A new Bruce Springsteen record will almost guarantee the resurrection of the "hasn't made a great album since Nebraska" conversation. The less rigid will substitute "Nebraska" for "Tunnel Of Love." But the worst of the lot won't give you anything after "Darkness On The Edge Of Town." For a world renowned superstar, respected songwriter, legendary entertainer, and Tony winner, Bruce Springsteen rarely makes a good record...at least that's how it seems the first week of a new release. A new Bruce Springsteen record, since "Tunnel of Love" it seems, will almost be a guaranteed disappointment on first or second listen because, at least since 1980's "The River," Bruce Springsteen hasn't made a record that sounds like the Bruce Springsteen you remember loving, all those sweaty, Capitol Theater nights ago. Besides, you have Southside Johnny for that, and ironically, that band gets trashed by the cognescenti, too. It's a lose-lose, isn't it?
But things change. You come around. In the words of Jeff Tweedy, "What you once were isn't what you wanna be anymore." Not you. Not me. Not Bruce Springsteen.
Now we have "Western Stars," a "cowboy" record. "Western Stars," a "desert" record. "Western Stars," a "Laurel Canyon" record. I've been living with this record for a day now, and "Western Stars" isn't any of those things. It's a Bruce Springsteen record and it's a damn good one, and even damn good records are not perfect.
Names like Jimmy Webb, Glen Campbell and Harry Nilsson were tossed around when "Hello Sunshine" was released as the first single. In and of itself, "Hello Sunshine" is indeed a pastiche of those artists, and the music they made. But in the context of "Western Stars," the album, that single is just as much a Bruce Springsteen song as "Walk Like A Man" from "Tunnel Of Love," or "Incident On 57th Street," from 15 years before it.
Songs like "The Wayfarer" and "Sundown," are, in a word, stunning. This is record-making at its finest, with sweeping production and big finales. "Stones," the very best thing on "Western Stars," for now, has a vibe that is part "Lonesome Day" and part "Color Of A Cloudy Day," the heart-wrenching Jason Isbell/Amanda Shires song, and it too, will leave you breathless.
Not everything works for me. Not the opener, "Hitch Hikin'," a simple and repetitive cliche that would have served the record better as a closer, much like "Wreck On The Highway," closing out "The River." And "Sleepy Joe's Cafe" feels too much like "Mary's Place" from "The Rising," which felt too much like Sam Cooke, and neither particularly good.
"Western Stars" will unfold and reveal itself slowly, like a brilliant record should. I love it more than I did yesterday. It might help to drop all labels and all expectations. I don't even expect the rumored E Street Band record to sound anything like the E Street Band when it gets released next year. But if you're a fan of The Boss and of pop music, "Western Stars" has the best of both.
21 comments:
First time through, "Sundown" and "...Miracle" are my faves. The whole album has a great feel to it and consistently pleasing to the ears. Waiting for the vinyl to come to get s serious lyric reading session in. I even enjoyed some of the songs you seemed to be luke-warm about like "..Café" and "Hitch Hiking'". He further cements his artistic standing with this one.
I like what I've heard and know I really need to take some time to let the flavours meld.
Over at NPR Music Ann Powers has a good piece and she has a wonderful playlist of the music that (maybe) formed Bruce's thinking.
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/13/731719436/all-he-wanted-was-to-be-free-where-bruce-springsteens-western-stars-came-from
How does Bruce (and Ann and Sal) have the same records I do yet can pull emotions / thoughts / songs / ... together in such a cool way?
Ah ... the depths of my ignorance know no bounds!
My copy is on order, and I can't wait to hear it.
That said, "Magic" is a great fucking album,
I owe "Magic" a relisten. All the stuff that got radio play, I liked at the time. And "Radio Nowhere" just rips.
I always thought "Lucky Town" was a great guitar-oriented record. Very Stonesy in its way. And good thematically, too. Kind of tarred with the distaste many people felt with "Human Touch." Now THAT's hit-or-miss; some of the experiments -- and God bless him for trying -- don't really work and "Roll Of The Dice" psotively wastes that grrove and great Roy Bittan piano lick on a pretty rote lyrical exercise. But even HT has its moments.
And not for nothing, but "Tunnel Of Love" was the balls. Great thematic record.
I'm listening to Western Stars at work. Which is not the best way to immerse myself with this record but so far, I'm loving it. Can't wait to really dig into this over the weekend.
I'm not one of the Bruce snobs who thinks that anything after Darkness stinks. That's because for years/decades, I resisted Bruce. Stupid I know.
But after 9/11, The Rising brought me in and I haven't looked back. I love The River and I really like Wrecking Ball. Tunnel, Seeger Sessions, Devils & Dust, Born (to Run and in the USA)...all good by me.
I'm just super happy that Bruce is still vital and creative at 70.
Come on! Everyone knows Springsteen hasn't made a REALLY great album since... "Wrecking Ball," which was two albums ago in 2012. Then you'd have to go all the way back to...2006 which was six years and three albums before that, when he put out "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions." (Also one of his best tours ever.)
@Michael Giltz
"Magic" is a damned masterpiece of pop music. And if you mention Brendan O'Brien, I'm coming over there!
Bruce is one of the best performers I've ever seen, and a great artist I wish I could love, but there is a sameness to his music I don't find comforting.
I'd heard "Western Stars" described as his "Laurel Canyon" album, and hoped it would reflect some of that, and sound a little more like "Willin'", anything by Gram, "Tequila Sunrise", or even Bakersfield Merle, but it doesn't.
I just watched the videos for "Western Stars" and another one that sounded the same but had more strings, and couldn't tell you a thing about them beyond being a little bored and wishing the music went better with the beautifully filmed cliches.
I don't hear anything "Western" about it. It sounds more "Nashville" than "Outlaw".
It's probably a damn good record, but I lack the attention span to go any deeper.
I'm not a good audience for slow songs with too many words.
I like the album on first listen. But I'm not sure about the cover. An eastern view of a west facing horse? A Horse's ass? What is that intending?
Just finished my first listen, and I love it. Part of that reaction is fueled by the wait. I only listened to one track prior to release, but I was hopeful based on all of the pre-release hype.
I agree, Sal, that "Hitch Hikin'" does not make a good opener. It's a fine tune, but should have been placed in a different spot.
The sound is great. There's a spaciousness to the sound that I believe is required for the strings to complement the other instruments. The everything louder than everything else production of Brendan O'Brien would not have served these songs well.
More listens to come, and I'm sure that each listen will bring something new to my ears.
You are so right! Although this time the majority of the reviews I've read have been wonderful thankfully, particularly Ann Powers in NPR (which is more of an essay than a review I guess)- I just connected with it the way she did and especially loved the companion playlist of other artists songs that was compiled with the piece. There was one review that drove me crazy, and not because the writer hated it but because he was disappointed because as you say it's not what *he* wanted, which is fine if it didn't also correlate with 'it's bad because it's not what I wanted'. He also said it had no discernible purpose. I have no idea what that even means.
Bruce is a lot of things- a performer, a musician, a story teller, and the author of *his* story, I see his records-almost more than anyone else's, as the story he wishes to tell at that moment, maybe we don't like the rhythms of this moment (the sound) or maybe parts of this current moment are better than other parts- just like chapters in a book- and yes just like a book chapters/songs may resonate differently later than they do today as you said. All I know is I'm proud of my Jersey guy, that he looks to grow, yet somehow stays within himself. I'm also thankful that he is aware of time, and his age, a lot of rockers aren't as we know. He's a truly fine, empathetic songwriter and his whole career is studded with transcendent gems that yes shine more brightly often on a revisit.
This record touches me, transports me, it moves me, it feels so very personal as if he's sharing a secret with us- but even if it didn't love it, it's his story and he gets to tell it how he wants and he gets to execute it how he wants. All we can ask of artists is to keep creating, to keep sharing, they either move us or they don't. Western Stars moves me. I can't wait to hear it all live. Hello Sunshine.
I'm half-way through and, if anything else, I love the story telling. It's what we want. Not sure if I'll continue to look for anything political but when Bruce gets personal, he's at his best. Personal, of course, is different than autobiographical. When his narrators are either people we know or the experiences we've had, this is why we love Bruce.
Speaking of "Mary's Place," I can see why you and/or others may not care for it. My own personal take on this song, and I've spent countless hours ruminating on The Rising, is that "Mary's Place" isn't the location of the house party, it's the song on the turn table at what started as a wake. Of course, Bruce's song is taken nearly verbatim from the Sam Cooke song and the verses juxtapose the chorus. The song is about redemption and literally, rising, from pain and despair. The song elevates in volume, in tone, and literally in key. By the song's end, which ironically on the record ends in a bit of a minor key (reminding you of your pain), you'are higher than when you started. To remember a loved one, you dig up what they loved in order to bring them back as much as you can, even as you know you can't. That's the beauty of that paradox. My two cents; I'm probably wrong.
Paul in CA
@Paul in CA
I love your take on "Mary's Place." I've never thought of it as anything, really.
It held its moment in the Rising shows that the rest of the songs couldn’t give us. It even fits thematically on that record. And that the record needed that exact type of song at that exact moment. In precisely the way that Outlaw Pete fails and has no excuse to be on its record, and hangs like a false nose on the face of its record, feeling like the real record begins after an oddly placed tacked on bonus track accidentally tucked onto the beginning instead of the end, Mary’s Place does NOT fail or feel like an editing or sequencing error, it to me, just feels like a case of inadequate writing for the wise purpose for which it was conceived.
There were some comments here or on Fb about "over-production". I love production. It's a whole other art form. It can enhance or ruin a song but just because a song has some extra bells and whistles it can't be categorized as over-produced. Production should enhance a song either with bells and whistles or with nothing at all except a pristine recording of the performance. Surely you wouldn't characterize "Sgt Pepper", "Good Vibrations" or as Sal mentioned, "Born to Run" as over-produced. Just like sprinkles enhances ice cream and good frosting can make a cake better, sometimes "bells and whistles" are called for. I always think of NIN's "Hurt" which had it's good share of sprinkles. But when you listen to Johnny Cash's stripped down version you can make an argument that the latter may be better. It is, for Johnny Cash's performance of that song. It wouldn't work for NIN.
That said, I think the production on "Western Stars" is gorgeous. It's subdued if anything, with just the proper amount of frosting. I immediately thought about "Nebraska" as the songs are someone reminiscent. I didn't like "Nebraska" as I thought the production was too stark. I think the music and lyrics could have used something more, at least for me. "Western Stars" sounds gorgeous and to me it's one of his most consistently enjoyable albums.
P.S. Sal, I'm with you on "The Wayfarer". Listened a second time in the car and it struck me hard. beautiful.
@cmealha
I am with you all the way. But regarding "Nebraska," it wasn't produced. It was a cassette of demos, that I believe, Bruce wanted to make into a record, and the powers that be said, "No. This is fine the way it is." You can dream about the "electric Nebraska" that may or may not exist, but for a cassette of demos, it's damn good.
I've been letting this record wash over me for a week and I feel about it much the same way you do. I feel like "Hitch Hiking' " would have been a better opener if it was a minute shorter, kinda like an "Ain't Got You" kickoff (speaking of the masterpiece that is "Tunnel"). As I sat with it this morning, though, I thought how I really loved the next three songs and how they compliment each other. "The Wayfarer", "Tucson Train" and the beautiful title cut are the heart of this record. And they're gorgeous. "Sleepy Joe's Cafe", I agree, is a weak spot. It's the up-tempo song this album sort of needs, but it feels unearned. "Mary's Place", for me, was about overcoming grief. I actually like that song a lot (less so in it's live incarnation), because it feels earned. This doesn't.
The other criticism I have is "Somewhere North of Nashville", which is an unfinished song that could be great. "I traded you for this song" is a killer line. The song just deserves more. This could have been an album centerpiece. Instead it's a half-song.
After that, however, you get the utterly beautiful "Stones", then the very good (and sad) "There Goes My Miracle" and "Hello Sunshine", which i utterly adore. The closer, "Moonlight Motel" is beautiful but feels a bit derivative to me.
All in all it's a damn great record from someone who hasn't really released a masterpiece since "Springsteen on Broadway". It's about damn time!!!
First impressions after one full listening: It doesn’t rock. That’s OK because the production is excellent. That’s a really bad haircut. It sounds like someone’s lost and wandering, looking for something. Excellent songwriting, it’s like a collection of short stories. No bad songs. I’ll be listening to it a lot more. Lose that haircut.
I agree that this is an album that will reveal itself over multiple listenings. My first impression is that I love Tucson Train and the title track, and like most of the rest of it. I want to like Hello Sunshine more, but to me it never quite gets out of the starting gate. Again, I hope it reveals itself more to me with more time. I'm looking forward to hearing the vinyl, as the sound on the record is gorgeous.
Sal - "The powers that be" told Bruce he should stick with the demos instead of recording full-band versions of the "Nebraska" tunes? That was Bruce himself, perhaps with an assist from Landau, who made that decision. According to Toby Scott, who was his engineer for decades, an unsatisfying day of trying to find full-band versions of the songs ended when Bruce took the cassette from his front pocket and asked if it was possible to master an album off of it. Scott, who didn't know how technically flawed the cassette recording was (see also: river sludge in the heads of the boombox on which Bruce made the original demo mix) said sure. Bruce tossed him the cassette and that was that.
This is a tiny point, of course. But there it is.
ps - I fucking love this album.
I'm all in for this new record - the first cut they released locked me in ("Hello Sunshine"). Can't wait to seek it out on vinyl at my local record store this weekend.
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