TIM REVIEWS BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN'S "HIGH HOPES"

I wrote a review for the new Bruce Springsteen record HIGH HOPES for SPIN MAGAZINE. Turns out Spin Magazine is no more. I should have realized something was up when the email came from TimItsSpinMagazineHaHaHaIdiot@Hotmail.com

I love Bruce. Always have. One of my first tapes when I was very very young was BORN IN THE USA which ruined me for a while because I thought EVERY tape I’d get would have like 10 hits on it and all amazing songs (I quickly realized this wasn’t the case when I got Debbie Gibson’s “Out of The Blue” HEY STOP MAKING FUN OF ME THEY CAN’T ALL BE WINNERS) and when I was like 22 I was having a rough 6 months where I wasn’t winning much at life and lived in a weird little place in Delaware called LITTLE HEAVEN, and I played Bruce’s “THE RIVER” over and over, it just was the right music for the right time…and let me tell you if that’s “little heaven”, I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners have much more fun (My Uncle Billy said that)

So anyway I have this review of “HIGH HOPES” and heard that some weren’t really feeling the new Bruce record, I know the feeling, and Bruce puts a new one out every 3 weeks or so, so it’s really easy to write one off (I never connect with the HAPPY Bruce records, I like my Bruce records to be about dirt and gas pumping and working on highways). However, High Hopes is sneaky sneaky good little record. From one Bruce-head to all current and future Bruce-heads, here’s me doing my due diligence.

“HIGH HOPES”. Ok title track, it’s a throwaway song. I wanted to like this one, it’s not very fun or has any real flavor to it, feels like we’ve heard Bruce do this one already. Then there’s “ HARRY’S PLACE”, you know Bruce is good when 35 years after a song called “Mary’s Place” he does “Harry’s Place” (Just looked it up, “Mary’s Place” wasn’t 35 years ago, it was in 2003. Bruce songs are like our children, we have no idea how many there are and we certainly don’t know how old they all are, AM I RIGHT? Wait, what) however, the quality dropped significantly on “Harry’s Place”, the only take away from this one is that Bruce likely still has and wears all his clothes from the 80’s and probably still wears that red cap from the BORN IN THE USA cover. At this rate though, I expect “Larry’s Place” on the next record and hopefully “Gary’s Place” sometime in 2022. Other than that reassurance, toss this one too.

Ok, so with those 2 in the trash bin. Your copy of HIGH HOPES now kicks off with “41 SHOTS”. I heard this a million times on bootlegs, heard the folker version and now we have this version, and chills every time. What a stunning recap of that poor guy in NYC who got shot 41 times by the cops who was only holding his wallet. Bruce really brought this to light. I get 100% of my news from Springsteen songs, (speaking of which, do you guys know people DANCE IN THE DARK with cast members from FRIENDS?)

Then we go right into “JUST LIKE FIRE “ and here we go, just vintage perfect perfect E Street. All Bruce fans do all sorts of air kicks when Bruce is killing it, Bruce kills it here, I air kicked like 5 times and THEN halfway through, the song hits us with that trumpet? I loved that song already, but by the trumpet I got so happy I flipped my kitchen table. I need to clean this mess up.

“DOWN IN THE HOLE”,this one feels and sounds like a sequel to “I’m On Fire” from BORN IN THE USA and I just realized that record came out like 30 years ago. I’m decrepid.

“HEAVEN’S WALL”, ok, if you’re not feeling this one, I understand. Every single middle aged white man at that age, needs to go jam with soul singers. Paul Simon does it, Peter Gabriel does it, Sting has been doing it for 406 years. Not just singers, middle aged white mailmen invite soul singers on their mail deliveries too, middle aged white guy bartenders serve you drinks while soul singers are back behind the bar with him. It’s an old white guy thing. Bruce does it here, and there’s enough hooks and things in this song to keep it interesting for me, but I can’t really say anything to change your mind and if you’re not digging this one, totally understand.

“FRANKIE FELL IN LOVE” vintage Bruce, “vintage” in the way where he slurs some of the lyrics (example I’ve heard BADLANDS a million times, but when I’m singing it I have NO IDEA what Bruce says after BADLANDS! I think it’s” hurrr hurr ha hurrrrrrr” I just pick the song up again right around ‘it’s the price you gotta pay”) anyway with Bruce slurring through this one, I swore he was saying “REGGAE, PHILLY AND LOVE” and I was thrilled, those are 3 things I’m very fond of. This one is a winner (seriously, it sounds like he is saying REGGAE PHILLY AND LOVE).

“THIS IS YOUR SWORD” Bruce added a new weapon in his arsenal in the last couple years, going Irish flavored Guinness soaked Celtic foot stompers on us, and this is where he’s using some of that new footwork, great song, great writing, this is a turning point on the record, it gets really interesting from here…because “HUNTER OF THE INVISIBLE GAME” is hidden deep on this record but Bruce’s writing game is in tip top form “Strength is vanity and time is illusion” Bruce snuck one by me here, stuck possibly the best written song on here and yet so deeply into this record. Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen, you sneaky little devil, you.

Then we have “GHOST OF TOM JOAD”. Bruce did this one already as a folker, then Rage Against The Machine did their ragey cover of it and it all comes together like chocolate and peanut butter here in this arena rocker. Tom Morello from Rage doing guitar and trading vocals on this one. It’s heavy, another one, where I get it, but understand if many prefer the dark acoustic Bruce version, and some love the heavy Rage version..and I love this blissful Peanut Butter Cup of a song where they mix up the two.

“THE WALL” wow just wow, a love song to a fallen soldier at the Viet Nam memorial, “cigarettes and a bottle of beer, skin on the black stone”. Another one Bruce tried to sneak by us, what a heavy thoughtful song, one where I stopped everything that I was doing to listen to this one again. I’m glad he cheers us up with “DREAM BABY DREAM”, just designed-for-the-arena Bruce, after playing his first 6 hours into his live show, he slows it down for everyone to hold up a lighter and groove out to before he plays for us for another 6 hours.

Love this record. Without the first 2 tracks and how you feel about “Tom Joad” and “Heavens Wall” this is pound for pound a really solid Bruce effort.

I give it 3.5 pairs of Bruce jeans out of a possible 5