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56 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It shows the soft, joyous side of Bruce's passionate, outstanding pop world., January 27, 2009
"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]
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79 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bruce is a genius, but this cd is lousy, January 29, 2009
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...
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Brendan O'Brien's Working on a Dream, March 5, 2009
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.
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