Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream

Third album of new material in little over four years

Written and recorded largely in downtime during last year’s world tour, which included several appearances on the Obama campaign trail, Boss websites have been full of rumours that this would be Springsteen’s resounding statement of post-Bush optimism. While it’s certainly his most positive and uplifting album for some time, there’s little in the way of overt politicising. It is, however, a celebration of the history of great American popular music. The eight-minute opener Outlaw Pete, a fatalistic tale of the old west, arrives like a Marty Robbins western ballad, but that’s just one influence. Elsewhere, it’s clear that Bruce has been listening to Surf’s Up-era Beach Boys, the rustic Americana of The Band or John Fogerty, and the minor key harmonies of The Byrds, fashioning a kind of blue collar jukebox not heard since 1980’s The River.

Queen Of The Supermarket, a Drifters-esque shuffle, recalls the streetwise poetry of Springsteen’s early 70s albums, and his formative years are remembered again on The Last Carnival, an ode to the E Street Band’s late keyboardist Danny Federici. Final track The Wrestler joins an impressive roster of movie song commissions (Streets Of Philadelphia, Dead Man Walking), bringing down the curtain on yet another formidable collection, as Bruce continues to record in the most prolific vein of his career.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Sony | tbc

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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