New Springsteen Album "Western Stars" June 14*

Anyone else have a download card that won't work? After several failed attempts on Safari, I tried it again on Firefox. Firefox explained the problem. It blocked it due to social media trackers. I assume Safari did too, but didn't tell you. Not cool, Sony.

 

OK, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But this time, for the first time, after clicking the "continue without registering" button, it allowed me to actually retrieve my download.

 

My download card failed as well. Broke down and bought the CD to play in my car and on my weekly radio show. In light of the predictable corporate playlists of other area stations (Glory Days, anybody?), I felt it was worth twelve more bucks to give this fantastic new music some exposure. Call it public service.

 

You serious with the Dylan comment? Time Out of Mind through The Tempest is one of the great late career runs, with Time Out, Love and Theft, and Modern Love being career highlights without question. Most of his sixties he was on top of his game.

 

Bowie

 

Saw the movie last night and really enjoyed it. Think I’ll get the soundtrack when I finish work today

 

I like WS a lot, but Springsteen would need to put out at least 2 more of similar quality to be on par with Dylan's late 90's/early 2000's run.

I live in Springsteen's backyard, and there were less than 10 people in the theater. I sense some fatigue in his fan base. Every time you turn around the past couple years, he's on TV or Facebook promoting something. Outside of his die hard fan base, I don't sense a lot of interest for WS. Most of the comments I've heard/seen are "when are you going back on the road with the ESB?" Meh..

 

He was also nearer 60 when he wrote the songs, it's not like Bruce wrote them approaching his 70th birthday, that album was in his back pocket for about 7 years and he was working on it before pausing on it after getting the inspiration for the Wrecking Ball album.

The acid test for Bruce will be his mooted album he's due to record with ESB as the songs were actually written this year (Bruce hadn't written new music since Wrecking Ball).

Dylan was in his 50s for Time Out of Mind (by far his best post-80s album at least) and just touching 60 for Love and Theft. Those were much better albums than anything since, although Modern Times and Tempest have some good songs

 

I am a big Dylan fan, but though I think Time out of Mind is a career highlight, I don't feel the same about anything he has made since. And he was in his late 50s when he cut TOOM. I would not place Love and Theft, Modern Love or Tempest on a par with anything like BOTT, the 60s material, or even Slow Train, Saved or Infidels but I understand YMMV, and many others' too.

 

Yes, I understand those songs were kicking around for a while. I would be hard pushed to choose more than a handful of songs I consider great from anything Bruce released after Devils and Dust until Wester Stars.

I agree the test will be the next ESB album and I do not have "high hopes".

 

Weeelll.... He has 56/57 -ish when he made Reality and Heathen. I hear the talk about The Next Day and Black Star as major works but nothing invites me to revisit those albums, ever. Again, it's a personal thing. I'm still a sucker for great melodies. I still believe even the greatest songwriters don't have a bottomless well.

 

The Next Day has a few good songs but is far from great. Blackstar is tricky; it's so entwined with his passing it's really impossible to judge on its own merits.

 

I'm a fan of Bruce and Dylan and really like Western Stars and it'll be probably be his last good album (reality of age). I think artists much past 60 rarely release anything that memorable that's original. Dylan has spent his 70s singing covers! Arguably the best songwriter of his generation and not blessed with a great voice.

Time Out of Mind is excellent but he was in his 50s. Love and Theft was pretty good but it was released the week he turned 60, so written in his 50s. His 60s were not a huge creative peak. Modern Times, a Christmas album and Together Through Life. Then The Tempest at 70.

Springsteen's 60s were similar with Western Stars a highlight (written in his early 60s) and he spent most of the decade looking back (Broadway, autiobiography etc). Dylan's last 15 years has been fruitful for the bootleg series.

 

I agree entirely about Blackstar. I am not sure it will ever be possible to be "objective" about that album.

 

I disagree. Furthermore, many favourable reviews were written before his passing. I agree about The Next Day though. But Blackstar is a bone fide masterpiece.

 

Going to go friday to see it. Looking forward to it.

 

Magic is a great album.

 

It depends, I think, on when you first heard it. I bought my copy immediately and was playing it over the weekend, thinking to myself that it was really good. It made the news on Monday morning even harder to comprehend but by that time I had already assimilated the record as a great piece of work.

 

It's so good song-wise that I don't even mind the pretty spotty sound of the album as much as I normally would. By far my most played Springsteen record from after his 'classic' album period (Greetings to Tunnel of Love)!

 

And Robert Plant’s past few albums, which are among the best of his solo albums.

 

Chris Smither has had a very good run in his mid sixties through early 70s.

 

I tend to agree with the “fatigue” theory. Is it a nice way of really meaning “over exposed”?
With that said....... My wife and I really like “Western Stars”.

 

Maybe. Bruce Springsteen is in the business of making money, and more power to him. But it seems every few months now he is releasing something. I mean, how many people are still sitting around listening to the Springsteen On Broadway audio release? Chapter & Verse? And was a Western Stars live album release really necessary? It sounds really good, but I can't tell much difference from the studio and live versions. If you're a completist with OCD, you could quickly end up in a serious financial hole.
Maybe we can all just send him $300 a year and get everything in a bundle...

 

It's weird to think he's overexposed when this is his first studio album in 5 years, 7 if you count High Hopes as an outtakes comp (which it is).

Springsteen on Broadway wasn't really news to the general public, since comparatively few people got to see it. The Netflix film was a nice bump, but that was the first major thing he'd released (musically) in years.

I saw the film last Friday, there were maybe 15-20 or so people there (the closest multiplex to my house has a few smaller theater rooms for specialty stuff like this, I think the theater only comfortably seats 50 or so). I don't think it has anything to do with overexposure as much as it does that this, conceptually, wasn't the kind of thing that probably should've been a theatrical release, and not that many people are probably that excited about it. Even a few of my hardcore Bruce friends weren't that excited about seeing it (others were...but it wasn't the kind of unanimous excitement that, say, a proper live film might've had).

I mean, imagine if the Stones did Shine A Light, except the entire film was them just playing A Bigger Bang straight through. Stones diehards would go see it, and it might've even been enjoyable, but it's not the kind of thing that would draw a wide audience, even among the established fanbase.

 

I suspect its just a sign of the times. Most artists & celebrities these days run at 150 mph trying to stay in the public's eye (and pocketbook). They run around the Colbert/Kimmel/Fallon circuit, do social media stuff, even play at sporting events. It's a treadmill, and I think the fans maybe get a bit numb to it.

It's nothing like the old days when Bruce would put an album out and hide in a cave for 3 years. (That was extreme too).