New Springsteen Album "Western Stars" June 14*

Over the last week or so lots of internet chatter about a new Springsteen album to be released in June, preceded by a single released as early as end of April.

This was reported by Springsteen msg board Greasy Lake; Greasy Lake on Twitter

looks to be the solo album Springsteen was reported working on prior to making Wrecking Ball and supposedly finished sometime after making Wrecking Ball..

It has been described by Springsteen and producer Ron Aniello alternatively as Gershwin esque, orchestral, 60s southern California pop, Jimmy Webb, Glen Campbell sited as influences on the sound...

And then today the Springsteen twitter account posted a mysterious photograph of a desert landscape and Joshua Tree or large cactus: Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) | Twitter

No explanation given. Could this be the first promotional image for a new record.. the first of originals since 2012's Wrecking Ball?!

Some on the message boards (BTX in particular) are claiming a solo tour starting end of Summer.

Seems about right to start an all encompassing Springsteen new album thread....

 

The Twitter photo could be for Earth Day. Just saying.

 

I enjoyed the Magic album but, nothing has interested me since. Does Springsteen have any magic left?

 

Maybe a stylistic change of direction is what he needs to give his muse a kick up the backside. I will remain sceptical but faintly hopeful until I hear something from it.

 

Also rumor of the Born in the USA box coming out in the summer

 

Some reports indicate album title is "Western Son" and a planned tour in the fall is in the works. I just hope he makes an album that is good or even great on its own terms...and unlike other popular artists from a different era he doesn't go chasing the ever elusive "cultural relevance" trap...that has lead other legends to try out autotune or flavor of the month producers... think U2 or Paul McCartney's use of Ryan Tedder and auto-tune!

 

Hope we get a smaller-than-arena venue tour of UK playing solo. It's the only way I would spend the money to see Bruce live these days. The full band shows in arenas and stadiums are just exhausting, not in a good way.

 

I'm ready. He's been promising a new record since the River 35 tour

 

I'm as big of a Springsteen fan as they come but I'm not interested in another album of retreads, outtakes or re-recordings ala Wrecking Ball and High Hopes. A BITUSA box is, I believe, a requirement of his Sony contract so I imagine we'll see that in time for the holidays. There is no E Street Band activity planned for this year so I think we're more likely to see a tour next year. Can't imagine he'd follow up a year of Springsteen on Broadway with a different solo show this year but I guess it could happen.

 

Another picture was posted this morning.

 

Please no stupid collabs with Post Malone

 

Looking at these pictures it's either a concept album about the abduction of Gram Parsons corpse or he's putting together the U2 Sessions Band and doing a remake of The Joshua Tree

 

I'm guessing that the two images posted to his social media feeds are stills from a music video for a first single... this latest image appears to be mid-dissolve part Joshua Tree image part fireworks display... just a guess.

 

I like everything Bruce related with the exception of Lucky Town and that other one that came the same time. I really liked Magic and the follow ups. Always look forward to new Springsteen.

 

Pretty sure all the songs will be 100% new to fans. Though a session he did circa 1987 may be in the mix.

These are songs he's sat on for 8 years. He's not really known to have written a song since and the question has come up during interviews.

At some point he decided that touring a 35 year old album was more important.

 

From Rolling Stone interview October 2016, link: Bruce Springsteen Goes Deep on Revelations in New Memoir – Rolling Stone

You’ve said you have an album done that’s influenced by Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb’s collaborations.
I don’t want to overemphasize the influences too much, because people may hear it and go, “What’s that got to do with that?” But it was sort of a place where I found some inspiration.

Is that a different record than the one you almost finished before Wrecking Ball?
It’s the record I wrote before Wrecking Ball but could not finish, and in attempting to finish it, I wrote Wrecking Ball. So the roots of the record go back quite a ways. Sometimes you have to wait for these puzzles to sort themselves out, and it can take years. I mean, I have a record that I’ve been working on that’s 20 years old. That’s just the way the process is working at the moment.

What’s the pace of your songwriting now, compared with the 2000s, when you were extremely prolific?
Well, Wrecking Ball came, I would say, easily. The albums and songs have been coming along for quite a while. But I haven’t written in a while right now, outside of the record that I have ready.

 

So i assume that you weren't a fan of Drive All Night, Independence Day and other released songs that had been rejected or left off other projects but included on later albums?

 

It looked Easter-ish too.

 

To be fair though, both of these songs were rejected (in different versions I believe) from the album just previous to their release on The River. In any event, both were well-known to concertgoers.

 

I heard the Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell comparisons before--for Working on a Dream. So we'll see how it turns out this time-- although Aniello's involvement is NOT encouraging.

 

Those also came from the most prolific period of his or anyone else's career. Working on a Dream and High Hopes were pretty much disjointed albums of scraps and don't compare to the Darkness or River sessions. Studio versions of Tom Joad and Land of Hope and Dreams were hardly needed either.

 

While i don't disagree with a lot of your assessments, my overall point is bruce recycling songs from past sessions is nothing new.

 

Sounds like nobody knows nuthin'...

 

Great news if true.
The only new album I've bought this year is the (excellent) new Joe Jackson!

 

That would be great, been patiently waiting for it