New Springsteen Album "Western Stars" June 14*

Song quality aside, is there anything worse than these cheesy karaoke-style lyric videos? Springsteen isn't the only one guilty of this, I know but this one literally moves along with the tempo like a karaoke machine.

 

I just had a look at the tracklisting and these two songs both come near the end of the album. Traditionally, when sequencing, this is where the weaker songs can often be found. Or, at least, the less immediate ones. Hmmmm.....

 

I have been thinking the same thing

 

Now that we have 2 songs from the album, I figured I’d make a playlist disk including them

 

I quite like the 'lyrical' sentiment in the melody line in that there is a 'trail' that the melody and lyric join together on. Simply put, I found the chorus does have a personal touch with me, in that after being visited by a special someone, I found myself immediately thinking "there goes my miracle" as or after the person left, so I do find a real infatuating aspect about the chorus that I can relate to. The rest of the song built around it isn't as memorable to me. In order for the chorus to 'soar' it's not like a verse or bridge has to 'soar' also, in fact a contrast is usually more effective, but the in the rest of "Miracle" I just hear some random words in a seemingly constricted cadence and can't get excited or interested in them. Perhaps that's the irony, I don't know - 'the miracle' being the chorus and the mundane the verses and bridge. Sill, for me fwiw, the verses and bridge just don't seem like a very strong or memorable foundation for the song. Fwiw that's how I hear it.

 

Yeah, Like New York City Serenade, Jungleland, Wreck On The Highway, Prove It All Night, Darkness On The Edge Of Town, My Beautiful Reward, Rosalita, Dancing In The Dark, It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City, Prove It All Night, My Hometown, The Last Carnival, The Werstler, Terry's Song, etc... I think Bruce usually saves the big guns for the ending.

 

Too early to say this is WOAD II. But it seems like it might be a close cousin.

 

exactly. I remember hearing in 85 that there was a lot of discussion about were to put DITD and the decision was to put it close to the end and Columbia thought they were crazy to put the first single almost at the end.
Landau was right on that one.

 

Ha ha, fair enough! But you are mostly quoting albums at me where there are few if any weak links (I would say that applies up until ToL at least), and many of these are closing tracks, which is another ball game (note I said NEAR the end of the album). Usually a record will keep a real kicker as the closing song, but the tendency is to front load the best songs for obvious reasons. I guess I am hoping there is some stronger songwriting on the so far unheard first half of WS.

 

Pony Boy?

 

It’s just a way to get songs (officially) on YouTube without needing a full-on video, which isn’t always necessary or feasible (or financially viable). I’m sure videos with actual video content get more plays than audio-only with a still image. If I’m there to check out a new song, I just open and let it play while I move on to other things in my browser.

 

I think I must be the only one who fails to see anything familiar to WOAD in these two new tracks. It’s also an album I’ve never found particularly good. Yet I’m enjoying the two new songs a lot

 

I realise, and understand why, it is very common in today's online environment. This is all nit picking, I know but my personal preference would be to just have a still image with the lyrics in the text box underneath.

 

His stylistic changes are usually what made me start paying attention again after deciding I had heard enough. I always loved it when he got in touch with his folk roots with Nebraska, The Ghost of Tom Joad, and We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. That one and the Live In Dublin DVD are most recent ones I've heard. This new one sounds like an interesting direction. I look forward to hearing it.

 

They’re cheesy, but I don’t even watch real music videos anymore, so it doesn’t bother me. I’ve usually switched to another tab before the drums kick in.

 

He's done both. He's closed albums with Jungleland and Darkness on the Edge of Town. He's closed albums with Pony Boy and My Best Was Never Good Enough.

But it does highlight my biggest issue with his post TOL output, which is thematic focus. He throws songs on these albums that just don't fit. HT was a conceptual mess, so lets put that aside. But "My Best" on Joad? Sunny Day, Mary's Place, Let's Be Friends on The Rising? "You Got It" and a couple others on WB? They don't seem to fit and they dilute the theme. If I was Colonel Landau, I'd encourage him to put those kinds of things on releases like Tracks and HH.

BTR and Darkness are his two undisputed classics. As a 70 year old man, I don't expect (or want) him to make those kind of albums anymore. But those records were concise, and relatively short. 8-10 songs, 40 minutes max. He's a great songwriter. But I wonder if he had culled 20% from each of his post TOL releases, would his post-TOL catalog be viewed more favorably? I think it might.

The new album has 13 songs on it.

 

You're right, but with all the vetting that the albums must incur by Bruce and Landau going over and over things 20 times, it is obvious that is the way he wants it. Maybe he wants to kill any comparisons to the thematic works. Maybe he just can't capture that kind of breadth ever again.

 

He had a great Joad final song in Brothers Under The Bridge.

By the way, I've never understood the disdain for Pony Boy. New father and mother, who are professional singer/songwriters, sing a quiet lullaby to their first child. You could argue that it sticks out like a sore thumb on HT, but it's not a bad song. If it came from Randy Newman or John Prine it would just be a sweet ending to an album, but Springsteen fans treat it like Jar Jar Binks.

 

Yeah, my guess is its probably just age and maturity. I think he probably finishes a song he likes and says to Jon, "eh, let's just put it on there" as opposed to obsessing about it for months.

 

He's spent years in therapy to stop recording 50 identical versions of a song he'll leave off the album anyway, so it makes sense that he's become looser with things.

 

Absolutely. When "My Best" comes up I hit stop and pop the cassette out of the tape deck.

Pony Boy doesn't bother me. There are certainly other songs on HT that I'd ax first.

 

Ugh, second single has let me down after genuinely enjoying the easy countrypolitan vibe of the first. Sonically and thematically “There Goes My Miracle” undeniably sounds like (as others have noted) a “Working On A Dream” reject, with its weird digitally manipulated drum loops and vocal echo effects - not to mention romantically vague lyrics bordering on pastiche. Didn’t Bruce already write a couple songs with “Miracle” in the title?

I mean I liked “Working On A Dream” for what it was but I was really hoping that this new album would be a more concentrated effort in the country and western vein - not another collection of outtakes, however “thematically” glued together. I still hope I’m wrong.

 

The second song isn't as strong as the first, but I do really like his vocals and the strings again. I actually like TWO recent Bruce songs. Wow, it's been a long time since I could say that.

 

I guess it all depends on how you like your Western/country music seasoned. I'm not much of a fan of layered strings and drum loops. I tend to prefer pedal steel guitars and banjos. That's because I'm a redneck.

 

Some of these things are creative though. Have you seen the ones for The Stones' Beggar's Banquet on You Tube?