Album Review - Working on a Dream

At times, the Internet can be a very negative place.  Like Louie CK said, people will just spout off mean comments to a monitor screen and feel no remorse as they do not see the anguish they cause.  Furthermore, if you cause a stir on the Internet, you'll garner more of those coveted pageviews, so people are incentivized  to generate controversy, and being a Negative Nancy is a fairly easy way to ruffle people's feathers.  I've been very proud of the work at Legends Of Springsteen over the last two years, as we have maintained a positive attitude (well, not always) while being completely honest in our thoughts and opinions about Springsteen.  With that being said, I hesitated before taking on the task of reviewing Working on a Dream.

Five years ago today, Working on a Dream, Springsteen's 16th studio album, was released.  There was a massive promotional campaign behind it, and, given its timing, it could have been called Obama's Inauguration: The Soundtrack.  In order to sell the album, they pulled out all the stops, from Springsteen's fantastic Super Bowl performance, the inclusion of a Golden Globe winning song, and a sprawling tour featuring an epic five-night stand to close out Giants Stadium.  And, it was five years ago today, that I began my hatred for this album.

My initial impressions of the album were: this is too nice.  Springsteen's too happy.  Gone was the angst, frustration, and sadness that made Magic one of my favorite albums just a year-and-a-half earlier.  Every other song seemed to be about how fantastic everything was: his day was lucky, he fell in love at the supermarket, and he was throwing someone a surprise birthday party!  I immediately dismissed it as the worst Springsteen album ever, and, aside from "The Wrestler", I never found myself playing any of the songs again.

But, as Mark McGwire said, I'm not here to talk about the past.  With the five year anniversary coming up, I decided to dust off the old section of my computer where Working on a Dream lies and give it another double-click.  I tried to keep as open of a mind as possible, and the results surprised me:

I liked a few songs.

"What Love Can Do" is a Goo Goo Dolls-esque rocker, which, for those who know me, is actually a compliment.  It's simple, catchy, and, most importantly, short.  Many times on the album, the songs have a good idea, but they last too long and the song becomes boring, such as "My Lucky Day", "This Life", and "Outlaw Pete" (which I thought reached its conclusion three times before it actually did).  "What Love Can Do" is a song I didn't even remember before going into this review, so I had no preconceived notions to battle against.  There were, however, two songs I did a complete reversal on: "Working on a Dream" and "Kingdom of Days".

I was actually shocked by how much I enjoyed "Working on a Dream" when re-listening to the album.  It is very sweet and gentle, and I can easily see how it was adapted into a lullaby.  Bruce's voice also sounds incredible in this song, as he sings softly, without the growling and shouting that are trademarks of every Springsteen impressionist.  As for "Kingdom of Days", I recall debating this fellow writer Steve at the time, where I got too hung up on the lack of subtlety in the "I love yous".  However, the song has some fantastic lyrics, making it a strong choice for a wedding like "Happy" and "If I Should Fall Behind" (in fact, far-to-infrequent contributor James did have this song played at his wedding).

Unfortunately, these three songs were all the positivity I could take.  My initial thoughts of the album were that it was too "happy", and, five years later, this remains unchanged.  Following "Outlaw Pete", we are treated to five songs, about 20 minutes, of Bruce loving the world.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not a dour man, but after wave after wave of good-feelings, the dark tones of "Good Eye" were a welcome respite, even though it has an annoying distorted vocal.  And, shortly after that, it's back to the good moods with the honey-dripped "Tomorrow Never Knows".  The overt sweetness and lack of variety makes this a tough album to get through.

Additionally, this album features some songs that are so bad, they elicit laughter.  "Outlaw Pete" has some good ideas, but those ideas were already covered in KISS's "I Was Made For Loving You".  Aside from that, it is eight-and-a-half minutes dedicated to man who's introduced as a Coen-brothers-esque baby bandit.  "Queen of the Supermarket" reminds me of the classic Dana Carvey skit where he's making up a song on the spot.  "Surprise Surprise" seems like one of those songs characters would sing in a television show when they couldn't pay for the rights to sing the "Happy Birthday" song.

Overall, it was a very up-and-down experience to go back and listen to this album five years later.  For every song that got me thinking "Hey, this isn't too bad", there was another that was even worse than I remembered it.  It may not be Bruce's worst album of all time, but I still can't fully endorse it.  I would give it two dreams out of five.  That being said, if you'd like to order the album, click on the Amazon banner below!

What the F---?!?

Editor's Note: While we try to run the classiest of all Springsteen fanblogs, we also are dedicated to exploring every nook and cranny of the Springsteen-iverse.  With that being said, some of the language ahead is salty, so if you usually read the Friday Legends of Springsteen posts as bedtime stories to your children, you may want to skip this week.  

Fuck.  It isn't a word you expect to hear out of Bruce Springsteen.  Throughout most of his career, he has worked a clean act.  I'd speculate that record company executives preferred to keep it this way in order to not to alienate his fanbase.  However, pop culture continues to push the envelope over what is acceptable, and Springsteen has built up a loyal following whose adoration he constantly challenges (with controversial songs such as "American Skin" and "Death To My Hometown").  With these two factors converging, Bruce has started to test the waters of using more profanities in his music.  The first instance occurred on Bruce's 11th studio album, The Ghost of Tom Joad, over 20 years after he made his mark on the scene.  The last track, "My Best Was Never Good Enough", expresses a man's frustration with various cliches, as Bruce sings:

The early bird catches the fucking worm

The song sounds disturbingly dated (quoting Forrest Gump at the end) and uses a couple of other naughty words.  It doesn't sound true to Bruce's nature, as it seems he wasn't sure how he wanted to make his foray into the new world of swearing.  It would be ten years before Bruce would drop the f-bomb again, this time in the Devils & Dust track "Long Time Comin'".  This fantastic song tells the story of a man getting rid of his past demons and starting a new life.  When the narrator finds out he is going to be a father (again), he wishes that 

I ain't gonna fuck it up this time

As opposed to "My Best", this song was much better constructed and told a powerful story that the use of "fuck" ends up being an exclamation point on the message of the song.  In "My Best", the cursing was just out of frustration with his situation.  Here, he curses out of the self-doubt and fear every parent has.  He knows the suffering he had in his life, and he is reminding himself that he is responsible for making sure that this does not happen to his children.  Of the three songs I'm spotlighting here, this is the only one I had the chance to see performed live (during the Seeger Sessions Tour).  The audience knew that the f-bomb was coming, and erupted in applause after the line.  

The final use of "fuck" to date was in "Queen of the Supermarket", a corny love song that ranks among the worst of Bruce's songs.  It is a lovey-dovey ballad to a blue-collar worker that drives Bruce mad with desire.  Towards the end of the song, Bruce informs us that she has a smile

That blows this whole fucking place apart

Here, rather than cursing in fear and anger, he is shouting out in the name of love.  It seems like a desperate plea to make us truly buy into the romance of this song.  "I love her guys.  I love her.  I FUCKING love her!"  The song ends with a cash register beeping, a beeping which could've been used over Bruce's f-bomb earlier.  

While it is interesting to see Bruce experiment with dirtier language, the results have not been good, as he is just one-for-three in effective uses of "fuck". While it would be easy to say that it just doesn't "fit" Bruce, I feel that pidgeon-holes him, and sets expectations for an artist that has consistently tried to shed the labels given to him.  I feel the error in his use of "fuck" so far has been a lack of commitment - it seems that the use of it has been half-hearted and worked in after the fact, rather than essential to the lyrics.  Given how angry "Wrecking Ball" was, I fully expect to see more cursing from Bruce in the future, and I see them being in a different context than the previous songs.