Search This Blog
Monday, 30 December 2013
Bruce Springsteen High Hopes (January 2014)
Over the weekend Amazon in the U.S. "accidently" released Springsteen's eighteenth studio album, 'High Hopes', for download. They saw their error but not before it went viral and was uploaded to torrent sites etc. I guess someone has a lot of explaining to do this Monday and probably will be looking for a new job tomorrow morning.
It was interesting yesterday seeing what the reaction to the album was on various fan sites and pages on Facebook. Views seemed to range from totally loving it to a down right loathing of it! The ones holding the latter viewpoint have in my mind gone just a little over the top. Yes there are questions to be asked of it, and yes it is a collection of songs "left over" from previous sessions, and re-recordings of things already released, and shock horror three Cover Versions!! But does that mean that we should totally dismiss it? Personally, I think not!
I read with interest the review of it in the Daily Telegraph by Neil McCormick:
"There’s a lot of great stuff on here, but it doesn’t hold together and doesn’t come close to being one of Springsteen’s great albums."
Even in his assessment of each song he's pretty dismissive of a number of tracks, in particular those that focus on faith. But Bruce has often had many a song regarding faith and response to belief and as someone who was brought up as Catholic he often admits that it's something that's hard to escape. So, just because a person holds such beliefs is right then for us to dismiss him? Not so, if we do then we are not as tolerant as we seem to think we are!
The other thing I'll say in passing regarding Mr McCormick is that he actually rated albums by One Direction and Beyonce better (he gave Springsteen only 3 out 5!), and therefore me and Mr McCormick part ways!
Okay, enough of that, so what do I think of it?
Well I listened to it twice through Saturday night and was actually quite pleased. So, it might not fit together in the sense of telling a story, but I was under the impression it wasn't a Concept Album thus laying waste to the charge that the songs seem like a jumbled mess.
After a couple of listens the tracks I thought the standout are 'High Hopes', yes, it's a re-record of a B-side done for the 'Blood Brothers' EP in 1996 and it's a cover version, but it's actually a great wee tune. Hope is something that flows through a lot of Springsteen's music and in an age when there's a lot of darkness, discouragement, poverty and brokeness around a little light is always a welcome thing. The cover of The Saints' 'Like Fire Would' is another I particulary like. I was surprised when they played this on the Aussie tour earlier this year because it was very unexpected. The studio version sounds brilliant with the E Street Horns adding their magic touch to it. Chris Bailey of The Saints is gonna get a nice windfall due to its inclusion on the album. The new studio version of 'American Skin (41 Shots)' is quite interesting as well but it seems to have lost a bit of the anger and edge of the live version (that's always going to happen, no matter what the song is). The rest of the songs are okay, and I can see that a number of them are going to work well in a live setting ('Heaven's Wall' especially), though 'Harry's Place' is not to my liking at all.
Along with Bruce and the E Street Band on the album is Tom Morello (who appears on eight tracks) and the super-charged re-recording of 'The Ghost of Old Tom Joad' is real quality. Live performances of it were stunning, especially down in Australia earlier in the year. It's no wonder that on off days that Bruce took Tom and the E Street Band into the Studio to record. They sounded great together. Quite a lot of 'High Hopes' was recorded then.
The album ends on a high note with the brilliant cover version of 'Dream Baby Dream' by Suicide. He first played it on the 'Devil's and Dust Tour' back in 2005 and recently released a video of it as a thank you to the fans who had supported the 'Wrecking Ball Tour'.
The album gets 8 out of 10 for me. I know one thing, this album will be played a lot more than 'Working on a Dream' (which I was really disappointed with) and whilst it's not as brilliant as its predecessor, 'Wrecking Ball', I think there's enough on it to please a majority of the fans (though of course you can't please all the people all the time!).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2013
(303)
-
▼
December
(19)
- Final Post of the Year. All the Best for 2014
- Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Bruce Springsteen Songs
- Bruce Springsteen High Hopes (January 2014)
- Goodnight Mudkiss...
- Soundtrack4Life Festive Fifty 2013: Part Three 15-1
- Soundtrack4Life Festive Fifty 2013: Part Two 30-16
- Soundtrack4Life Festive Fifty 2013: Part One - 50-31
- Soundtrack4Life Interviews Joe Silva
- Dave Higgs R.I.P.
- A Christmas Greeting from Soundtrack4Life
- Happy Birthday Billy Bragg
- Ruts DC: Segs and Ruffy Interview
- The Damned, Theatre of Hate and Ruts DC - Roundhou...
- Ruts DC and The Damned - Edinburgh HMV Picture Hou...
- Stiff Records - The Early Years Part Two 1977
- Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Any Weather (Offic...
- Stiff Records - The Early Years Part One 1976
- Happy Birthday Peter Buck
- Happy Birthday Rick Buckler
-
▼
December
(19)
Popular Posts
-
Post Pop Depression - Iggy Pop Loma Vista Recordings Produced by Josh Hommes Released 18th March 2016 It's been four years ...
-
It gives me great pleasure to present this little interview with the front woman of a band that will be quite unknown to many, but h...
-
🌟🌟🌟🌟 Phantasmagoria - The Damned MCA Records Produced by The Damned and Jon Kelly Released 15th July 1985 UK Album Chart #11 ...
-
It's been a few weeks since I last did a post here so I better rectify that with this one that spotlights (in my mind at least) one of ...
-
Dawning Of A New Era - The Roots of Skinhead Reggae - Various Artists Trojan Records Released 2005 Dawning Of A New Era - The ...
-
From one of my all-time favourite albums, 'This Is The Sea' . Live in Oslo 2012
-
Gig Review for Bob Mould's two sets at 7th Street Entry. Click on the links to enjoy the music. I'll keep checking to see i...
-
Happy Birthday Siouxsie, born on this day in 1957. It's hard to imagine that back in 1976 Siouxsie and Steven Sevrin thought after ...
-
All the songs on this week's Music is the Doctor were released on albums (though one is from an EP) during the month of January spann...
-
Was pretty pleased to discover that Amazon have a thing where if you buy a CD you immediately get an MP3 download of the ...
No comments:
Post a Comment