New Springsteen album streaming :)

[Kanada Kev]

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=99173117&m=99403394

NPR.org, January 19, 2009 - Bruce Springsteen's return to pop production (and the E Street Band) on his 2007 album Magic left him wanting more. Although he hadn't pushed himself to complete back-to-back albums in more than 30 years, The legendary singer's longtime producer, Brendan O'Brien, urged Springsteen to keep recording.

"I thought, 'No, I haven't done that since my first two records came out in the same year,' " Springsteen says. "Usually, I don't write that quickly. But I went back to my hotel in Atlanta, and over the next week, I wrote several songs that formed the beginning of the new album (Working on a Dream). I found there was more than enough fuel for the fire to keep going."

Working on a Dream, streaming now on NPR Music — a week before its official release date — is Springsteen's 24th album. It was recorded with the E Street Band during breaks from the group's 2007 tour.

"I hope Working on a Dream has caught the energy of the band, fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we've ever done," Springsteen says. "All the songs were written quickly. We usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end."

Working on a Dream contains 12 new Springsteen songs and one bonus track, "The Wrestler," which is featured over the closing credits of Darren Aronofsky's 2008 film of the same name. The track also won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

Edited January 21, 2009 by Guest

[fluffhead77]

I listened to about 3 songs this morning and wasn't very impressed. maybe I need another listen.

[Hartamophone]

fluffhead77, your opinion is incorrect.

Actually I haven't listened to any of it yet. I'm looking forward to giving it some time when I get home tonight. Thanks for the heads up, Kev.

[Kanada Kev]

I got through it once (and too quietly here at work). I thought it was ok. I need to listen to it with a printout of the lyrics. Gotta get into the stories and characters.

[NewRider]

I'm digging it so far. Not amazing or anything but some good tunes for sure.

[ersh]

Outlaw Pete sounds suspiciously like "I was made for loving you" by KISS.

[guigsy]

I saw Gene Simmons yesterday in the Hagstrom booth at NAMM. I'd like to tell you there were groupies, clamoring to be added to the tongued-one's Polaroid collection, but there were just a few geeks, looking at this intelligent man not quite as smart as he'd like us to believe who's great at selling and mediocre at music.

Gene didn't need to be a rock star. He was once a teacher. He can sell ice to Inuits. But timing is everything, as Malcolm Gladwell says. Rock was making all the money in the seventies, so that's what Gene created, an over the top rock and roll circus. With one certifiable hit, "Rock And Roll All Nite". But as the seventies wore on, the band had no luck with anybody other than its acne-scarred fans, so it did what every loser act does when it gets desperate...IT FOLLOWED THE TREND! KISS went DISCO!

The result was "I Was Made For Lovin' You". KISS' highest charting single ever! It peaked at number 11 in 1979.

There was a bit of MTV fame thereafter, with different players and no makeup, but ever since KISS has been running on fumes. Mr. Simmons boasting how great they are as they reunite with the old players, put the makeup back on, twist the little cred they've got with their nitwit fans into a new concoction and then sell the same fourth-rate rock one more time.

Maybe if you were prepubescent in the seventies you got KISS. Anybody whose testicles had descended scratched his head and ignored the act. Figuring if they wanted theatrics, they'd at least go for Alice Cooper, who wasn't purely about entertainment, who was truly testing limits, whose songs had something to say.

Yes, Alice Cooper deserves to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. KISS? We've been living in a Simmons-free zone for eons. Gene's the only one who doesn't know it. With the Internet and a zillion cable TV stations we can avoid him, let him grub for his money. After all, Gene's no Bruce Springsteen.

Then again, is Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen anymore?

Maybe this is a different Bruce. Not the same one who was married to Julianne Phillips and lived in Los Angeles. Yes, that's why he got a divorce. IT'S NOT THE SAME GUY! He married Patty and retired to the wilds of his native New Jersey. Even broke up the band. I mean how could the NEW Bruce play with Clarence and the old guys? They'd spot a fake in a minute.

As for the music going downhill... Like Tupac and John Lennon, the old Bruce left a couple of songs in the can. "Human Touch" and "Streets Of Philadelphia". But then, with the old songs gone and the E-Street Band starving, Jon Landau concocted a "reunion".

Have you seen this new act? Listened to the records? "The Rising"? The old Bruce was an outsider, not a cheerleader.

Worse, the old Bruce stood up for the little guy. The old Bruce wouldn't allow an exclusive to be sold at a big box retailer that locked its employees inside. He'd pen an anthem protesting the abuse. He'd skip the Super Bowl, after all, didn't high school football players chide him for his long hair, beat him up?

I gotta believe this is the case. That it's just not the same Springsteen, because "Outlaw Pete" IS A DIRECT LIFT OF KISS' "I Was Made For Lovin' You"! It's the same hook! Even worse, it's the opening track on Springsteen's new album!

We're supposed to believe in a man who's turned on everything he ever believed in, who has resorted to copying the work of hacks and pawning it off as his own?

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where NO ONE involved, not the producer, the manager, the band or the label could let the supposed Boss know his newfangled track is actually thirty years old?

One in which selling has eclipsed art. Where bucks are more important than music. Where Pollstar grosses are more important than listenability.

I read they were the same song in today's "Wall Street Journal", but when I actually listened I was positively stunned. At least Charles Barkley speaks the truth. He wanted a little oral sex. But Bruce Springsteen and Columbia Records want the entire country to blow him, like he's still the same guy who penned "Born To Run". Thank god he's not. As for the real Bruce Springsteen, I heard someone say they saw him working the counter at the 7-11 in Tulare. Or was it Tehachapi?

Listen here:

Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123204420598786423.html?mod=article-outset-box

[ersh]

WOW! Hilarious... I guess Bob noticed as well. He's a little harsh on the serious rock n roll contribution that KISS made to the world... but maybe I've just been playing with the Trews too long, eh? Thanks Scott.

[guigsy]

hahah, thought you'd like that, Jeff.

i think he's a little harsh on KISS, too. i've had my phase, hahah. one of my earliest childhood memories is of a massive length-of-the-house sized KISS logo that was painted on the brick of my neighbours house for the better part of the 80's. years later i joined the KISSArmy, but i 've been AWOL ever since peter criss tried to point a drumstick at me "in 3-D".

im still hesitant to give this new Boss album a run... i thought magic mostly sucked, and the rising didnt really do it for me either... i listened to the youtube outlaw pete stuff and was also pretty turned off.. we'll see, though, im sure i'll cave soon enough...

[ersh]

Lucky Day is a good tune... but yeah, I completely agree with Lefsetz on the current state of Bruce.

[bouche]

they should call it the bruce springSTREAM

[ersh]