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Post by B.E. on Jun 12, 2023 22:37:39 GMT
It's funny, I hadn't realized Tom was on Wrecking Ball until I listened to it last week. He's on "Jack of All Trades" and "This Depression". "Jack of All Trades" was one of the songs I remembered liking, but thought was too long. Well, there's a false ending about five minutes in before launching until a full-band section. At first I thought, "come on, just let it end!" but then that guitar solo instantly won me over. It's one of my favorite moments on the album. Then about three-fourths of the way into it you hear some uber-RATM guitar tones and I realized that it must be Tom. "This Depression" is a couple tracks later and I recognized his playing there, too. He definitely toned down his style and fit in pretty well. I haven't listened to High Hopes yet. That said, I do think Tom's signature style is an awkward fit with Bruce's music.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 14, 2023 14:21:25 GMT
A few of the songs on High Hopes had been previously released in different versions by Springsteen. I thought it might be fun to compare them.
The title track is one, initially released on the Blood Brothers in 1996. That version is a raucous, almost New Orleans funk tune featuring the E Street Band. It was written and originally released in 1985 by Tim Scott McConnell.
The version found on this album features an even bigger horn section, but feels less organic (using drum loops and Tom Morello's heavy, distorted, and octaver'd guitar). It was also basically an E Street Band recording, done at Morello's suggestion during some studio time booked on an off day on their 2013 Australian tour.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 14, 2023 14:34:19 GMT
"American Skin (41 Shots)" was written in 2000 after four plainclothes New York City police officers shot 41 rounds at unarmed student Amadou Diallo, hitting him with 19 rounds. It was debuted late in the E Street Band's 1999-2000 reunion tour and was included in a live version on Live In New York City (2001).
There was also a 2001 E Street Band studio version released as a limited-edition promotional CD-R.
Producer Ron Aniello said the band began a new version of it in the Wrecking Ball sessions, but eventually discarded it. Springsteen brought it back again for the High Hopes sessions, crediting Tom Morello for boosting the quality. "His presence made a big, big difference," Springsteen said. "He obviously brings those things to great life and deepens them and deepens the characters."
Morello says Springsteen sent him the track to work on, on his own in his home studio. "That song to me was the most challenging one. It was also the first one I did. Normally I'll go in there and tinker with a song a bit and try to capture inspiration and see if the world likes it or not. But that song just didn't come together for me. I went back to it a couple of times, and I'm glad that I did because at the end of the day I was really pleased with how the guitar solo and the rhythm stuff came out. But that one felt like it was work. I had to really work on that one."
The studio version includes drum loops, synthesizers, and effects as well as the E Street Band, a horn section, and Morello.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 14, 2023 14:57:25 GMT
"The Ghost of Tom Joad" was, of course, the title track of Springsteen's 1995 album of the same name. While often considered an acoustic album, the album (and song) includes keyboards, drums, organ, bass, and pedal steel in an understated arrangement.
Versions were released for a charity compilation album (with Pete Seeger and others for a 2007 release) and a documentary film soundtrack (solo acoustic version in 2009) before Springsteen and the full E Street Band revisited for High Hopes. That final version, called "The Ghost of Tom Joad (Electric Version)," is by far the longest of the four released studio versions at more than seven-and-one-half minutes. It opens with eerie strings and clean-toned electric guitars providing atmospherics before Springsteen enters with his vocal. The intensity builds and the song eventually includes multiple Morello guitar solos replete with saturated distortion and generous effects (such as delay).
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Post by kds on Jun 14, 2023 17:07:54 GMT
I actually like the arrangement of the electric version, but I could probably do without all of the Morello-ness of it all.
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Post by kds on Jun 15, 2023 13:33:47 GMT
I'm giving High Hopes a five.
There are a couple decent songs here, most notably Just Like Fire Would. The title track's not bad.
But, overall, the modern production and Tom Morello are just too much for me. I get it, Tom's a unique guitarist, but I just don't care for his sound. And, I certainly don't want to hear him on a Springsteen album anymore than I want to hear Yngwie Malmsteen on a Brian Wilson album.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 15, 2023 13:41:21 GMT
I've been thinking I ought to bite the bullet and do my rating today, as I'm going to be busy both later tomorrow and much of Saturday. I can't quite decide what to do with it. In some ways, I like the songs better than the last album. But in some ways--namely, Tom Morello and some of the loops and other production touches--I am even cooler on it.
Your Morello take is exactly how I feel. I've never been a fan of any of his music, honestly. There is something very rigid and stiff about his playing that never really hit me the same way so many other guitar heroes have. He rarely seems fluid, but instead like he's fighting the guitar. That in and of itself isn't a disqualifier, as some blues players are like that. Hell, sometimes Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn were like that. Jimmy Page is like that, to some degree, in his rock soloing. (Not his folkier picking, which is very smooth.) But whatever combination of his musical style and his technique, it just doesn't resonate with me the way that his contemporaries like Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Nuno Bettencourt, Yngwie Malmsteen, or Joe Satriani do.
It's just an awkward fit. I think Morello and Springsteen are probably great fits personally, and certainly politically. But musically, I just think it's awkward and jarring. And this feels like a Bruce Springsteen feat. Tom Morello album to me more than a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band album.
I can say this: Ron Aniello is my least favorite producer for Springsteen to date to this point in his catalog.
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Post by kds on Jun 15, 2023 14:55:45 GMT
I've been thinking I ought to bite the bullet and do my rating today, as I'm going to be busy both later tomorrow and much of Saturday. I can't quite decide what to do with it. In some ways, I like the songs better than the last album. But in some ways--namely, Tom Morello and some of the loops and other production touches--I am even cooler on it. Your Morello take is exactly how I feel. I've never been a fan of any of his music, honestly. There is something very rigid and stiff about his playing that never really hit me the same way so many other guitar heroes have. He rarely seems fluid, but instead like he's fighting the guitar. That in and of itself isn't a disqualifier, as some blues players are like that. Hell, sometimes Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn were like that. Jimmy Page is like that, to some degree, in his rock soloing. (Not his folkier picking, which is very smooth.) But whatever combination of his musical style and his technique, it just doesn't resonate with me the way that his contemporaries like Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Nuno Bettencourt, Yngwie Malmsteen, or Joe Satriani do. It's just an awkward fit. I think Morello and Springsteen are probably great fits personally, and certainly politically. But musically, I just think it's awkward and jarring. And this feels like a Bruce Springsteen feat. Tom Morello album to me more than a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band album. I can say this: Ron Aniello is my least favorite producer for Springsteen to date to this point in his catalog. The only time I can say I've liked Tom's playing was on the first Audioslave album. I got a promo copy when I was working in radio. Not being a RATM fan, I wasn't really expecting much, but I really enjoyed it. I enjoy his work on songs like Like a Stone and I Am the Highway more than anything else I've heard.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 16, 2023 14:53:52 GMT
I went with a 5.
Again, I'm not doing a track-by-track because quite honestly I just don't feel like listening to this album again with any real attention. It has its moments when it sounds good, but the production (with its "modern" insertions of loops and such) and the prominence of Tom Morello drag it down for me.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 18, 2023 11:56:37 GMT
Three voters rated High Hopes an average of 5.7.
Thanks for participating. We'll move on later today.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 18, 2023 14:01:47 GMT
Bruce Springsteen, Western Stars (2019)
At five years, Bruce Springsteen took his longest break between albums since the seven-year span between The Ghost of Tom Joad and The Rising, some 15-20 years before. He released seven albums in that period of activity, 2002-2014: The Rising, Devils & Dust, We Shall Overcome, Magic, Working On A Dream, Wrecking Ball, and High Hopes, five of which were E Street Band recordings (including the previous four consecutive albums).
Upon his 2019 return, Western Stars, Springsteen would break that streak and deliver another solo album. Sometimes (though not always), those solo albums would mark a stylistic diversion from the traditional E Street Band sound, and Western Stars was certainly that.
According to Springsteen, however, the album's songs mostly date back nearly 10 years. He told Variety, "I wrote most of [Western Stars] before [2012's] "Wrecking Ball," and I stopped making that record to make "Wrecking Ball," and then I went back to it. So it's been awhile since I've written, but that's not unusual. That's occurred plenty of other times in my working life."
He and producer Ron Aniello, working alone and with studio musicians (including horns and strings), tinkered on the eventual album's songs periodically through those years. In the end, Western Stars had an Americana--and particularly Western Americana--feel. The arrangements were big, enhanced by strings and horns, a sophisticated California pop or countrypolitan sound.
The result was widely, but not universally, praised by critics. Outlets like NME, Rolling Stone, AllMusic, Pitchfork, The Guardian, The Independent, Entertainment Weekly, and Q rated it 4/5 stars or better (or the equivalent in their ratings systems). Some outlets critiqued what they considered an overly nostalgic vibe, hinting "that America used to be better." (Considering the timing, this sounds suspiciously like a fear that it creeps toward "Make America Great Again.")
Commercial performance was a letdown from most of the recent E Street Band albums' standards: unlike all but one of those, it failed even to go gold in the US; and unlike all of them, it did not top the US charts. (It peaked at #2. It did hit #1 in the UK and elsewhere.)
Please listen to, discuss, and rate Bruce Springsteen's 2019 album, Western Stars.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 18, 2023 18:07:12 GMT
While I haven't listened to it straight through in a while, I can tell you I listened to Western Stars quite a bit upon its release, and liked it A LOT. As in, it was easily among my favorite Springsteen albums as of that time. But this exercise has exposed me to and familiarized me with the other albums to a great extent, so I'm curious to listen in totality to see how I rate it now.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 20, 2023 12:44:13 GMT
A couple comments for this week's album. First, I was actually surprised how much this album is NOT a standout from top to bottom. I think I'd built it up in my mind. However, there are probably 4-5 songs at least that I really do like a lot, and I love the sound of the whole album. Big improvement just in its atmosphere after the past few albums. And along those lines... I was just reading the Pitchfork review of the album (a 7.8), which comments on (using Springsteen's memoirs) how he was just coming out of a really rough stretch with depression. How he says in his memoir, "Mentally, just when I thought I was in the part of my life where I’m supposed to be cruising ... My sixties were a rough, rough ride." I wonder if that has anything to do with the somewhat dark sounds and scattershot approach to some of those previous albums. Western Stars does evoke someone coming out of a depression to me. But that could also just be a craftsman's tricks, using big strings and such to manipulate a listener (a la Aaron Copeland).
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 23, 2023 15:01:34 GMT
I did a song-by-song rating to get a better feel for this, and the result was 7.38 (so 7.4). However, I am rounding up to an 8 because I think there's an album of that quality in there, just with a few too many songs dragging it down a bit. I'll talk about those in a bit.
Overall, I think this is one of Springsteen's best sounding albums since ... Born to Run, probably? Its scope, its instrumentation, its dynamics, and Bruce's singing are all really nice. His singing is at times what I would bet he'd call his Roy Orbison voice. (Remember, he'd mentioned that in the past when he tried some more challenging parts.) He really goes for it, and nails it, on a few tunes.
"Sleepy Joe's Cafe" is, for me, the highlight on an album with several highlights. I love more or less everything about it. The danceable, driving rhythm. The lyrics. The melody. Bruce's singing. The Tex-Mex kind of arrangement. One of my favorite Springsteen songs. I rate this one a 9.5.
"Hello Sunshine," something of an "Everybody's Talkin'" shadow, is not so far behind. (8.5 for me.) "The Wayfarer," "Tuscon Train," "There Goes My Miracle" are all right in that 8 range for me, too. The last of which DEFINITELY has that "Orbison voice."
What I think does drag down the album is a series of slower, somewhat samey tunes, particularly in the middle of the album. To me, a lull in the middle is a shame of sequencing. "Drive Fast," "Chasin Wild Horses," and "Stones" in particular are the lesser tracks for me, with the lattermost rating only a 5.5 for me.
Everything else that I didn't mention, I like but don't love. They're in the 7-7.5 territory.
Were I to delete those three songs I like least, my average song rating would be 7.6, and able to round up to an 8. With a few songs so highly rated--especially my beloved "Sleepy Joe's Cafe"--I feel good rounding up.
This is a very good album.
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Post by kds on Jun 23, 2023 15:15:10 GMT
This week was the first time I've ever listened to this album, but I probably haven't really given it enough attention, but when I've played it, it kind of fades into the background by about the fourth of fifth track.
Maybe I'll give it a listen today before I assign it a rating.
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