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Bruce Springsteen recorded his eighteenth studio album ‘high hopes’ on the road whilst touring extensively on his Wrecking Ball tour. On first listen, the album appears to consist of songs that have been previously heard either on prior albums or from this summer’s gigs.
Rage Against The Machines Tom Morello has worked on the album, and recently said how working with Bruce was exhausting, yet the pair formed a close friendship, and the partnership is evident throughout the album, in particular on the song ‘The Ghost Of Thom Joad’ - which Springsteen originally used as the title track of his 1995 album of the same name. Another song that Springsteen has re-worked is 'American Skin (41 Shots)' originally written in tribute to a young immigrant shot dead by the police. This time, Springsteen has dedicated it to Trayvon Martin, the teenager infamously shot in ‘self-defence’.
As always with Springsteen, the politics within his songs and the album are notable, yet High Hopes is not as obviously politically charged as his previous offerings. More notable tracks include ‘Dream Baby Dream', a haunting track without the full force of the E Street Band, and title track ‘High Hopes’ a punchy opener which gives slightly false expectations of what is to follow.
That is not to say that the album is not good - it is. But that’s all. It is not Springsteen’s greatest work, collectively at least. The gems on the album are brilliant and classic Springsteen, but the lack of both cohesion and continuity let the album down. The use of former recordings of Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, both now deceased, shows the tenderness and love that Springsteen has put into the album, and that the intention was more of a personal journey, rather than a churning out of record breaking anthems.
