Western Stars

Love this album. Great story telling in music.

If you only know Springsteen for his rock anthems like Born to run and Born in the USA, you will be surprised by this album. Gone are the soaring guitar, the sax solos and the rock drum beat. Instead here is a more mellow, slower paced record with a more orchestral backup. If you are a die hard Springsteen fan however, this move should not surprise you, Bruce has often in his career rebelled against type and explored other aspects of American music genres such as folk.So does it work? This is not a record with instant hook lines and will take a little while to listen too. I've had it playing almost continually in the car for 3 days, and I am just starting to understand its nuances. Where the record is best is when Bruce does what he does best and paints a small picture of life in small town america, this time shinning the big city and instead going to the western heartlands. Songs like the Wayfairer, Western Stars, Moonlight Motel and Somewhere North of Nashville create little musical miniatures of stories usually never told. Saying that "Hello Sunshine" with its repetitive rhythm and simple lyrics works incredible well and is one of the album highlights.Another thing to say is that I have never heard Springsteen sing so well. Rather than stretching his voice to bang out rock lyrics we get a smoother voice with a surprising tonal range. Another highlight of the album is the lush orchestration which never overwhelms, but instead complements the song.There are also two outlier songs. The Stuntman to me does not really work, with the lyrics and melody jarring. Sleepy Joes Cafe is far more upbeat and optimistic than other songs and in some ways goes against theme. For long time I felt I had heard it before and it took a while. then i realized it is as if Bruce had covered a Divine Comedy song.The best way I can describe this album is if you imagine music to a 1970 Paul Newman/Ali McGraw movie. It has that sort of feel. This is not a album that will grab you by the lapels and drag you to the dance floor, but is music for a long summer drive, or background music for a lazy Sunday afternoon. This is Bruce exploring new territories, and adds a welcome mature and reflective chapter to his already impressive discography

On Tucson Train, the third track on his new album, Western Stars, Bruce Springsteen sings of getting "tired of the pills and the rain" and of heading "for the sunshine" where "a little peace would make everything right." Never one to rest on his laurels, Springsteen has once more left the eastern seaboard he knows so well and which has seemingly dominated his every waking hour these last few years; on his records, in his memoirs and, no less, as a result of his long residency on Broadway re-imagining aspects of his life and music on stage.But going out west once more, as he did at the start of his career and in a middle period that brought the 'difficult' records Human Touch and Lucky Town, you might think Bruce attempting to uncover western Americana this late in life might be an unwise move. Oh, ye of little faith. What a gorgeous, evocative, life-affirming record this is. Sentimentalism is derided in our world today; sloppy, mawkish and drippy say those hard-nosed critics who never waited for their "baby coming on the Tucson train." But here Springsteen weaves the past into a mythology that is as much his audience's as it is his own autobiographical balladry. It's a sentimentality in other words that is still filled with the regret and realism that dominates so many of Springsteen's greatest records, and where lives are at best only half-fulfilled. "Drive Fast" is a tale of a body literally and metaphorically crumbling in the face of age and a job they're far too old for. The title track delicately echoes some of that imagery in "Racing in the Street" with Bruce informing us how he takes rides in his El Camino and was once shot by John Wayne. On the drama of "Chasin' Wild Horses" and especially "Sundown", these "ain't the kind of places you want to be on your own" evoking the widescreen emptiness of Nebraska and the desperate plaintive cries of recent classic tracks like "Queen of the Supermarket" and "Last to Die"."Moonlight Motel" closes out the album in typically mournful manner, with our hero dreaming of their lover last night, while the lonely bed reminds him of a past that can't be recaptured, as graceful and gorgeous as the tales that adorn "Downbound Train" or "Valentine's Day" from Tunnel of Love, Springsteen's masterpiece of understated love and loss that Western Stars bears comparison with, and I for one thought I'd never be able to say that again about a Springsteen album. "Stones" and "There goes my Miracle" are possibly the record's standout moments but there's so many to choose from, you'll all have songs here that follow you through to your dying days. Some critics have already described this as a late career classic. It is in fact simply one of the best albums this remarkable recording artist has ever made. Recommended.