Bruce Springsteen - Working on a Dream

Review for Nexus Magazine (www.nexusmag.co.nz)

I was a bit slow on discovering Bruce Springsteen. For the longest time I only knew him for a song with an awful synthesisor and a music video with Courtney Cox, something about dancing in the dark.. that was until last year when I listened properly to The Boss for the first time. After lapping up Darkness on the Edge of Town, I quickly went out and purchased a copy of Born to Run, just to see what all the fuss was about. A couple of hundred plays later, I can safely say it’s safely made its way into my five favourite albums.

Working on a Dream is one of his most varied albums and has very little consistency throughout. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that the casual listener will pick out their favourite tracks quickly, and no doubt skip the styles that they don’t like. Upon second and third listen, I found myself skipping out the bluesy rock track Good Eye (where he sounds creepily like Chris Cornell) and the title track (a bit too earnest and cheesy for my liking).

With the exception of those tracks, the rest have been great fun to listen to. The wild west adventure of Outlaw Pete flies past, despite the 8 minute length. My Lucky Day is a great first single from the album and deserves more airplay that it seems to be getting. Two tracks stood out for me, Queen of the Supermarket and This Life. Strangely enough, these are the cheesiest tracks on the album, yet they are so comfortable and vocal about their cheesiness it just seems to work. Lush arrangements accompany both of the songs, including a fantastically bittersweet saxophone solo from Clarence Clemons to conclude This Life.

I was weary of the Brendon O’Brien production (with the exception of the new Mastodon album, his CV is patchy to say the least … Audioslave, Velvet Revolver, Papa Roach, The Offspring etc). I was uncertain if I was going to enjoy his interpretation of the Springsteen sound I had become accustomed to over the last year or so. My conclusion after listening to the album is that it suits some of the tracks better than others.

The album wraps up with a tribute to fallen E Street member Danny Federici called The Last Carnival and the bonus track The Wrestler that was unfairly overlooked at the Academy Awards this year in favour of two songs from Slumdog Millionaire.

It’s a flawed album no doubt, but it has moments of brilliance that definitely shouldn’t be ignored just because some of the songs fall flat. If you don’t listen to it expecting a Darkness on the Edge of Town or Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen fans should find a lot to like in this album.

Rating: 3.5/5