Album Review

We’ve come to rely on Bruce Springsteen so much for his meditations on the state of the world as seen through the eyes of the hardscrabble characters in his songs that it’s quite a shock that his new album sounds so happy. Anyone expecting narratives filled with foreclosed houses and the unemployed or diatribes against a certain outgoing administration will be sadly disappointed.

What he does offer on Working On a Dream is an antidote to all of the bad news out there. By focusing on the simple pleasures in life and concentrating on loved ones instead of financial upheaval, Bruce is once again lighting the way for his listeners. And while that advice be easier heard than followed for those of us who aren’t multimillion-selling rock stars, the honesty and straightforward power of Springsteen’s message should be enough to convince even the hardest of hearts.

If you follow Springsteen’s albums through the years, you can almost trace the arc of a single character from the beginning. The streetwise dreamer of the Born To Run learned hard lessons about life on Darkness On The Edge Of Town, discovered a social conscience on Nebraska, labored through romantic confusion on Tunnel Of Love, found true love on Human Touch and Lucky Town, struggled to make sense of a heinous tragedy on The Rising, and found a rocking second wind on Magic. The latter, a 2007 triumph, was clear-eyed in its views of the limitations of one’s dreams in a world ruled by mindless authority, but it still rebelled against those limitations with undiminished rock and roll spirit.

Working On a Dream finds a peace undiscovered on any previous Boss release. Even the albums of the early 90’s were shadowed with hints of guilt and regret. The characters wandering through the new record all seem to be middle-aged and almost sedate. There is no naiveté in their worldview; they can still see all the dark edges. But they also are bathed in a romantic light, able to transcend their circumstances and release their burdens through their strong bonds to others.

Springsteen looked back to his youth to find the proper soundtrack to these autumn ruminations, namely sunny 60’s rock and pop. Roy Orbison, The Left Banke, and The Beach Boys all leave a mark on these songs, along with countless other bands that provide the happier sounds on E Street Band member Little Steven Van Zandt’s Underground Garage radio shows. Bruce and producer Brendan O’Brien unabashedly lay on the horns and strings, and Bruce trades in some of his lyrical dexterity for tunefulness. It’s a testament to the melodies here, some of the loveliest in his career, that Springsteen loses nothing in the trade-off.

“Surprise, Surprise” wouldn’t have sounded out of place on any AM radio circa 1967. The title track works in a rare whistling solo as Bruce sings in muscular tones about optimism in the face of all odds. And it’s telling when the tinkling piano of Roy Bittan, which once upon a time used to accompany gang fights and drag races, now glorifies a hot checkout girl in “Queen of the Supermarket.” The romance is alive and well, even if the settings have changed.

Listen to “Surprise, Surprise”
Listen to “Working on a Dream”
Listen to “Queen of the Supermarket”

A few of the other more generic rockers, like “Life Itself,” “My Lucky Day,” and “What Love Can Do,” further expound on the love-conquers-all theme, although they could have used some of the Spectorian pixie-dust sprayed liberally on other tracks to give them a little more life. And the E Street Band does get a little lost on some of the more flowery tracks, although when asked to contribute, they respond. Max Weinberg’s nifty hip-hop flavored rhythm spices up “What Love Can Do,” and the crazed opener “Outlaw Pete” gives them all chance to go wild. The Bunyanesque-tale of a no-good criminal who takes a flying leap off a mountaintop, horse and all, to avoid justice is like one of Dylan’s wandering epics on steroids. The bombastic, Spaghetti-Western-on-Pluto arrangement makes it sound like Bruce overheard Muse on one of his kids iPods.

Listen to “What Love Can Do”
Listen to “Outlaw Pete”

A pair of gorgeous ballads forms the irrepressible heart of the album. “This Life” starts out with some Pet Sounds-style percussion and harmonies and evolves into a movingly heartfelt love song, with Bruce practically crooning. Even better is “Kingdom of Days,” in which the singer harmonizes beautifully with wife Patti Scialfa about their advancing years: “We laugh beneath the covers/And count the wrinkles and the grays.”

Listen to “This Life”
Listen to “Kingdom of Days”

Alas, passing time does bring its heartaches as well, and the last two tracks testify to that. First of all, kudos to Bruce for including “The Wrestler” as a bonus track (and shame on the Oscars for snubbing it); it digs deeper lyrically than anything else here with its unflinching yet empathetic portrait of a man who has destroyed the love that saves the characters elsewhere on the album. And “The Last Carnival,” which officially closes the album, is Bruce’s heartbreaking goodbye to E Street keyboardist Danny Federici, who passed away last year. Loyal Boss fans will recognize the name of the character in the song from “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” on 1973’s The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle. Now, over plaintive acoustic guitar and haunting calliope-like effects, Springsteen laments the circus closing down and moving on to the next stop without his dear friend. The end of the song allows the members of the band an a cappella salute that is part cathartic wail and part mournful hallelujah.

Listen to “The Wrestler”
Listen to “The Last Carnival”

It’s a heartbreaking reminder that time will eventually win out. The brave thing about Working On A Dream is the way it admits this fact but chooses to rage against the dying of the light with stubborn hope and infinite love. In that way, Springsteen shows he doesn’t need to piggyback on current events to be as rebellious and relevant as he’s ever been.

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