Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream

Sixteen studio albums into his career, New Jersey’s favourite son shows no signs of slowing down.

If anything, Bruce Springsteen is probably more active in the public eye than he’s ever been. Fifty-nine years young and looking good for it, The Boss finds many a distraction worthy of his attention: be it rallying voters ahead of the most important US Presidential Election for a lifetime, or contributing award-winning songs to the soundtrack of equally acclaimed motion pictures.

Said song, ‘The Wrestler’, is featured here as a bonus track, capitalising on the success of the Mickey Rourke-starring movie. Given to the film’s director Darren Aronofsky for no fee, it makes sense that Springsteen should now reap some financial reward for penning such an emotionally weighty paean to always, somehow, falling short. “Have you ever seen a one-armed man, punching at nothing but the breeze?” asks our protagonist. “If you’ve ever seen a one-armed man, then you’ve seen me.” The song’s final line provides hope – “Have you ever seen a one-legged man trying to dance his way free?” – but ultimately it’s a song about failure, and the embracing of it.

The song’s tagging on at the album’s rear makes sense cohesion wise, for much of ‘Working On A Dream’ marches to a more positive beat. The winding narrative of opener ‘Outlaw Pete’ can be a lot to digest on a single sitting, but once its eight minutes reach a stirring finale the tone of this record shifts significantly with ‘My Lucky Day’. The song’s a wonderful celebration of one of the simplest joys in life – the finding of love, and the fulfilment it brings. “When I’ve lost all the other bets I’ve made, Honey, you’re my lucky day.” It’s perfect lyricism from a master of his craft – sparing because it knows it can be without loss of impression. The song’s breezy instrumentation adds to the feel that Springsteen is flying on an entirely natural high, and wants the world to share his optimism for a better tomorrow, whatever the today.

The title track can be seen as a nod to Springsteen’s unfaltering support for Barack Obama – “I’m working on a dream, though it can feel so far away” – but never does the singer come across as preachy, perhaps because he understands much of his audience share similar hopes. When politics aren’t taking centre stage on ‘Working On A Dream’, it’s matters of the heart that dominate Springsteen’s writing. ‘This Life’ returns to topics touched upon earlier in the LP, where love can (and does) conquer all, rendering all unrelated concerns irrelevant; ‘Life Itself’ follows a similar conceptual path, Springsteen delivering the wonderful line, “You were life itself, washing over me”. Here, his voice shares a nakedness of soul comparable to the late Johnny Cash – no small compliment.

Backed throughout by the E Street Band – as he was on both ‘The Rising’ and ‘Magic’, albums that have reignited his career in the twenty-first century – Springsteen’s lyrical material is never without its perfect musical foil: stylisticly diverse, but never unsettlingly so. Unlike said LPs, ‘Working On A Dream’ exudes a good vibration less obvious on its predecessors – this time Springsteen recognises that winds have changed, that tides have turned. And it’s getting better, man.

And while not a catalogue classic compared to ‘Born To Run’ or ‘Nebraska’ – both essential purchases if you’re a Springsteen newcomer – there’s no doubt that ‘Working On A Dream’ is a better-than-anticipated record from a man yet to see his well of creativity run dry. He remains the definitive American songwriter active today.