Customer Reviews

Working on a Dream

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(30)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I read a Springsteen interview once where he noted that his fans don't seem to like his music when he's happy. I thought then - and I think now - that even his serious albums have music that makes me happier than anything else I've ever heard, and I don't mean just Thunder Road or Born to Run, but Open All Night (Dublin Live) or Maria's Bed (Devils & Dust).

So I'm sorry to say that I'm yet another one of those long-time Springsteen fans who's disappointed in this album. The Bruce I love seems to sing directly to the audience, but in this CD, as in Magic, he sounds about 10 miles away, with a lot of noise between us. I have to say I think this album is worse than Magic, however, because there's not a single song that makes you want to get up and rock, and only the Wrestler genuinely touches your emotions. Are we having fun or do we care when we listen to this? When the answer to both is no then the album comes nowhere near Bruce's usual standards. Outlaw Pete is the closest we can get to enjoyment, but Supermarket Queen and Surprise Surprise are so cheesy that I'm embarrassed to listen to them. And the album is unusually unvaried (read: boring), with nearly every song at a similar volume and tempo.

Bruce still has plenty of energy in concert - I saw him last in August when he was outstanding - but he sounds pretty tired here. And, as others have mentioned, the E-Street band might be credited, but I can't hear them. He's always had ups and downs, so we can keep our fingers crossed for Better Days...

Warning... Avoid this album if:
1) You only enjoy older Springsteen Classics (BTR, Darkness, The River, Nebraska, BITUSA) and haven't enjoyed anything he has put out since 1984!
2) You are expecting a full blown Rock album with the E Street Band

If you're not and can appreciate the diverse styles that Bruce has offered on recent albums such as Devils and Dust and the Seeger Sessions, then you will find another excellent album by the Boss which has depth to it that may not be fully evident on first listen. The writing really is top notch. I appreciate the fact that Springsteen continually is moving forward, trying new styles and not writing the same songs that he did when he was the 25-30 year old who penned Born to Run or Badlands. (Classics yes but three decades ago!) I think thats what seperates him from some of the other "classic" rock artists still making music today.

Standout tracks:
Outlaw Pete (lush orchestration, nice storytelling song)
What Love Can Do (Great Rocker that should be good live)
My Lucky Day (Another Good Rocker)
The Last Carnival (Very nice tribute to Danny Federici)
This Life (Lush, takes a few listens to appreciate, Nice Sax Solo to close the song)
Life Itself

I highly recommend this album as I think it represents the excellence of Springsteen once again.

Like Magic, Working On A Dream is a good collection of songs, some stronger than others, but great to hear Springsteen's creative juices are still flowing. Also like Magic, it's too bad the recording is so compressed that it hurts to listen to it. Strangled cymbals, organ that sound like it's being played through a toilet paper roll, background singers that are singing... something- can't make out a melody...

Unlike Magic, I am hoping a 5.1 surround mix is released so I can actually hear and distinguish the drums, organ, guitar, strings, bass, instead of hearing "drumsorganguitarstringsbass".

I am a die-hard Bruce fan and I generally fall in love with anything he writes...but this is quite possibly the worst of all his albums. There are some pretty good tunes on here - "The Wrestler," "Working on a Dream," "Outlaw Pete" - but there are many awkwardly bad ones. I want to like "My Lucky Day" and "Queen of the Supermarket," but the lyrics are irrevocably hokey, something you don't expect from Bruce. "What Love Can Do" and "This Life" are just flat and boring. "Surprise, Surprise" is one of the worst songs he has ever written. He says he worked on this album quickly, and it shows. I'm certainly disappointed.

UPDATE: Here I am months later in May and I still think this is the worst album Bruce has ever put out. I can appreciate everything he's done from Before the Fame right up through Magic (the list of my ten favorite Bruce albums includes an even mix of 70s, 80s, and his modern stuff)...but I can't make it through this album. I'm going to see Bruce in New Jersey this week (my 5th concert) and I'm SO grateful that he only seems to be playing 2-3 songs a night from "Working on a Nightmare!"

"Working On A Dream" is his 24th album and the fourth collaboration between Bruce Springsteen and producer Brendan O''Brien.
The album was recorded at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, L.A., New York and New Jersey, and has echoes of the Californian music scene of the mid-60s, with shades of Brian Wilson circa 1966, pulsing through at various times.
It could be viewed as an extension to 2007's Magic, as the Boss finished that album he carried on writing material.
While "Magic" is a record underscored by fear, disgust and shame at the direction of his country under the previous America administration, now, as he plays to inaugurate the new president, the weight seems to have been lifted.
The most political thing about "Working On A Dream" is that it is not political at all.
The album dwells on love and optimism instead of political discontent. The effect is like a superhero looking down on a society safely returned to normality, saying "my work here is done".
And those new songs are reflections on love, life and death and all points in between as only the romantic aspect of Springsteen can conjure.
The mood is set by the opener "Outlaw Pete", a tongue-in-cheek ballad ('at six months old he'd done three months in jail, he robbed a bank in his diapers and little bare baby feet') and western epic that's more Howard Hawks than Clint Eastwood and all the better for it.
Otherwise the songs are tight, Springsteen forgoing length for impact, and the hits roll: the touching "Queen of the Supermarket" - which is about nothing more profound than fancying a checkout girl - , the raucous swamp-blues "Good Eye", the Macca-tastic "Surprise, Surprise" and the beautiful, brooding "The Last Carnival", which alludes to the death last year of E Street Band keyboardist Danny Federici.
Where he once bristled with testosterone-fuelled certainty in "She's The One", he is now in love.
"My Lucky Day" and "Surprise, Surprise" are exuberant love songs, and Bruce Springsteen's joy at a bright future shines through.
This album resounds with the same passion as Born in the U.S.A. a quarter of a century ago, less relentlessly intense but no less of its time.
The album wraps with "The Wrestler", featured in the new Mickey Rourke film about a has-been grapple king directed by Darren Aronofsky.
All in all, this is an album which shows Bruce's passionate, joyously outstanding pop world.
Out of a Dream
The Wrestler [Theatrical Release]

This is Brendan O'Brien's Working on a Dream. That is what this CD should be called. This is not Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. It is Brendan O'Brien and the nowhere to be heard E-Street Band. I think O'Brien has brain-washed Bruce into writing terrible lousy muddy sounding songs. I can't listen to Magic or Devils and Dust....the sound is terrible. Bruce producing himself on The Seeger Sessions sounded so much better.

From an objective point of view, Working On A Dream may not entirely please every Bruce Springsteen fan, but I don't think it will alienate many either. From fun, upbeat pop/rock to intimate acoustic balladry, this collection takes off from where 2007's Magic ended, but also includes more than a hint of 'classic' Springsteen sound. This is by no means a 'perfect' record, but it has more than enough substantial material to stand uniquely on its own in The Boss' discography.

Written and recorded quickly beginning immediately upon the conclusion of Magic, there's a 'raw'-ness at the core of many of these songs that no amount of production can cover up. And yes, producer Brendan O'Brien has ordered up quite the majestic arrangement on many of the tracks...almost to the point of overdoing it at times. The string orchestra is back in full force, and there are times where the music comes close to overwhelming Bruce's vocal. For example, on "What Love Can Do" and parts of the second and third verses of "Life Itself", you lose a few words here and there due to guitars and/or background vocals that seem to share the same frequencies as the vocal. But for the most part, you get to hear Bruce's one-of-a-kind vocals loud and clear. On a few songs, we get a very 'up-front' vocal sound...especially on songs where the arrangements aren't as big, like "The Last Carnival" and "The Wrestler". On "Carnival", I love how Bruce's voice cracks and breaks at the end of many of the lines...most tracks were recorded in only a couple of takes, and that adds up to a high 'human' factor...very real and pure, like he's singing live right in front of you.

A few tracks haven't done a lot for me yet in the short time I've been listening to it..."Good Eye" seems to be just another run-of-the-mill blues rocker, and the 'almost-country two-step' "Tomorrow Never Knows" hasn't had me doing any cartwheels either. Then again, I initially wrote off "My Lucky Day" as overly simplistic and repetitious, but it's grown on me a bit now (and it's fun to dance to), so I think its possible to change your tune on some of the songs that don't instantly strike you. Several did have an immediate impact on me however...the bottom of the lineup is especially strong starting from "Life Itself" (I love the different, almost eerie mood) all the way to "The Wrestler", the Golden Globe Award winner and my personal favorite song here...that one's all emotion with a wonderful vocal delivery.

"Outlaw Pete" paints a picture of the American west with guns ablazing with a bottom line message of learning to live with the sins of our past in order to move forward. The absurd 'controversy' over Bruce stealing this from Kiss ("I Was Made For Lovin' You") has me smelling 'publicity stunt'...while the melodies share the same notes, NOTHING else is remotely similar. Several tunes focus on a personal relationship theme...a line from "Kingdom Of Days" tells us "I don't see the summer as it wanes, just the subtle change of light upon your face." "The Last Carnival" remembers keyboardist Danny Federici, who lost his battle with cancer last April. "Queen Of The Supermarket" almost seemed silly at first...grocery shopping is a unique topic...but Bruce has said this song is to remind us we can find beauty where it's often ignored or passed by. No matter how trite the lyrics may seem at times, you know the wheels were turning in Bruce's head when he wrote it...there's always a message or deeper meaning there, even with all of these pop songs he's doing now.

In any case, it appears Bruce really enjoyed making this record...I don't believe he set out to break any new ground musically or to make any grand statement here either, but that doesn't diminish the enjoyment of listening to it...minor flaws aside, Working On A Dream works well.

I didn't latch on to Springsteen when I was a kid despite the popularity of Born in the USA when I was six (I sure did love Dancing in the Dark, though). I recall liking Human Touch (the song) when it was released, but it wasn't until I got out of high school that I realized there was more to The Boss due to Secret Garden being such a big part of the Jerry Maguire advertising campaign. That song refused to leave my head and so I purchased Greatest Hits, knowing only Hungry Heart, Born In The USA, Glory Days, Dancing In The Dark, Human Touch, Secret Garden, and Streets of Philadelphia. That made it easy to validate the purchase, but when I actually listened to the whole thing I realized there was much more, though it took me a couple of more years until I explored Springsteen more fully.

When I finally got Born To Run and popped it in to a CD player I was mesmerized. I love music. I love what a song or a good album can do, but I'd never been TAKEN somewhere before. I'd never just been sucked into a different world by an album. By a book, yes. By a film, yes. And here was Bruce Springsteen just taking me away. The experience was exhilarating. Upon exploration I did find another Boss album capable of doing that - The Wild, The Innocent, and The E-Street Shuffle. And that's not meant as an indictment on his other work, but those two albums feel very cohesive and they really flow and take you from scene to scene. I may like Darkness On The Edge Of Town better than either (or not, have trouble ranking them), but it is not cinematic like those two.

And that brings me to Working On A Dream. I avoided it for over a year for some reason. I think that my enthusiasm for Springsteen had quieted down a bit. I really liked Magic and The Rising, but had gotten into other things and for me time can often lessen my view of an artist, not enhance it. Overall I think the 2000s were one of Bruce's best decades. Great output throughout.

But The Rising, Devils & Dust, The Seeger Sessions, and Magic didn't take me somewhere. So, after putting it off for a long while I finally put Working On A Dream in ye olde Zune and hit play. It was then that it happened.

The Boss took me somewhere again, though not in the way of those masterpieces from the 70s. This was more mature and definitely not as cohesive, yet it somehow all fit together seamlessly.

From the folktale of Outlaw Pete that recalls the absurdities of that genre and of The Boss' old street gang songs to the overlaid guitars, vocals, keyboards, and more of My Lucky Day and beyond, this record is wonderful and mature. I doubt Bruce could make Born to Run today - he's no longer naive. People always point to those type of things with older artists, but Young Bruce could never have made something with the emotional depth and knowledge of Working On A Dream.

Here he deals with love, growing old, with loss and does it beautifully. Even a song like Queen of the Supermarket, an easy one to write off like Outlaw Pete, has a lot more depth when you really listen to it. Besides, I think a lot of people have had those encounters with waitresses, checkout girls, etc where the possibility of something greater sneaks into your head. Here the singer idealizes her just as the singer of Cynthia from the BUSA sessions did - the women serves as the exemplary ideal even if reality can't match it, but while he doesn't approach her and confess his feelings she can still serve as a pillar of all that is right in the world. In that the character is naive, but there is a beauty in the naivete.

This album is laced with beauty that has become too uncommon in modern music. This Life is beautifully on so many levels, from the craftsmanship of the music to the lyrics that really captures the beauty of life and love. Kingdom of Days is another eloquent pop song that focuses on man and wife growing old together with Surprise Surprise closing out this cycle wonderfully.

The record closes (I'm ignoring The Wrestler as part of the record - great song that I regard as a separate item) with a goodbye and a sequel to Wild Billy's Circus Story from The Wild, The Innocent, and The E-Street Shuffle. The Last Carnival is a beautiful farewell to Danny Federici, long time E-Street organist who died of cancer in 2008. As a fan, this song chokes me up as Danny is put in the role of Billy who has died and will no longer join the carnival as it goes from town to town. From the lead in carnival music (played by Federici's son) to the end with a chorus of angelic voices, this song is perfect, bittersweet, and heartfelt.

I wish I would have listened to this record sooner. It's difficult to rank Springsteen's work, but he is clearly one of the greatest rock'n'roll artists ever. This album probably flows the best of any of his albums since Born In The USA (Tunnel of Love, Human Touch, Lucky Town, Tom Joad, Rising, etc all had a hiccup here or there). It is definitely his most pop oriented sound since Born In The USA, though it's not like that or The River entirely, with more Brian Wilson inspired stuff here. But the pop sound works so well for Springsteen. The problem with so much pop is that it is mindless lyrically and musically, but this album is neither. The lyrics are mostly thoughtful with some quirks and the songcraft is top notch. It's a shame that this is not the norm. The kids all want to take the easy way out while making a quick buck, but not The Boss. Buy it and then buy more Bruce if you haven't already. I guarantee your opinion of a lot of the newest popular stuff will drop dramatically.

I don't know exactly what it is about Bruce Springsteen, but he is adept at gauging where the country is, and exactly what it needs to hear. Be it melancholy reminders of social problems in society, such as Born in the U.S.A. and Nebraska during the optimistic Reagan years, The Ghost of Tom Joad, reminding us of the downtrodden during the relatively peaceful Clinton administration, or The Rising, which rallied Americans together with their president, and Magic which subsequently lashed out at the problems with the 21st Century. Here in the beginning of the Obama administration, though the country is in the worst shape it's seen in several decades, Bruce isn't singing about bitter problems. He's optimistic. Rather than spitting in the face of the man that pushes him down, he's still "Working on a Dream" in the title track. Granted, not all the album is happy-go-lucky, such as the Western fantasy epic, "Outlaw Pete" or the touching Danny Federici tribute, "The Last Carnival," but even in his melancholy, he is sentimental. It's true that this album isn't his best work, comprised mainly of catchy, optimistic pop tunes ala "Girls in their Summer Clothes" from Magic. However, he has some true greats, such as "Outlaw Pete," "What Love Can Do," the Micky Rourke film inspired "The Wrestler," "Kindom of Days," the title track, and the best song of the album, "My Lucky Day." These optimistic tunes are just what America needs now. America has finally moved on from an unpopular administration, and though the nation is in trouble financially, Bruce isn't complaining. He realizes that what America needs is hope (Obama's naive messianic reputation aside) that times will get better, and that the American dream "will be mine some day."

Ever since Born to Run came out and flooded Springsteen with accolades, he seems determined to confound expectations with his next album. Working on a Dream is no exception. Magic was a stunner of an album and the tour that followed was an E Street Band showcase, and one would have expected him to follow both up with a straightforward rocking album in the vein of The River (to which Magic was often compared)...but no.

With "Working on a Dream" Springsteen has given us something he has touched upon before, but never really shared...and something completely new. It's an overall happy collection of songs - his happiest since "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town" in 1992, but with richer, much more lush arrangements. It will interesting to hear this music live, to see what the E Street Band does with it in concert.

Bruce took the 60's sounds of "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" and "Your Own Worst Enemy" (respectively my favorite and least favorite songs on "Magic") and expanded those sounds for this new record. You'll hear echoes of Phil Spector, the Beach Boys, the British Invasion and the Byrds, all mixed together with Bruce's unique songwriting and sounds.

But the songs are all strong. I've listened to it four times now and it gets better each time. The standout tracks are "Life Itself", "Kingdom of Days" and "Outlaw Pete". I don't really like telling you what each song is about - listen to them and find out for yourself. Also, "Surprise, Surprise" seemed a little silly to me at first, but it's really growing on me.

Look, if you're one of the so-called Bruce "fans" that looks down your nose at anything after "Darkness" then this album is not for you. This is the NEXT Bruce Springsteen album, not one of the old ones. This is new and different and I for one like it. I don't think it's going to be my favorite Springsteen album of all time, but it's very good - and even an average Bruce album is way better than most of the dreck that's out there these days.