BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: WRECKING BALL (2012)
1) We Take Care Of Our Own; 2)
Easy Money; 3) Shackled And Drawn; 4) Jack Of All Trades; 5) Death To My
Hometown; 6) This Depression; 7) Wrecking Ball; 8) You've Got It; 9) Rocky
Ground; 10) Land Of Hope And Dreams; 11) We Are Alive.
Okay, so at least the surprisingly elevated
«poppiness» of Working On A Dream
put a special mark on it. Fans may have been irate at Bruce borrowing musical
ideas from KISS, but one cannot deny that, in this way, he at least gave us
all something to remember that record by. Fast forward now to 2012 and his
next studio LP, and here is something that is completely by the numbers — conforming to all known stereotypes of
The Boss and violating none of them.
Naturally, Springsteen feeds on social problems
and regurgitates them as vibrating, spirited music, which is where he is
usually at his best — and this time, the incentive behind the music and the
anger has been the global financial crisis: a great opportunity to finally
realize one's dream to become an authentic
Woody Guthrie, strolling through Depression streets and providing voice services
to all those devoid of voices. Never mind that by 2012, the crisis had largely
abated; it only matters that there be a spark to light up the fire, and as
prolific as Bruce usually is, he likes
to have these sparks flying around, rarely venturing into the studio without a
good pretext.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wrecking Ball conjures active memories of The Seeger Sessions: even though all the songs are original, they
are mostly written in the folk paradigm, with simple, repetitive, traditional
structures that have more in common with highland ballads than with Bruce's
usual rock formula. Only a few members of the E Street Band appear on the
record, and even then not on all the tracks; there are a few sax solos from
Clarence Clemons, who died in 2011, a few tracks with Weinberg on the drums,
and a couple Van Zandt mandolin tracks — the rest is taken care of by session
musicians, which has a negative impact on the album's energy levels, but I
guess if the Boss decided the E Street Band was not appropriate enough for
these songs, he must have had his own reasons.
Alas, if he hoped this would be a new Rising — in the sense of that major
«jolt» to put the nation back on its feet or something like that — I am afraid
that it has only been one in the minds of Rolling Stone-style critics. The
songs aren't exactly bad (in fact, relying on these formulas is a good
guarantee against «badness» in general), but without the E Street Band, and
with his own strength also beginning to give up after all these years, Bruce
gets bogged down somewhere in between a whimper and a bang.
ʽWe Take Care Of Our Ownʼ, the opening song,
was once again used in Obama's (second) presidential campaign, and it is a perfect song for a presidential campaign
— loud, muscular, optimistic, smooth, safe, catchy, cozily played out by the
New York String Section, and ultimately forgettable like any of your average anthems. It has its rallying
use, I guess, but it is essentially one simple musical phrase repeated over and
over again in a glossy manner: the muscle is there all right, but there is
hardly any genuine sweat on it. It sounds like something made on order — and yes,
I remember well that ʽBorn In The USAʼ was all made up according to the same
principles (and its synthesized sound had dated fairly quickly, unlike this
string orchestra thing), but at least back in 1984 Springsteen still had
plenty of youthful soul and stamina to push into that form. ʽWe Take Care Of
Our Ownʼ is just... limp.
As is most of everything else. A particularly
good example is ʽLand Of Hope And Dreamsʼ, a fairly old song that was performed
live as early as 1999, and used to be one of the highlights of Bruce's show —
with a "this train..." section that may be the man's sincerest and
most emotional contribution to the gospel genre — but this version is surprisingly flaccid compared to the way it used to
sound, not just because the man's voice is giving out, but also because the
arrangement replaces raw energy with a wall-of-sound approach. Still a good
song, but give me the Live In New York
version of this any time.
I have not even mentioned that the man's lyrics
seem to turn more and more into tripe as the years go by. You may adore or hate
the lyrics of ʽBorn To Runʼ, but you have to admit that, in any case
whatsoever, something like "This is my confession / I need your heart / In
this depression / I need your heart" is just way below the threshold — and
this song is supposed to be a spiritual consolation for all the poor souls
ravaged by the crisis. Or this: "We are alive / And though our bodies lie
alone here in the dark / Our souls and spirits rise / To carry the fire and
light the spark / To fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart" — exactly
how many dusty clichés are entrenched within this passage? No matter, as long
as old and new fans alike are willing to gobble it up. And then there is the
irony of the title track, which can be taken half-literally (as a cocky protest
of the old Giants Stadium against its demolition) and figuratively (as a
nation's cocky stand-off against economic trouble), but then when you realize
that the Stadium was demolished after
all, the line about "bring on your wrecking ball" takes on a fairly
ironic shade.
In the end, as simply a collection of songs Wrecking Ball is relatively okay. But
as a major social statement, it seems to me a transparent misfire, embarrassed
by its own ambition and buried in its shallowness-masquerading-as-depth; and if
Magic at least still showed signs of
life, and Working On A Dream still
showed signs of searching for life, Wrecking
Ball is like a wad of chewing gum that finally ran out of the last bits of
flavor. At the very least, it shows that being deeply moved by other people's
troubles no longer guarantees high quality — or, who knows, it might show that
in this particular case, the Boss was not that
deeply moved by other people's troubles. After all, with the Democrats in power
and the crisis clearly not being on the level of the Great Depression, it's
hard to believe that the man was in some really deep apocalyptic mood; and
thus, we just have another set of optimistic «we shall overcome» statements
where, truth be told, it is not quite clear even to the artist what exactly it
is that we need to be overcoming.
For the record, ʽRocky Groundʼ here features
the first ever appearance of a rap vocal on a Springsteen album — provided by
backup singer Michelle Moore (happily for all of us, Bruce changed his original
mind about performing the rap himself).
So there's at least one objective argument for defending the man's ability to
keep up with the times, about twenty years too late but better late than never.
This patented bit of sarcasm, however, has nothing to do with my thumbs down
assessment of the album. Rather, the thumbs down have to do with the bitter
realisation that, in a way, Bruce Springsteen has turned into a pale parody of
his former self. And if you happen to disagree and are preparing an angry
retort here, please take the time to
relisten to Darkness On The Edge Of Town
first, and then see if your angry retort has lost any of its anger.
Oh, and if you happen to be David Fricke from
Rolling Stone, the author of a five-star review that began with the phrase "Wrecking Ball is the most despairing,
confrontational and musically turbulent album Bruce Springsteen has ever
made", I do so hope that you be rewarded in the afterlife by having to
listen to nothing but Billy Joel, of whom you also seem to be a huge fan.
Yes, yes, Darkness. When he could still be bothered to write melodies and arrangements. The critical lapping-up of this record mystifies me and only serves to delude the Boss. It's just not very good.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fairly unremarkable record with a few high points but it's never awful. He's a live act these days more than anything else, i think his ego demands he tours with a new record and I bet he likes the Number 1 status they invariably get. (11 in the UK and counting).
ReplyDeleteAs his recorded output has dropped in quality his live shows have lost none of their brilliance. The Wrecking Ball tour was particularly cathartic for band and fans alike as a fond farewell to Clemons and Federici was acted out each night. As the tour progressed and merged into the High Hopes tour the band worked out how to get past their loss and by the end of the tour they were on a roll, pulling out obscurites night after night as well as all sorts of covers ranging from Van Halen to the Bee Gees to Lourde.
I think "We Are Alive", somewhat savaged by George, acts as a farewell to his comrades and is rather lovely.
"Let your mind rest easy, sleep well my friend
It’s only our bodies that betray us in the end"
This is a horrible record. I listened to it out of due diligence, but is was tough. Rolling Stone has a long tradition of pandering to the rock stars (Clapton got 4 stars for Pilgrim after all).
ReplyDeleteIf you approach this record (1) with the aim of demolishing the hype of such as Rolling Stones; (2) with a view to comparing it with peak Springsteen; (3) With a view to comparing it with Woody Guthrie's social statements, as if the album actually tried to be a Woody Guthrie social statement: well, no wonder you'll feel underwhelmed. But the hostility is totally unwarranted: yes, the album has problems, yes, the sound is a little off, but try listening to it without preconceptions or more or less postmodern ennui and cynicism and you'll be faced with an excellent piece of work with a big heart & bigger musical chops. Listen to "Easy Money" properly, for example: it's brilliantly chilling; "Death to My Hometown" could have been written by the Pogues, and I mean it as a compliment. I, for one, am grateful to the gods he's still making music in these past few years.
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