Bruce Springsteen. He is at his best when he is upset, angry or restless. I have often argued that great art (even popular art), generally must come from darker places. Loneliness, anger, confusion, fear, angst. That is the root of great rock music. This is especially true of Bruce. His worst music of his career came in the early 1990's when his life was good. He had just gotten remarried, had kids, was content. And his music sucked. Fans like me wanted to hear more about the "Darkness on the Edge of Town," not about "Better Days" being here because he's rich, happy and a family man.

Unfortunately, it sounds like Bruce is happy once again. This is especially disappointing because he has had a wonderful resurgence in the 2000's. Starting with 2002's The Rising (a deep record that eloquently deals with 9/11), and on through 2005's stark Devils & Dust and 2007's wonderful Magic (which was his best record in almost 25 years), Bruce had something to complain about. Now that his man Obama has been elected, Bruce is "Working on a Dream" and singing about "My Lucky Day."

Most of these songs are indistinguishable from each other. Springsteen claims that he's into writing pop songs with great melodies lately. If that's the case, he's failed. Chugging along at genial midtempos, they make for sometimes energetic but ultimately forgettable rock songs. Most of it isn't bad, just negligible. The only terrible one is "Queen of the Supermarket," where he sounds like a third rate Springsteen impersonator stretching his working class metaphors to laughable proportions.

Four songs do stand out, which save the record from a terrible GNABB rating. The eight minute opener "Outlaw Pete" gives us false hope that this will be a great record. With its insistent strings, Bruce seems to be trying to revisit the epic territory of the mid-1970's, a la "Jungleland" or "Incident on 57th Street." It does not get to those peaks, but at least it reaches for it. "What Love Can Do" has got a great groove to it, and "Life Itself" has some depth to it, and not coincidentally is one of the few tunes with darkness to it. Thankfully, Bruce also gives us his title track to "The Wrestler" soundtrack as a tagged on bonus track. "The Wrestler" is more potent and memorable than any of these other songs.

Oh well. Even Bruce has said that this record was put together on the fly during breaks during the Magic tour. It does sound of leftovers. One very nice part of the record is in the liner notes booklet, where Bruce dedicates two pages to deceased E Street keyboardist Danny Federici, with a lovely photo and an excerpt of the eulogy that Bruce gave at Federici's service. I just wish that the record Bruce dedicated to Danny was worthy of the man.

Grade: B-