Wednesday, January 21, 2009
By J. FREEDOM du LAC
Bruce Springsteen has a dream.
He has a dream that one day, this rock ’n’ roll nation will rise up and live like it’s 1965/1966 all over again.
He has a dream that our pop stars will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the RIAA- certified colors of their gold and platinum albums, but by how well they appropriate the spectral mid-’60s sounds of the Beach Boys, Byrds, Beatles, Roy Orbison, Phil Spector and even Ennio Morricone.
That’s the prevailing musical message of Springsteen and the E Street Band’s surprising new album, “Working on a Dream.” Scheduled for release Tuesday, “Working on a Dream” is unlike any of the previous 15 studio sets in Springsteen’s remarkably rich catalog, inasmuch as it’s the Jersey boy’s first album in which style clearly trumps substance.
Springsteen is forever striving to blend profound lyrics with bracing rock SSRqn’ roll or folk, depending on his musical mood. But “Working on a Dream” is full of lyrical missteps and half-realized ideas. The album doesn’t go nearly as deep as you’d expect from one of rock’s pre-eminent poets; Springsteen’s lyrics tend to be overshadowed by the album’s generally bright melodies and lush textures and sounds.
The sonic sum here is frequently something to behold, as in “Queen of the Supermarket,” which begins simply, as a midtempo piano ballad, before adding everything from swelling strings and swirling Eastern-tinged guitar chords to stacked vocal harmonies and the rhythmic beep of an electronic cash register. It’s a marvelous, majestic song, save for the lyrics, in which Springsteen goes shopping at a store “where aisles and aisles of dreams await you” — specifically, where “a dream awaits in aisle number two” — and winds up snatching a hidden-beauty metaphor from the clearance bin. (Leave it to the Boss to try to romanticize the megamart shopping experience.)
It’s a recurring problem. “Surprise Surprise,” for instance, is a devastatingly catchy power-pop song built around chiming, Byrdsian guitar chords and punched up with the sort of swirling keyboard line that might make Ray Manzarek beam with pride. It sounds like the best Traveling Wilburys song you’ve never heard, only with strings and, unfortunately, the sort of lyrics that Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, et al., might have laughed out of the room: “And when the sun comes out tomorrow, it’ll be the start of a brand new day / And all that you have wished for I know will come your way.”
On the driving rocker “My Lucky Day,” over ringing guitars and piano fills, Springsteen plays with the old love-is-a-gamble motif, but can only come up with this couplet: “Well, I lost all the other bets I made / Honey, you’re my lucky day.”
Bruuuuuce?
Much better is “This Life,” which features some of the best vocal harmonies this side of the Beach Boys and includes one of the album’s most memorable lyrics: “I finger the hem of your dress / My universe at rest.”
Bruuuuuce!
Throughout the album, Springsteen sounds relatively content — a far cry from his state of mind 16 months ago, when the bitter and oft-bleak E Street album “Magic” was released. Then, Springsteen was downright disturbed by the realities of this American life under the watch of George W. Bush. Now, he sounds optimistic and occasionally downright giddy.