I have just pre-ordered Mr Springsteen’s new album ‘Only The Strong Survive’, which is due for release next month. Amazon say that it will arrive on 11 Nov, which I imagine is the official release date.
That’s a heck of an incentive to get back home!
Apologies if this is old news, I didn’t know about it at all.
Nothing has especially impressed for some time now so I can’t honestly say I’ll be rushing. A feeling exacerbated by having see the video. Bloke is ageing very badly both physically and vocally. This is a creative cul de sac too IMO.
I have had it on pre order for a few weeks now. Looking forward to it arriving! Hope you escape your prison by then!
Thanks for that, Ryder35.
My leaving this week has been mentioned, but without giving a day or date. I may well just have to leave without their approval. I know the codes to the locks on the doors - yes, it’s that bad!
The new Springsteen is another strong candidate for first LP to get a spin on the old fruit box. I wouldn’t dare risk ‘Animals’!
I wouldn’t agree Mike but of course I respect your opinion.
He has put out so much great stuff over the years, including a lot of stuff in the vaults so I am glad to see him doing something totally different for him - i.e. “Western Stars” which I loved, steeped in a 1969 Burt Bacharach vibe, though Lloyd Cole did it long before him in 1991 on one side of his “Don’t Get Weird On Me Babe”.
I don’t much fancy soul music but I liked what I heard from Bruce recently and I welcome something different from him. After all, it is his roots and the Stones have made a career out of mining theirs. However, if he starts into the Great American Songbook like Rodders did I will put my hand up and agree that you were right all along and happily do so 
He is still in credit with me.
Peter
Rooting for you, please stay safe
Ian
Thank you, Ian, greatly appreciated!
I couldn’t disagree more. I saw The Boss ‘live’ several times, mainly early in his career, the last being at the Milton Keynes Bowl, and he was the ultimate showman.
He doesn’t get anything like the praise he deserves for his guitar playing, with his gloriously battered old Fender.
There was a touching documentary about him on TV a couple of months ago, mainly shot around his favourite New Jersey haunts.
I have all his albums on LP, and I imagine that the new one will be every bit as good as the earlier ones.
But each to their own.
PS Two of Springsteen’s albums that never seem to get the acclaim that (I think) they deserve are ‘Human Touch’ and ‘Lucky Town’, released together in the aftermath of the US withdrawal from its involvement in Iraq. Very spare production on both albums, but each is (I think) magnificent.
Respectfully disagree. The Boss is 73 and doing great. The Nightshift cover is so good!
Well I agree with the first half of your post 
Expressed my views on Western Skies on here some time ago. No need to repeat given the search function. In my view there’s not been a decent album since The Seeger Sessions. Certainly odd memorable songs here and there but the rest is somewhat hidebound; absolutely lacking in the dynamics of all his albums up to Tunnel Of Love and lyrically banal. Recent albums are also exemplars for the loudness wars. Magic in particular was highlighted as being close to unlistenable.
Saw him multiple times over the years but gave up after The Rising as the live performances are but a shadow of those early gigs. Whole band are less mobile and musically predictable.
I think Lucky Town and Human Touch are interesting ones to discuss. Springsteen was adrift in many senses. Abandoned his marriage; his band and some of his principles. The production on both albums could be politely described as unsympathetic. Shrill and anaemic. Many of the songs were the poorest of his career. It’s hard to make much of a case for Human Touch at all. Amongst the tosh on Lucky Town though were some real gems. Emphasis on “some”. Maybe 3 or 4 at most. The production and arrangements hid all that and it speaks volumes that Springsteen plays few from either album and has radically rearranged any that he does play.
I’m a huge fan of soul music especially southern soul but Springsteen is doing soul covers and not soul music and it’s a big difference. It’s pop music not soul. Nowt wrong with that but it lacks the emotional depth, dynamics, tension and release and so much more. Real soul music is very much about the individual describing a common experience. Springsteen is now very much a one note artist. Everything is about the communal. Again, nothing intrinsically wrong with that as a one off but it’s been a decade or two now. There is nothing left of him in his records.
Totally hear what you and others say but I don’t subscribe to the idea of the perfect, original, ever changing artist. People make great records and the sand people make rubbish ones. I’ll listen to 13 of his albums for the rest of my life. There are 13 I see no need to listen to again.
I’m certainly a fan of Springsteen but was left a little flat by Letter to You, guess for me Western Stars was such an impressive album and imo a hard act to follow. I’ll give the new album a listen via Qobuz before deciding if I’ll purchase it.
Well. Sorry to have pulled the trigger but very glad you could let this all go… Never said, Bruce Springsteen was “the perfect, original, ever changing artist”… unable to idealize anybody, by nature. I only said he is the Boss. 
Talking of new releases i see Mobile Fidelity is bringing out a 2 disc 45rpm remaster of’Tapestry’ Carol Kings epic 135GBP new 58-80 on ebay please tell me someone is having a laugh?! i have a boot sale copy 1999 cd remaster nothing at all amiss somebody please tell record companies there is a recession on!
So there’s no point in me buying it, as I don’t have the 45RPM adapter.
And that’s a lot more than I’m prepared to pay for two Carole King records in any event.
Ever since I saw him live in 1975 at Hammersmith just a few weeks after my 17th birthday. I have never missed a release of a new studio album (and many others, around 100 total) since. I have the new one on pre-order both LP and CD. I have my favorites of course and some not so much. I did not especially enjoy Western Stars at first but really enjoyed the live version soundtrack to the DVD and have warmed since to the Studio album. His version of Rhinestone Cowboy in the film version was great.
Amazon! Amazon! It makes me cringe 
Glad you are getting his new album but why not make a day of it and go to a record shop and buy it. It’s a great day out 
I don’t get much, or indeed any, enjoyment from walking into a record shop these days.
Before the advent of the internet age (so thirty or forty years ago), I would go into a record shop in order to browse around to find out what new ‘stuff’ was out.
These days, I tend to find out what has been released or, more usually, re-released, from the internet (particularly sites such as this Forum) and then order from Amazon (be it UK, Germany, USA or even Japan), depending on where I can find the music (preferably on LP) that I want.
And I’m usually buying new copies of music that I have known and loved before.
Of course, it’s exciting to be able to buy new releases of new music (Bruce Springsteen is a good example) but, more often it’s likely to be a new or special pressing of music that I have already (for example, Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’ on blue vinyl). There would be very little chance of walking into a record shop in Brighton and being able to buy a copy of ‘Grace’ on blue vinyl.
Much is claimed for the joy of going into record shops. Largely this is from people who would do it regardless. I’ve been going into record shops since I was 10. They have, inevitably, changed an awful lot. The first error is to hark back to some golden age of record shops and record buying that largely didn’t exist. All record shops are different. Some are great. Some are, frankly, awful. There are many different reasons for both. It has always been the case. Our Price was generally awful. My local Our Price was great. The guy behind the counter bought all sorts of stuff he probably ought not and we lapped it up. For all the nostalgia about Tower it was a shambolic mess and probably got what it deserved.
In Manchester we have Piccadilly Records. It has been here a long time. It is much loved and raved about. Frankly it’s awful. A dead atmosphere in a horrible location. Staffed by people whose gift for looking perpetually miserable is surpassed only by their ability to play nothing that would ever attract a passer by in off the street.
If record shops are a thing for some people then great. However, there are many solid reasons people buy off the internet and convenience is but one of them.
I know what you mean. I do not go for a new release to a record store very often (living in a very rural location I have to travel some distance anyway) but I do still enjoy a browse now and then. “Grey and Pink” in Chester is a used record shop I go to when I get out that way. They stock 1000’s of LPs and the people who work there are knowledgeable and helpful. I shall be having a birthday treat going there in November.
The legendary gig?