Bruce Springsteen - Western Stars (June 14, 2019) Album • Page 5

I already loved the Western Stars album to begin with, but I might like the soundtrack version even better. I know its is early, but this new version is really, really good as well.

 

Went and saw the movie; I highly recommend it for fans of this album!

 

Decided to check this out because I have the Regal pass and I'm sure I'll check the movie out. This is beautiful, wow! Didn't really expect this. Remember checking out the single on Pitchfork before it came out and being "eh" on it. I would love to listen to this on a train ride through Colorado or Arizona or something.

 

This is one of the most lush sounding albums I've ever heard.

 

Kind of randomly this album has been on constant rotation the last week or so, think im gonna go check this movie out tonight.

 

This was, absolutely incredible. Wow.

 

Yeah this was just, beautifully done. So glad we have an accompanying live album as well now, some of those renditions slaay the already stellar album tracks. The intro and following performance of Moonlight Motel was.....hoo boy, really special.

 

The very naturally-recorded strings are the big draw for the film versions and they make it essential all by themselves.

 

Finally had a chance to see this. I loved every single second of it. Listening to Bruce just talk about life is wonderful - he’s so open about his own flaws that it’s refreshing and reaffirming.

I’ll take all the content like this I can - hoping a Nebraska anniversary box set is announced in 2021/2022.

 

I'm a bit of a paradox, because while I consider myself in the top echelon of obsessive Bruce Springsteen fans, I always struggled to really get into his non E-Street Band material. (Besides Nebraska, of course!) There are always a handful of songs I grow to like on them, but for whatever reason, they never seem to grab me like the "band" albums do.

So, when Western Stars was announced, I was kind of lukewarm in my interest around it. I'll admit the story and concept of the record made it instantly more compelling than just a collection of scattered songs he'd put together, but it still took me a while to get it. It wasn't until I bought the vinyl that I really gave the album the time and attention it demands. I love the convenience of streaming, but there is definitely something about it that makes all music easy to discard and move onto to something more familiar. At a minimum, committing to spend the money on a record demands me to play it and get my money's worth out of it. Still, I often find myself hesitant to take a chance on records that I'm not positive will end up getting heavy rotation. It feels almost blasphemous to imply buying a Springsteen album is taking a "chance", but I don't own Tom Joad or Devils and Dust on vinyl... Regardless, sitting down with the album and the packaging really put me in the state of mind I needed to be in to receive this music. I'm so glad I did because there are some incredible songs on here that I may have missed otherwise.

Especially Moonlight Motel... no one besides Bruce could write a song like that. Just taking one look at the lyrics, and its instantly identifiable as pure Springsteen. I place so much importance on track sequencing on albums. The right sequence can make an album infinitely more engaging that a haphazard one. Bruce almost always comes through and wins in this area and Moonlight serves as another example of that.

I had kind of written this album off before it even came out and I'm glad a lot of folks' comments on this site helped steer me back towards it to give it a fair shot!

 

Moonlight Motel is a top-tier Bruce song IMO

 

i'm in a very similar boat, Western Stars didn't really hit with me until the last few months when I finally, like you said, gave it the attention it deserved, and it quickly became one of my top albums of the year. Seeing the film/live performances really helped as well. I think it also helped that I've spent the last year absolutely obsessed with red dead redemption so this music style kinda fit right into that aesthetic lmao

 

if you haven’t yet, really give Devils and Dust another chance. It took a while to hit for me but it really is a fantastic record. Maybe it’s not top-tier Bruce, but I think it’s pretty darn great in its own way. Admittedly I still struggle to get into Tom Joad aside from the title track.

 

Yeah, I am probably overdue to revisit that one. The title track of Devils & Dust and All The Way Home were great. I feel like my attention always began to drift by the midway point of that album. Maybe I should just start from the middle next time.

Tom Joad is tough... I really like the ESB arrangement of Youngstown and the title track, though!

 

OT, but if you're obsessed with Red Dead, do you know about the band Murder By Death? Because most of their catalog belongs as the soundtrack for RDR.

 

lol womp

 

listening to this now, every time i listen i love it more

 

“Hello Sunshine” is such a unique song in his catalog. It’s so calming. I go back to it frequently.

 

“Moonlight Motel” might be the best song an artist has ever released 46 years into their career, period. I don’t think there’s any 2008-or-later Dylan or 2015-or-later Cohen that can match it. Closest I can come up with is “New” by Paul McCartney and that’s not even that close.

 

His last two albums are a late-career apex that I think is pretty unrivaled. “Moonlight Motel” being the most staggeringly great song on a pair of records filled with great songs.

 

Gah I love “New”. What an absolute pop gem. Such an underrated classic, one of my all time favorite McCartney songs, no qualifiers.

 

I think Dylan and Bowie could make similar claims. Neil Young has put out great records but can’t really count Homegrown and Hitchhiker.

“I Can’t Give Everything Away” is pretty god damn amazing.

 

Those two are definitely up there. The last Dylan album I loved, personally, was Love & Theft, but I know Rough and Rowdy Ways is pretty adored.

 

yes

 

'Moonlight Motel' and 'I'll See You In My Dreams' are both top 10 Bruce for me - Wonderful songs

 

"Moonlight Motel" is definitely in my top 10. Letter to You, as a whole, means so much to me that I have trouble picking a favorite song from it.