Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars (June 14, 2019) Album • Page 3

I definitely need a 4+ hour E Street Band show ASAP but I'd really love it if he toured solo/stripped down with a smaller band. Just feel like these new songs on this album will get no live show love when E Street comes back.

 

That song is just perfect to me. He manages to deliver a line like "wilted flowers, lazy afternoon hours" in a way that actually feels like a lazy summer afternoon...or rather, a lazy summer afternoon in your memory. It's comforting and sad at the same time.

And it's pretty obvious where the song was going (it's not a new idea: reflect on a specific place that has deep personal significance, visit the place to find it's no longer there) but the ending still absolutely stunned me. I had to pause and collect myself after "She was boarded up and gone like an old summer song, nothing but an empty shell."

 

Yeah, that lyric you quoted at the end absolutely blew me away. Just so beautiful.

 

The reactions to this have me so so excited to listen after work this evening

 

I’ve listened to this like 8 times already. Unfortunately, my vinyl delivery got delayed.

 

Is sunshine representative of the album?

 

The album is extremely cohesive so I wouldn't say any song is not representative of the rest of the album (besides "Sleepy Joe's Cafe" which is an upbeat outlier). With that being said, "Hello Sunshine" didn't do much for me as a single, and I really didn't like "There Goes My Miracle".

Both songs work way better in context of the album, but they're easily the most bare-bones songs lyrically. So if you didn't love those songs, there's still a good chance you find plenty to like on the album.

 

the pre-release songs did not do much for me, I am very happy that the rest of the album is far better.

 

Alright, perfect. I didn’t listen to miracle but really didn’t like sunshine haha, but Bruce is one of my all time favs so I still had hope. Glad to hear it, I’ll need to give it a try

 

Just hearing the singles, I did not like "Hello Sunshine" very much, and I actually strongly disliked "There Goes My Miracle". I agree that both songs work much better when heard in the context of the entire album. I actually like both songs very much now.

After multiple plays through of the album now though, the weakest track for me is the opener, "Hitch Hikin'", followed closely by "Somewhere North of Nashville". I love "Sleepy Joe's Café". It is definitely musically and stylistically the outlier, being more upbeat and 'fun' sounding than the other songs, but the lyrics are just as strong as most of the other songs on the album.

 

The pre-release tracks are two of the best ones, for me. Especially "Hello Sunshine," which feels like the closest he's come in song to reckoning with his depression.

Best track is "Moonlight Motel," though, followed by the title track.

 

I definitely agree with this now. I'm not sure what I was hearing before, or what I was expecting maybe...

One other track that absolutely blew me away was "Stones". But really, aside from 2 tracks, I think this entire album is amazing.

 

The only song I don’t like is “Sleepy Joes Cafe”. That’s a Jimmy Buffet song, sorry.

 

I'm a huge fan of both of them and I just don't hear it. I guess maybe just that it is upbeat and happier than the rest of the album... But I have always vastly preferred Jimmy Buffett's more melancholy or somber songs to his silly, party songs. His fun songs are fine for what they are, but I usually have to be in the right mood or frame of mind to listen to them. I'll take "A Pirate Looks At Forty" or "He Went To Paris" over "Cheeseburger in Paradise" or "Fins" any day.

 

I've never been a fan but then someone played me "Death of an Unpopular Poet" and I was pretty wowed.

 

So the title track is kind of "Local Hero" after the five seconds of fame are over huh

 

Yeah this was great on first listen. As others have said, I really didn't like TGMM as a single, but enjoyed it more in context.

Sleepy Joes Cafe would be too corny for me but all the key changes push it into far more interesting territory.

Hitch Hikin and the title track were easy stand outs on first listen, but excited to spend more time with it.

 

Just spun this on vinyl for the first time. Wow, it sounds so good. And that last side is just perfect.

 

Really kinda hate Sleepy Joes, especially coming after the heft of the title track. It's jarring. Only complaint though, this record is really really good. I'm hesitant to anoint it "his best record since x" but that's only because I value his body of work from the last 20 years so much

 

"Moonlight Motel" is unbelievably good

 

It really is. The part that goes “Last night I dreamed of you, my lover
And the wind blew through the window and blew off the covers
Of my lonely bed, I woke to something you said
That it's better to have loved, yeah it's better to have loved” is just devastating to me.

 

Sundown is such a treat

 

The end of Moonlight Motel is one of the biggest examples of a songwriter having spent a lifetime mastering his craft. He sets up the same rhyme structure throughout the song so that you expect the second-to-last verse to go:

"She was boarded up and gone like an old summer song,
nothing but an empty shell.
I pulled in and stopped into my old spot,
at the Moonlight Motel"

But he leaves out that last reference to the title, and because he set it up throughout the song, that space he leaves is so palpable. Almost like the narrator intended to say it but he was too broken up for the words to come out. Really subtle thing but I can't stop thinking about how brilliant that moment is -- and how other brilliant but less experienced songwriters might not make that choice.

 

I believe he does that in My Hometown too and I friggin love it.

 

Album is fantastic. I know this is more of a country album but I feel like he's really channeling Sinatra on here. "You can take the boy out of Jersey..." etc.

I agree with others about Sleepy Joe's though, it is pretty corny. But I think if he plays that live I think it's likely to be a crowd pleaser, especially for older fans.