Opening with droplet-like acoustic, accented vocal, and sweeping strings, Bruce Springsteen picks up his listener on “Hitch Hikin’” and delivers us into Western Stars, his 19th album. The Boss’ first album of all-new material in seven years, this conceptual stab seems to be expanding on the dreary windswept vistas Springsteen visited on Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad.
Words like ‘cinematic’ and ‘Americana’ can certainly be used to describe this collection, but early tunes like “Tucson Train,” and the sexy title track reveal the early few of this baker’s dozen as overstaying their usefulness. It’s as if Springsteen is thrilled just to hear the orchestra play behind him, with little to say in the lyrics at the tail end. Springsteen’s Southern-drawl-via-Asbury Park inflection is just too much at times.
Midway on Western Stars this masterful songwriter ups his game. “(Drive Fast) The Stuntman” with David Sancious’ perfectly plucked piano, low pedal steel touches and the softest vocal from the Boss up to that point, reveals the kind of character storytelling fans love. “Sundown,” which should have ran longer, is infectious with its melody. And “Stones” is a true Bruce Springsteen classic. Sancious sets the pace and the strings truly complement. Violinist Soozie Tyrell’s ending is the perfect coda to all the gooseflesh that rises in this little epic.
“There Goes My Miracle,” the Glen Campbell-like “Hello Sunshine,” and the sweet lament of “Moonlight Motel,” is possibly the best mix of Springsteen, the band, and the orchestra. Western Stars is one half of a truly spectacular album. I’m reminded of how I felt about Springsteen’s The River, regarding one album’s worth of tunes as spectacular, another disc’s worth missing the mark. New Jersey’s favorite son gets weighed down in about five tunes by the musical concept, but when he finally hits his mark, there really is nobody better.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
