A Worthy Effort That Ultimately Falls Short
By Austin Jones
By Austin Jones
In the pantheon of Bruce Springsteen albums, ‘High Hopes’
will not go down as an all-time classic, or even a great record for that matter. It is more of a pleasant stop-gap. The Boss’ 18th studio album is a
mish-mash of unreleased material, re-recorded fan favorites and cover
songs. Bruce covers material pre-dating
2002’s ‘The Rising’ all the way to present day.
Along the way, he and The E Street Band jam out to a raucous cover from
Australian pop-punk band The Saints as well as a re-imagined take on Suicide’s
‘Dream Baby Dream’. Bruce has long
voiced his appreciation for Suicide and has acknowledged that the duo
influenced him when he went on to write the widely-acclaimed album, ‘Nebraska’. The Havalinas’ tune ‘High Hopes’, which was
featured as a “B-side of a B-side” off of an EP in ’95 also makes an appearance
as the title track.
The production of the album sounds inspired, and it is never
uninteresting to the ears. ‘High Hopes’
was an anomaly when it was originally recorded but it has since been given life
by producer Ron Aniello. The horn
section and guitar from Tom Morello give this song a much needed steroid
injection and it has become something fierce.
A real credit must be given to original writer Tim McConnell for the
strong lyric. A song originally recorded
during The Rising sessions called ‘Harry’s Place’ follows, and while it’s
ominous, street-wise sound and uncharacteristic profanity (3 f-bombs, Bruce?) make it
interesting to listen to, it is most certainly filler (in the worst way) and
can only be seen as an excuse to allow the fans to hear an original Clarence
Clemons’ recording. The song’s
production leads way into triumphant re-recording of ‘American Skin (41
Shots)’. It is still as good as fans
have come to expect and it gives the album a brief sense of direction before it
begins to slowly veer off course again.
The aforementioned ‘Just Like Fire Would’ is a killer
rendition of the original Saints’ jam.
The E Street Band shucks way the original’s 80’s sound and shapes it
into a modern rocker utilizing horns and strings (something we’ve come to
expect ever since The Rising). The song
is a highlight and serves as the album’s second single and will surely be
played most nights during the coming tour.
‘Down in the Hole’ is a bleak song that would have been a stand out on
‘The Rising’. Instead, it gets released nearly
11 years later. It is truly a great
song. The lyrics evoke memories of 9/11
and what it must have been like at ground zero and to have experienced such
horror. The track placement is
questionable and brings to light the problem this album going to have from the
beginning: How the hell do we sequence these songs in a cohesive manner? The
answer is that you simply cannot.
The second half of the album starts with ‘Heaven’s Wall’,
and while the production of the songs has been taut and fresh, this is where it
backfires. One concern that the Brendan
O’Brien albums had was that Springsteen’s vocals fell into the background
behind the sound, and that is the case here.
Springsteen has written sublime lyrics, but you couldn’t tell unless you
read the liner note. The vocals cannot
be discerned from all of the noise dumped on top of it. As a result, it is a decent song at best
‘Frankie Fell in Love’ is going to be a favorite of Little Steven’s to sing on
stage during the tour. It reminds me of
3-minute party songs from the 60’s and is reminiscent of Bruce’s double-album ‘The
River’ (listen to ‘Two Hearts). It’s a
fun pop song and personally my favorite song from the unreleased material. To finish off the one-two romantic punch is
‘This is Your Sword’. The chorus is
tremendous, but again we are plagued with the dilemma that this isn’t really so
much a studio album as it is more of an archive project. This song sounds like it was recorded
in-between ‘We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions’ and ‘Magic’. That isn’t a bad thing, it’s a good
song. It just continues to show the up
and down nature of the record.
The final four songs of the album do offer us a stretch of
clarity. ‘Hunter of Invisible Game’ is
well-written with it’s post-apocalyptic imagery and message of hope (“There’s a
kingdom of love waiting to be reclaimed!”).
The song may remind a listener of Cormac McCarthy’s novel ‘The Road’
only with a little more optimism at the end. The soaring ‘Ghost of Tom Joad’ needs no
introduction and now with a more formal recording, we now have a definitive
stamp for this song’s legacy. Morello
shines and proves yet again why he is one of the most inventive (and greatest)
guitar players in rock music today. Probably
the best song on the album, ‘The Wall’ is a sad elegy about the loss of friends to the Vietnam War (”Apology and forgiveness got no
place here at all—at the wall.”). The song is written for Walter Cichon, a
regional musician that Bruce looked up to.
Finally, the album ends with a soaring yet imperfect version of ‘Dream
Baby Dream’. Bruce tinkered with it in
the studio, but “couldn’t quite figure find a version that worked”. That’s fine here. The romanticism and dream-like delivery of
the vocal serve the song well, even if it “doesn’t quite work”. Originally a set closer on the ‘Devils &
Dust’ tour, it serves as a fitting end to what amounts to an uneven yet solid
collection of songs.
I admire Bruce’s conviction to offer something
to the fans while exploring his creative muse, even if it isn’t quite the slam
dunk he may have been hoping for.
Teaming up with former ‘Rage Against the Machine’ guitarist Tom Morello
and new producer Ron Aniello have given Bruce the itch to be creative and to
try new things in the studio. For a
64-year-old rock musician, that can be a daunting task to undertake, but we’re
talking about ‘The Boss’ here, and when it works as well as did as it did on
‘Wrecking Ball’, then you realize you can take more chances and cover more
ground. ‘High Hopes’ is a flawed yet
interesting record. These are quality
songs that don’t quite gel together, and that’s alright by me because any Bruce
is better than no Bruce. Album Grade: C+
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