Bruce Springsteen

[liebzz]

Magic - my overall rating A (I said something many albums ago about Bruce reacting to one album with the next. Whereas the last few were more stripped down affairs, Bruce goes full rock in this one and nails it.)

Songs to convert tree_: Radio Nowhere, Living in the Future, Girls in Their Summer Clothes, Long Walk Home

Other good listening: You’ll Be Coming Down, Your Own Worst Enemy, Gypsy Biker, Magic, Last to Die

[liebzz]

I never listened to that one hit this has piqued my interest.

Yeah this one is really up there and maybe my favorite post Born in the USA album. Magic is basically tied with it even though they are completely different albums.

[Kevin Davis]

If the style of music doesn't put you off on principle, "Seeger Sessions" is damn near the most pleasurable album of Bruce's whole career. It's hard to call it his "best since..." anything, just because it feels weird to point to an anomalous covers record to stand in for the totality of an artist's achievement within a specific time period, but it's every bit as successful in achieving what it aims to achieve. I listened to it endlessly the summer it came out. My personal picks are "Old Dan Tucker," "O Mary Don't You Weep," "John Henry," and the non-album track "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live" (a commentary on the Bush administration's poor response to Hurricane Katrina, beautifully rendered on the "Live in Dublin" album).

[liebzz]

If the style of music doesn't put you off on principle, "Seeger Sessions" is damn near the most pleasurable album of Bruce's whole career. It's hard to call it his "best since..." anything, just because it feels weird to point to an anomalous covers record to stand in for the totality of an artist's achievement within a specific time period, but it's every bit as successful in achieving what it aims to achieve. I listened to it endlessly the summer it came out. My personal picks are "Old Dan Tucker," "O Mary Don't You Weep," "John Henry," and the non-album track "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live" (a commentary on the Bush administration's poor response to Hurricane Katrina, beautifully rendered on the "Live in Dublin" album).

Yes. I think this was the point I was trying to make.

[liebzz]

Working on a Dream - my overall rating C+ (the bookends for me, Outlaw Pete and bonus track The Wrestler, are stunningly good. Somehow the rest never meets that and is very uneven.)

Songs to convert tree_: Outlaw Pete, The Wrestler

Other good listening: Good Eye, Life Itself, My Lucky Day if only for its catchiness.

[liebzz]

Do we count The Promise as an album? I mean it’s a b-sides album from Darkness on the Edge of Town, but some of it was re-recorded for the release. I’ll ponder that as I move on. Shockingly, I don’t have much left to go.

[liebzz]

Wrecking Ball - my overall rating A- (I think this album is much better than given credit. Mostly, Rocky Ground, which isn’t necessarily bad, somehow gets drawn up as the heart of the album when I think Wrecking Ball and Death to My Hometown should take that mantle)

Songs to convert tree_: We Take Care of Our Own, Death to My Hometown, Wrecking Ball, Land of Hopes and Dreams, American Land (my wife’s favorite Springsteen song), We Are Alive

Also good listening: Easy Money, Shackled and Drawn

[LoathedVermin72]

Wrecking Ball and Rocky Ground are bottom 10 Bruce. That album sucks.

[liebzz]

We clearly have opposite tastes in Springsteen. I guess that is why the world spins.

[Monkey_Driven]

I don't mind Wrecking Ball as a song to play live. Naming an entire album after it seems a bit much. Rocky Ground is bad, but not as offensively bad as some other Bruce songs.

[LoathedVermin72]

The cringe-inducing embarrassment of hearing Bruce say “Mister, if you’ve got the balls” is the single lowest point in his entire repertoire

[liebzz]

Pony Boy

[Monkey_Driven]

The cringe-inducing embarrassment of hearing Bruce say “Mister, if you’ve got the balls” is the single lowest point in his entire repertoire

[LoathedVermin72]

Does Pony Boy contain the line “Mister, if you’ve got the balls?”

[Monkey_Driven]

Does Pony Boy contain the line “Mister, if you’ve got the balls?”

He's talking about wrecking balls.

[LoathedVermin72]

Does Pony Boy contain the line “Mister, if you’ve got the balls?”

He's talking about wrecking balls.

Pretty arrogant way to describe one’s balls

[liebzz]

That line doesn’t bother me. I am just pointing out Pony Boy as it is the worst song (including b-sides) that I have heard from Bruce and maybe one of the worst songs i’ve ever heard. It’s a special kind of awful.

[LoathedVermin72]

Agreed

Wrecking Ball still might be worse though

[Monkey_Driven]

Does Pony Boy contain the line “Mister, if you’ve got the balls?”

He's talking about wrecking balls.

Pretty arrogant way to describe one’s balls

[Strat]

I actually quite love wrecking ball (song) and think other than some major clunkers, pretty solid effort.