Bruce Springsteen – Working On A Dream

Flat, weak-sounding vinyl, with woolly, muddy bass and a muffled top end. It seemed okay when I got it as a birthday present in 2011 but revealed its weaknesses years later on a much nicer stereo. I put on "War" from the RL cut Live/1975-85 box and there is NO comparison—full of energy, slam, life and HIGHS!

Some people have described the master as brickwalled. With this kind of flatness and dullness I'd be inclined to agree. This mastering undersells Chris Bellman and Bob Ludwig's capabilities. They have done WAAAAAAAY better. I bet they were simply forced to work with a nasty undynamic master and asked not to improve it. Truly unfortunate, CB has itted at times the execs would leave him with no other choice.

Collectors take note: The single cover is not wide enough for two 180-gram records and gets ring wear easily. The pressing quality is fine, though URP's wonky deflashing means SHARP edges that easily cut through the printed inner sleeves over time.

the biggest problem with this album is it sounds like shit. Compressed and brittle glaring wall of sound. I suppose that is what they were going for but I think it takes a lot from the songs.

Along with "Magic" , "The Rising" and now this one Springsteen has become one of my favorite singer/songwriters. Never cared for his albums till "The River" , yet these 3 I mention are flawless IMHO. The older he gets the better he gets.

Working On A Dream, yeah right ... it might have been better for Bruce to have called this album Exile On E Street, because the dream he was working on sure doesn’t live up to the hype. Even before the album was released, Rolling Stone Magazine said, ... “Springsteen makes his most expansive album since Born To Run.” Please, someone explain to me what an expansive album is, and follow that question up with how anything could compare with Born To Run? Bruce himself said, “I’ll put the new album up against any album we’ve made in of depth and purpose.” Well that sounds bold, and very delightful, but really [?], depth and purpose ... just because something has both depth and purpose doesn’t make it good, and comparing Working On A Dream to his early work is just laughable.

Let me clue you in: When documentaries are made concerning the development of a movie or a record, that coincide with the album or movie release, you can bet money that the release is not going to live up to the press. The same thing happened with Tom Petty’s Last DJ, about half of it was really good, the other half was ... how shall I say this [?], “Mature.” Another buzz word that’s thrown around when a critic really doesn’t want to say what they think. Well let me relay what I think. About half of this album is really good, and like many of his other releases, the rest of the tracks I’ll never listen to; but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think the tracks that are good are not outstanding, they are, which presents the questions of how to rate the release.

It would be easy to say that Working On A Dream picks up right where Magic left off, but that would be a cop-out. The sad thing is that Bruce stepped out of the Golden Age of rock n’ roll, taking the world by storm with his renditions on the AM hits that shook him all night long. And rather than building on that groundwork as he did before, hinting at his influences, here he almost seems to rely on them. Vibes from Manfred Mann’s “Pretty Flamingo” are all over the song “Queen Of The Supermarket,” and he all but gives credit to The Byrds with his songs “What Love Can Do,” and “Life Itself,” which are pure “Eight Miles High.”

Yes, the album is well done, and will certainly please many people. The songs I love are great, but even Rolling Stone Magazine, who rated this album with 5 Stars, yes 5 Stars, at the end only managed to list two key tracks, “The Wrestler,” which was an add-on from the movie, and “My Lucky Day” ... doesn’t sound like a 5 Star release to me. No one had to convince me that Born To Run, or The Wild The Innocent were outstanding albums, they just were, I could hear that instantly. But lately, these middle aged artists are finding it necessary to back-handedly convince you that the release has depth, and ion. To that, all I can say is that if it did I’d know it instantly.

Here, just read this quote about the release, “The youthful energy of the album’s music collides neatly with the all too adult truths of the lyrics, which at least on the surface, return to the personal and domestic, after the global sweep of his last few records.” ‘Global Sweep,’ really? I thought his last albums were more stripped down, and less encoming, I thought that’s what he’d been doing since Tunnel Of Love. But then what do I know, I just buy this stuff.

In defense of Bruce I will say that his shows are still some of the best live music being played on the planet today ... never miss one. But as to his albums, you’re going to find yourself picking and choosing which songs best suit you best, because this album ain’t Born To Run.

Review by Jenell Kesler