Bruce Springsteen
Working On A Dream

Remember the eighties?

That worldwide success of "Born In The USA", and Reagan using it awkwardly, and the world going crazy, and him having four-hour concerts and kissing Clarence Clemons on the mouth?

Remember? Back then, a Boss album was awaited with hysterical excitement. He, for his part, since "Born In The USA", has started to ration, make us suffer, wait and enjoy.

When "Tunnel Of Love" was released, it was a different story, then with "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town" it was another story entirely. And so on. Until the Twin Towers. From there on, no more rationing: it's full production. Almost as if realizing that life is one and you have to do what you know and must do.

A premise integral to everything: I have no doubt about the intellectual and artistic honesty of the Boss. None.

It's easy to be rigorous and serious when you sell a thousand albums. Much less easy when you sell hundreds of thousands, or even millions (how many examples of "well-publicized failure" could we mention, especially in Italy, but also across the Channel and overseas...?).

Well: I believe the Boss has never sold out, and has spoken when there was something to say, always trying to do it in the best way. It is not correct to say that this "Working On A Dream" has divided critics from the public. It has divided critics from critics and the public from the public.

Do we agree with the 5 stars from Rolling Stone (American) or the one from Venerdì di Repubblica? Do we agree with the enthusiasm of my Music Brothers from the Hungry Hearts or my fanatic colleague who considers it a minor work made of leftovers? It's tough: and every solution is destined to be temporary, and probably, in some way, wrong.

So let's dive into the very perilous field of pure subjectivity, which, in my case, can be accused of the most clumsy of partialities...: I love the Boss, I study him, I have played his music for years, I share it, I admire him.

And therefore, I do not consider myself a proper critic towards him, but simply a lover, probably blind like all lovers. But the fact is that I find this imperfect album simply perfect. So I agree with the 5 stars from Rolling Stone, and with my Music Brothers.

Here, heterogeneity becomes an absolute virtue. We are light-years away from the meaning of a "concept album", and indeed we might seem to be facing a jumble of songs unrelated to each other except in the small (and overrated) common denominator of love, present in many lyrics (not all... or perhaps present in all, if we understand it in an indirect and broad sense) as a dominant theme.

But here we go from country-flavored tracks, to classic ballads, from distorted blues with some Waits-like elements to the western epic of Outlaw Pete, complete with a Leone-Morricone citation.

In short, a work that entertains in the highest and etymological sense.

The Boss has certainly already said what needed to be said, and one cannot hope that today he produces a second "Born To Run" or a second Darkness. It is impossible, and it wouldn't even be right.

But today, more than this, from a billionaire who still loves being on the road, having fun and entertaining us, you can't really ask for more.