Springsteen’s ‘dream’ is a sweet one

Nick Johnson
Staff Writer
Rock legend Bruce Springsteen may have hit on a different, sweeter note in his album Working on a Dream, but a hit’s a hit, and this newest one still has plenty of sun-drenched firepower despite being far more fluffy than previous work.

Only a year and a half removed from putting out the platinum album Magic in August of 2007, “The Boss” has noticeably had a change of heart.

He’s traded the heavy, tragedy-laced lyrics and low, driving rock sound of Magic for warm, gooey poetry and a bright splash of sonic experiment-- something you don’t have to go far to find as the album’s first track, “Outlaw Pete,” is a gripping, 8-minute long Western narrative with enough lyrical plot to make a short feature film.

Contrast that with Working’s very next song, “My Lucky Day”-- a sunny, rocking homage to a very “lucky” girl with a tempo that you couldn’t fit into any of Springsteen’s other discs this decade (Magic and 2002’s The Rising both had melancholy overtones)--and you’re on your way to discovering the true variety of this album.

Also mixed into Working are “Tomorrow Never Knows,” a beautifully crafted acoustic piece, “Good Eye,” a gently-muzzled, bluesy track and “Queen of the Supermarket,” a cloudhopping ballad to a grocery store clerk in which Springsteen’s sole use of profanity on the album delivers a heart-quaking punch to the song: “As I lift my groceries into my cart/I turn back for a moment and catch a smile/ That blows this whole f**king place apart.”

Even with all its experimentation, Working’s best song by far--the third and title track--is just classic Springsteen: chugging bass, extraordinary vocal harmonies and a foot-stomping, driving guitar bridge that smashes through to the final verse and outro.

However, for as refreshingly optimistic as Springsteen’s latest work is, a few of the songs are so packed full of sunshine and rainbows that they’re actually despicable. The glowing, happily-ever-after depiction of love in “Kingdom of Days” is an idea that Springsteen rarely touches, and when he does, it’s usually with a poignant realism and originality. But lines like “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I do/You whisper: then prove it, then prove it, then prove it to me baby blue” just make me want to projectile vomit. Combine that with Bruce’s unwillingness to change and/or lower his pitch, and “Kingdom of Days” is one extremely regrettable addition.

Such high-sung, overly-jubilant writing is a theme for several other tracks as well; “Surprise Surprise” has a catchy tune, but its lyrics are terribly empty, with campy, predictable rhymes like: “When the sun comes up tomorrow/It’ll be the start of a brand new day/And all that you have wished for/I know will come your way.”

But thankfully, because it’s Springsteen, you can just skip the next two songs, and he will more than make it up to you with a lonely, gorgeously acoustic final track--a somber return to Earth for the album where Bruce sighs through the exasperated (but undeniably beautiful) tragedy of the main character of the Academy Award-nominated film, “The Wrestler.”

Having always been a politically active--and vividly liberal--man, Springsteen’s latest music has been profoundly affected by the election of Barack Obama, which is no doubt the primary reason for the shift from his heavy, downtrodden musical mood to one of seemingly uncontrollable optimism.

Working is a hopeful and lighthearted musical hodgepodge of that optimism, infused with its creator’s Boss-like swagger, playful experimentation and unending passion for putting on a show, both on his albums and in concert.

On the whole, Bruce Springsteen’s Working on a Dream is a glowing collection of never-give-up, and it will easily brighten your day--all you have to do is catch the stunning title track in mid-beat on your car radio. And to quote the album’s snappy fifth track, Bruce “can’t stop the rain,” or “turn your black sky blue,” but he can “show you what [musical] love can do.”