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Still growin' up

By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 26, 2009 at 6 p.m.
Updated January 26, 2009 at 11:35 p.m.

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Bruce Springsteen

Working on a Dream

Columbia Records

Grade: B-

The best thing about a Bruce Springsteen album is that it's going to be different from the last one.

Some rock stars chase their glory days and try to re- create the hits that made them famous. Springsteen is a songwriter first, a rock star second, and his songs are always living in the moment, whether it's the frustrated, restless searching that permeates Darkness on the Edge of Town or the questioning of the meaning of love and success in Tunnel of Love.

It isn't always successful (got my eye on you, Human Touch), but at least he's always trying.

In Adam Raised a Cain in 1978, Spring- steen laments, "You're born into this life paying / for the sins of somebody else's past." In the new Working on a Dream, he's figured out how to settle that history. You can't escape from your past, but you can embrace it and make it work for you. Unlike in songs such as Thunder Road and Born To Run, he understands that nothing can save you but you - not a girl, a place, a car or success.

Working on a Dream is a hit-and-miss album, with a varied set of songs that have the common thread of examining relationships, whether he's musing about the loss of Danny Federici in The Last Carnival or reveling in a relationship that works in My Lucky Day.

The constant pushing for something new doesn't mean he always leaves his signature sound behind. My Lucky Day echoes The River-era exuberance, playing as a real band (with a ripping Clarence Clemons sax solo) on a song that could have fit in easily on that album. But back then he was writing songs about marrying romanticized strangers he sees on the street; My Lucky Day reflects that while he's made mistakes throughout his life, he's found the relationship that works and he's sticking with it.

He revisits that in Kingdom of Days, a song celebrating growing older, wrinkled and gray - hardly Mick Jagger territory.

Strong tracks include Outlaw Pete and What Love Can Do. Good Eye is a screaming blues throwback with distorted sound and vocals where Springsteen muses about a man's conflicting intentions, a more raw update on Two Faces: "I had my good eye to the dark / And my blind eye to the sun." Tomorrow Never Knows (not the Beatles song) is a breezy two-minute folk shuffle.

The standout, though, is the "bonus" track, The Wrestler, a wistful meditation on keeping on despite the odds. That's hardly new territory, but coupled with the Mickey Rourke film, it kills.

It doesn't mean all youthful yearnings and idealism have gone away. Queen of the Supermarket is about being infatuated with a clerk down at the grocery. It's as slight as its topic, as are several other songs here. The melodic Surprise Surprise tries to go somewhere but never arrives lyrically amid its dense, Beach Boys-influenced production. That same approach mars Kingdom of Days,, a great lyric tied to a so-so melody. And the title track is the definite weak link.

Fans may be disappointed that they're not getting another Born in the U.S.A., but that's never been the point.

Listen in

To hear The Wrestler from Bruce Springsteen's new CD, Working on a Dream, go to youtube.com/ watch?v= 4OSvJvSwmd4. For My Lucky Day, go to youtube.com/ watch?v= WUJxgBlvcPc.

OTHER NEW RELEASES

* Franz Ferdinand: Tonight

* Various artists: 2009 Grammy nominees

* Various artists: The Secret Policeman's Balls (DVD)

NEXT WEEK

* The Fray: The Fray

* Melinda Doolittle: Coming Back to You

* Dierks Bentley: Feel That Fire

Comments

  • January 27, 2009

    10:57 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Mark Brown writes:

    Springsteen announced his tour dates today, including an April 10 date here in Denver:

    http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/ro...

  • January 27, 2009

    10:29 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    LeftyDv writes:

    I'm still listening to Working on a Dream for the first time (I'm at Good Eye), but I've already found this to be more enjoyable than Magic. To me, most of it sounds a lot like "Girls in their Summer Clothes," which I still think was the last album's best song. Can't wait for the show at the Pepsi Center.