Bruce Springsteen

i'm still excited to hear it. i'm always excited for more Bruce. but it is kind of a downer that its not all new music.

not that there's anything wrong with the releasing of covers and old songs in and of itself. i'd just prefer new music, as i'm sure most would.

Damn. Well, it's better than nothing, I suppose. High Hopes sounds good but I don't really like Dream Baby Dream all that much. In general it's bound to be a mixed bag, because that's literally what it is.

Dream Baby Dream was very powerful live when I saw him perform it a couple of weeks ago.

So how many of the songs on the tracklisting are covers and how many are original songs?

the song High Hopes is amazing, I love it

Jack wrote:

Damn. Well, it's better than nothing, I suppose. High Hopes sounds good but I don't really like Dream Baby Dream all that much. In general it's bound to be a mixed bag, because that's literally what it is.

I could just as well not listen to High Hopes ever again. I'm hoping for a few good, new songs and that's about it.

I'm really disappointed by High Hopes (y'all should listen to High Hopes by Pink Floyd instead because it's one of the best songs ever written), I'm hoping he'll start come back more to the guitar driven rock he did in the 80s. Not a fan of all this folk stuff he's been getting into.

Harbortown wrote:

I'm hoping he'll start come back more to the guitar driven rock he did in the 80s. Not a fan of all this folk stuff he's been getting into.

Agreed heavily. I know he'll never go back to the Born To Run days (a boy can dream, though) but I'd take Born In The USA over the folky stuff any day.

Agreed. I wish he would go back to "Magic" era.

Upon first listen it didn't really strike me either...I'll still get the record but I shall be going into it with lowered expectations.

Magic was the best.
High Hopes i really don't know what to make of it. will definitely listen, not really expecting a ton, just like Romeo ^

DeathoftheCool wrote:

Magic was the best.
High Hopes i really don't know what to make of it. will definitely listen, not really expecting a ton, just like Romeo ^

Magic was definitely the best album out of all of his newer stuff without question.

Are you counting The Rising? Because that album tops anything since Born In The USA, easily.

I'll contend that while both The Rising and Magic are his best records since Born in the USA, Ghost of Tom Joad is a phenomenal album and the first two tracks on Human Touch are fantastic.

Jack wrote:

Are you counting The Rising? Because that album tops anything since Born In The USA, easily.

Very good point....I probably listen to The Rising more than Magic to be honest

I actually think Wrecking Ball is the best of this century from Bruce.

Too many lyrics about bankers. The compositions are too much like beefed-up folk songs for my liking.

Jack wrote:

Too many lyrics about bankers. The compositions are too much like beefed-up folk songs for my liking.

I'm surprised the lyrics were as well received as they were on that album. The whole 'blue collar worker against the big bad banker' shtick felt so lazy and shallow to me. That subtext runs through a lot of his work, but he glossed over the nuances and complexities to the point of parody on Wrecking Ball IMO.

I'd put Magic as my third favorite Bruce album, on par with the River with Darkness and Born to Run ahead of it

who knew there was this much love for Magic? I remember reading reviews in the paper that said "I listened to it once and threw it in the trash" haha.

Magic is my favorite album from the reunion era. There really isn't a bad song on the album. The Rising is a distant second.

Side note: It's funny that while The Rising is known as this super-serious, earnest album it actually has the last signs of the swinging good-time Bruce of the '70s (Mary's Place). Livin' In The Future SOUNDS like this but the political lyrics ruin the party.

the "swinging good-time Bruce" is much more present in the Seeger Sessions album than the Rising for me.

it's a bunch of people making music together in a barn. it's cut live. it's musicianship rather than painstaking songcraft that takes center stage. it is so so communal. and the songs themselves reinforce that communality. so while there are definitely somber spots on the album, the communal/party feel of the whole thing makes it more of a "good time" record than the Rising.

that's how i feel about that. i have a feeling that many people feel differently, and i totally get that.

I'll have to return to the Seeger Sessions again, I have a much high appreciation for that type of thing now than I did when it came out.
But yeah, if someone hates on Magic here they're gonna have to come through me first. One of my favorite albums of all time
And for Living in the Future, I really like the disconnect between the lyrics and the sound. It's like a musical contradiction that's really interesting to listen to

MKULTRA wrote:

the "swinging good-time Bruce" is much more present in the Seeger Sessions album than the Rising for me.

it's a bunch of people making music together in a barn. it's cut live. it's musicianship rather than painstaking songcraft that takes center stage. it is so so communal. and the songs themselves reinforce that communality. so while there are definitely somber spots on the album, the communal/party feel of the whole thing makes it more of a "good time" record than the Rising.

that's how i feel about that. i have a feeling that many people feel differently, and i totally get that.

Well yeah, of course it is. But I don't need to hear any of the songs from Seeger Sessions again in my life. I don't like when Bruce goes full folk. Bores me to tears, to be honest.