Bruce Springsteen sings of the value of life itself, love and dreaming

Working on Magic, Bruce Springsteen wrote a song What Love Can Do which then seemed to him too different from the record’s general slant. After its release the inspiration was still with the author and developing the song’s ideas he easily wrote some more compositions in record short terms. Showing them to his friend and producer Brendan O’Brien he got his approval and support and quite soon there was enough of the new material at their disposal to make a while album. Springsteen decided to play with only The E Street Band this time, too probably being inspired by the results of working on Magic with them. So despite being still on a tour in support of the album the guys have managed to find some time during the breaks between the performances and recorded a collection that got called Working On A Dream almost in no time. Most of the songs has been recorded during the first few takes and all the process participants have remained quite happy with the final result. Bruce Springsteen sings of the value of Life Itself, love and dreaming on Working On A Dream with which he is sure to attract new fans to his persona and once again please the old ones.

Vivid and expressive tunes on Working On A Dream

Perhaps the insufficiently thought production of some of the tracks on Working On A Dream can be considered as its only drawback when the sounding of the instruments and the vocals blends into one noise which is not always a good thing. Yet the tunes are so vivid and expressive here that one can easily ignore that and if we imagine how wonderful this material will sound live all the doubts are gone. The album opens with Outlaw Pete, a story of a typical hostile hooligan from the Wild West, one of The Boss’s favorite themes on his earlier works and a great beginning for a rock record. The keyboards sound the best on My Lucky Day, an ironic composition also characteristic of Springsteen while the title track Working On A Dream proves quite an interesting continuation of the atmosphere on Magic pleasing with both a beautiful catchy tune and the lyrics worthy of a mature author. A slow soulful song Queen Of The Supermarket contrasts with a tougher and ruder What Love Can Do at the same time remarkable for the most memorable tune. Ballad Life Itself conquers with the imaginary in lyrics and Bruce’s heartfelt singing whereas the final track The Last Carnival surprises with picturesque back vocals. The singer has also demonstrated his sense of humor on Surprise, Surprise which is just a piece of silence and the real surprises are bonus tracks The Wrestler, a part of the eponymous movie soundtrack and A Night (With The Jersey Devil).

An impulsive and endlessly talented musician

On the one hand, Working On A Dream can be easily defined a continuation of Magic in the respect of the content. If there was only one song devoted to politics on the previous album this topic is practically not considered at all on the new record except for a couple of thoughts. Stylistically, however, Working On A Dream proves to be the most diverse album in the singer’s entire career. We can hear the classic rock guitars and drums here, contagious pop tunes and romantic lyrics that all Springsteen’s last works tend to contain. Besides the songs’ duration changes from one extremity to another: the opener passes the 8 minute barrier and there is a track lasting 0 minutes 0 seconds here as well as some pieces of two or three minutes. All this and the rapidness of recording is a true witness of the work’s being a product of Bruce’s creative impulse where there is no place for precision or following any rules. Surprising as it may seem at his age of almost 60 Springsteen still remains an impulsive and endlessly talented musician which he was at the beginning of his creative work so the new awards are definitely awaiting him.

Alexandra Zachernovskaya
21.01.2009