Working on a Dream
I picked up Working on a Dream right when it came out, and I’ve listened to it all the way through exactly once. Since that first hearing I have avoided a few tracks, and grown very fond of many others. What don’t I like? “Outlaw Pete” is just too long and rambling. “Lucky Day” is weak. “Good Eye” isn’t bad, but it’s a really bluesy number, and, in general, I don’t like songs with lots of harmonic sevenths. “Queen of the Supermarket” is an unfortunate case. The music is lovely, and in the same aesthetic vein as most of the other songs on the album, but it is a waste lyrically. The singer’s effusive praise for the wonders found in the aisles of the grocery store seems ridiculous. And, by the end, the addition of cash register sound effects sends the whole affair over the top, like a bad imitation of Meatloaf, but without the ironic wink. It’s unfortunate that Bruce didn’t scrap every line in his notebook and come up with a whole other concept for the otherwise worthy tune.
What do I like? Most of the rest of the record, really. The big arrangements that characterized Magic are even bolder here, and, in many instances, they are coupled to song structures that are more obviously inspired by 1960s pop. Take “This Life”, for example. It begins with sounds which would have fit well on a Beach Boys album:
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But it’s not just what’s on the surface that reminds me of 1960s pop; it’s the harmonies and chord progressions themselves. I cannot, off the top of my head, think of many occasions where Bruce has turned to a diminished chord, but very briefly in the second verse of “This Life” you find one (and only one: the other verses don’t do this):
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I am aware that what I like on any Springsteen album is often the opposite of what many Boss fans like. I have read reviews of this album that praise the harder rocking numbers like “Good Eye” while disparaging the tracks that appeal to me. These reviews come from people that preferred Magic tracks (like “Gypsy Biker”) which don’t appeal to me aesthetically. To each his own. It is no wonder, then, that a my favorite song on Working on a Dream would be one that that I suspect is the least favorite of many: “Surprise, Surprise”. It’s a straight-up pop song that would have surely made the top-10 in 1965. The vocal timbre is much more natural, and has little of the affected twang that Bruce has used for years now:
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The chord progression is a total throwback to classic pop:
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And for me, the climax of the song comes when we hear other members of the E Street Band get to sing a little. It’s the perfect touch:
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When I listen to this song, I am always temped to follow it with its musical twin from Magic, “I’ll Work for Your Love”. In fact, quite a few of the tunes on Working on a Dream have analogs on other Springsteen albums from this decade, including Magic and We Shall Overcome.
Where “Queen of the Supermarket” fails lyrically, “Life Itself” succeeds. The banal imagery of the former isn’t nearly as subtle or imaginative. That is to say, I think “the wind in the black elms” is a much more meaningful metaphor for life than the aisles of a store.
If it isn’t my favorite song on the album, I must acknowledge that “The Wrestler” is Working on a Dream’s best song. It is the sort of portrait that he painted so well in the old days, as good as anything he’s written in years, and it’s remarkably touching:
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My ultimate analysis is that, while there are many tunes on Working on a Dream that I like, if I had my way, there would have been a couple that never made it. I recognize that the three E Street Band albums of this decade each explore a particular theme (September 11th with The Rising; America in the Bush era with Magic; a new optimism with Working on a Dream), and that is a pretty amazing feat, even if none of these records will ever rival masterpieces like Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town. It’s an impossible standard to live up to.
Filed under: Popular Music on February 8th, 2009
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