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May 04, 2005
bruce springsteen :: devils & dust
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| (buy) |
I'm sure everyone's dying to hear the official Borrowed Tunes take on the new Springsteen, since the Boss always gives music writers an occasion to polish up overblown claims of gravitas, to go toe to toe with Bruce Almighty in a serious assessment of the state of rock music, always needing saving, as a metaphor for our sorry-ass world.
My first thought on getting the disc? "Jeez, I can't figure out how to get this newfangled case open!" Seriously. You have to push the little tab button thing.
Anyway, I'd rather just listen to the songs, and by that standard it's a patchy little record, one that is sadly kind of boring to sit through. It's a good deal better than The Almost Unlistenable Ghost of Tom Joad, but nowhere near Nebraska. It's not in the same league as that paranoid, agitated, and bleak and, not least, compact masterpiece. There are some sparkling moments on Devils, but it sure does go on forever.
In fact, it's amusing - but understandable - that this record is cast in comparison to the acoustic pair of Joad and Nebraska. You're taking in the extremes of the Springsteen catalogue there; this one is the very definition of middling.
The title track wears in nicely. "Black Cowboys" holds your attention with a well-spun story and a simple folk melody. "Long Time Comin'" is an uplifting grownup singalong rocker of the variety that he perfected on The Rising. "Leah" reminds me of the quiet tunes on Born In The USA or even Tunnel Of Love, but mostly as an echo of something greater. "Reno" (subtitled "Did He Really Sing That? Rewind!") [lyrics] is a similar faint copy of the Nebraska vibe. "Matamoros Banks" is a good closer, another stark folk song.
Then there are the ill-advised falsetto experiments, "Maria's Bed" and "All I'm Thinkin' About", plodding sappers like "Silver Palomino", and the almost laughably sanctimonious "Jesus Was an Only Son" (where he seems to be channeling Oh Mercy-era Bob Dylan, which is fine; just weird). Because of these, the disc never really gets going, and it becomes difficult to remember the good parts until you take them one by one alone.
The disc does come as a double-sided CD/DVD, with video of pure acoustic versions of some of the tunes and a 5.1 mix of the whole album. The stripped-down versions are illuminating; the 5.1 mix is a lusher version of a production that is already too dressed up.
In the end, I'm worried that Springsteen's gift for melody is slowly deserting him. Even some tunes on The Rising depended on raw emotion to carry them through; here, he doesn't have that benefit, and some alarmingly hook-free material has made the cut. Let's hope it's just the mood this time around.
Posted by borrowed_tunes at May 4, 2005 10:38 PM
Comments
The Almost Unlistenable Ghost of Tom Joad - hah.
Posted by: Max at May 9, 2005 09:18 AM
hello
Posted by: jessica@gmail.com at May 1, 2007 11:23 AM
hello
Posted by: jessica@gmail.com at May 1, 2007 11:24 AM
hello
Posted by: andrey@gmail.com at May 5, 2007 10:08 PM