I think I always feel most inspired or say motivated to
write a post about albums and bands that I love most. Which is not that often,
bands don't produce new albums each month no matter how much I may want it.
Lets face it, a new album by the Boss each month? I'd be spoiled rotten. And I suppose after a while it would get boring. No more anticipation or looking forward to something. Where's the fun in that?
You probably put two and two together and know
already who I'm writing about today. The only real love of my life. The most
amazing man on the planet. The kindest soul. The Boss himself.
Western Stars is the nineteenth studio album by the Boss.
Sigh. Which means I'm only missing about 10 albums on vinyl. I got everything on CD but I only got about 13 records,
9 studio albums and the rest live or single editions. I need to change that.
Like those Pokemon fans say ''gotta catch them all'. Still more likely to happen, having all Boss albums than having all Presley albums. I could probably cover my entire house in his albums and still have some left over.
So! The album came out on June 14th (and I have it
already!) and this one is different because it's a new studio album and the
first one after Devils and Dust with all original material. And you know what?
He will already start recording a new album with the E Street Band in the fall.
EXCITED!
I paced myself with this one. I only listened to ''Hello
Sunshine'' when it was released in April but the rest I wanted to wait, to
experience that whole 80's vibe when you had to wait for the album, put it on,
spin it, play it from the first song to the last, no skipping, getting lost in
it, and letting it blow your mind. And you know what? It was bloody well worth
it. Because it did blow my mind.
I was obsessed with Wrecking ball for the longest time
(still am) but I think this album tops it. It has to be Bosses best work in
years. If not the best album of all albums in years. It's not that it's
amazing, it's that it's mindblowing, perfect, out of this world, orgasmic,
insane, beautiful, soulful, touching, inspiring,…there are really not enough words to describe it.
Get ready for a cowboy album. It's a fusion of pop and
rock and country music. Almost like creating a completly new style of music.
Seriously guys, he is not a musician, he is the Boss. Only he could pull off such a twist in musical genre and make it as perfect as he did.
Going solo in Springsteens world though means something
completely different than it meant say for Queen. We all saw Bohemian Rhapsody
right? And what happens after Freddie went solo and ''killed'' Queen? If you
read the book Born to run you can read all the details about Bruces
relationship with his E Street Band. It's not just a band, not just a couple of
hired musicians + his wife. It's obvious that they're family, and apart from
that, a family that's been writing and recording with him since 1970's. Now
that's not a small thing.
I gotta say though, I despise the term ''real fan'' but
lets use it here for a second, a real fan will admit that not everything their
''babies'' do and put out is the most perfect thing after the invention of
fire. I am not a fan of the album Devils and Dust it's not my favourite thing
at all. Maybe Nebraska put the bar too high but honestly D&D was a bit of
disappointment.
And I'm happy to say that Western stars is galaxies away
from D&D. Not only it's fresh, and different and something completely new,
it's majestic, it's wonderful and it's a journey. A journey which I heard,
shocked some fans so much that he had to assure them that he'll be back to
''normal'', recording with the E Street Band ''as soon as possible''. People
get upset so easy. Don't they want their favourite musicians to grow and evolve
and try different routes? Explore something new? Nobody wants album after album
sounding exactly the same without any imagination at all.
It doesn't sound like Springsteen at all but on the other
hand if you could expect such a brilliant album from anyone then it's most
definatelly going to be him. A brilliant mind, like Bosses is, a brilliant mind
that can take you million miles away from his New Jersey beginings and yet make
you feel right at home at the same time.
This album brings back memories to more innocent and
turbulent times. It has a light tone, gentle, soulful voices, and this
peaceful vibe that goes in a strong contrast with the world outside. Horrible,
harsh, dark world. The album makes you calm yet troubled as soon as you let yourself get lost in the lyrics.
Boss dusted off a new style and voice he hasn't used in
years, some of it sounds like it did on Nebraska and some of it we never heard
before. Western stars channels the sound of songs such as Galveston and By the
time I get to Phoenix by Webb. The lyrics are light, even though some darkness
creeps in from time to time too. About people who's lives aren't really what
they expected them to be. But then these songs aren't songs you turn up as loud
as it goes and have an entire stadium scream along to, like Born in the USA or
Dancing in the dark, these songs….you take a 65' Mustang on top of a hill, put
the album on, sit on the hood on a long summer night with an ice cold beer and
enjoy the sunset.
What I always did and always will admire most about the
Boss is his way of making music. Storytelling. The way he writes his lyrics. In
a way where a 3+ minute song could write up an entire movie script, with
original characters and real peoples lives. His voice is soft, gentle,
intimate, like he's singing to a small theater audience and yet his lyrics are
so alive that what he sings can actually play like a movie in your head.
Assuming you have at least a bit of imagination. But where Wrecking ball and
High Hopes (which really was just a collection of covers and unreleased songs)
were angry and a response to the political issues going on in the world right
now, this one is a 360 turn away from that. It starts with a song titled
''Hitch Hikin''' which sounds almost like a folk song, sung by a lost man with
nowhere to go, someone drifting with the wind wherever the road takes him. It's a great introduction to a record that
brings a new sound and a new look on things.
Most of the songs talk about men who try to numb
themselves or lose themselves in work, so they don't think about lost love
''Hard work'll clear your mind and body, the hard sun will burn out the pain''.
That's what he sings in Tuscon train and it's one of the few songs on this
record where you can actually anticipate a happy ending. Basically, every
single song is a story on it's own, and together they're an epic novel.
A press release stated that the album contained a “range
of American themes, of highways and desert spaces, of isolation and community
and the permanence of home and hope”. Which is the perfect way to describe it.
I suppose it hits home to Springsteen too if you consider his struggle with
mental health.
The song that I can relate to most, the song that I love
most on this album is ''There goes my miracle''. It was the second single
released and when you listen to it you can hear a heavy 60's and 70's
California pop influence. It's different, it's emotional, it tugs at your every
heart string, I mean if you don't feel something listening to it then you might
as well be heartless. ''Heartache, heartbreak, love gives, love takes, the book
of love holds its rules, disobeyed by fools'' and ''there goes my miracle,
walking away''. Don't you think it paints a perfect picture? We all lost
someone we loved at some point, we all walked away from our very own miracles
not even aware of what we're losing.
And you see the plot twist? Where Tuscon train gives you
hope, hope of running away, getting lost in a whole new town, whole new world,
starting a new life and making it work, by the end of the album these dreams
just float away, like a piece of paper in the wind, or a soap bubble exploding into
thin air. He sings about endless roads ahead ''miles to go is miles away'' and
you wonder what's the point? Maybe we're all just destined to drift around,
never really finding that right place to settle and find our own happiness. The
funny part is that the songs are extremly soothing, the voice is soothing and
calm but deep down you know, the stories these songs sing about, they're not
enough to make things right, they're not happy stories, they're not going to
fill you with a warm happy fuzzy feeling. But what they'll give you is probably more important, a sense of understanding and in a way realising that things rarely turn out as you plan them and sometimes it's okay if you're not okay. You pick yourself up and move on like the drifters in Hitch Hikin do.
It's a record you'll love on the first listen, but it's
also an album that grows on you, the more you listen to it the more you'll love
it. It's an experience not just a record and I promise you, you'll love all 50
minutes of the ride.
And P.S. can we just point out how brilliant the whole
album design is? The front and back covers alone are gorgeous but then there's
the inner sleeves and not to mention the inner inner sleves, even they got
pictures. How amazing is that? And Boss just looks badass as a cowboy. Don't
fight me on that.
Enjoy your week y'all, and go listen to this album. At
least on youtube if you're not convinced enough to buy it just yet. Cheers.
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