mikeandtim

album review

after many listens to the new "Devils and Dust" album by Bruce Springsteen...

if you are a springsteen fan and love songs like "downbound train", "atlantic city", and "with every wish", you will think this cd is great. if you have never heard of any of the three songs i just listed, you will consider the Devils and Dust album rather boring. you will listen and say "eh, i dont really know what the big deal is, this isnt anything special." there is a song or two with some questionable lyric. for example, the song "Reno" is about a start to finish experience with a paid lover in a Reno hotel room. hmm. one thing bruce can do well is tell a story and make you feel like you know the character in the song, but sometimes you would just rather he stuck to more pleasant/non-offensive material. i should not highlight that one song because the rest are really good, but i dont have an hour to write this review so thats all you get. the other songs are very good, and actually the Reno song is great musically, i just dont care for the imagery.

i think the album overall is "quite good" but not "amazing." his song lyrics tell stories and are refreshingly honest/straightforward. his voice seems to adjust to the situation/person that is telling the story with each song. it is subtle though, and if you havent listened to much bruce, you might not even get what i mean by that.

bruce is a musician that i strongly recommend starting your collection with his early work and buying his later albums after you see where he is coming from. i love ending sentences with prepositions by the way, so grammar freaks...please dont even waste your time with mine cause i gave up on that when the blog was invented. back to bruce, this album is strong if you are already a fan, but i dont think he is going to win many new fans over because of this performance. other bands you need to listen to their earlier work to understand their current music include: radiohead, r.e.m., the beatles, among others. if you don't like to work to enjoy your music, you are probably a country, rap, or ashlee simpson fan, and it certainly doesnt make you a bad person.

--mike

posted by mikeandtim @ 12:14:00 PM