Once again teamed with his E Street Band, Working on a Dream is a 12-song set once again produced by Brendan O'Brien, who has produced previous Springsteen records The Rising, Devils & Dust, and Magic. According to Springsteen, the seeds of the record were mostly sewn during the Magic sessions.
"Towards the end of recording Magic, excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing," Springsteen said through a press release announcing the album's release.
Springsteen and the band have been working on the album for the past year, during breaks in the Magic World Tour.
"I hope Working on a Dream has caught the energy of the band fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we've ever done," Springsteen said. "All the songs were written quickly, we usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end."
The 12-song album will be appended by two bonus tracks. The first, "The Wrestler," is the theme song to a film of the same name. The second, "A Night With The Jersey Devil" was recently offered through the singer's web site as a free Halloween download.
January 2009 is now officially something for me to look forward to. Based on what Bruce has said in his statement, I'm counting on much of this album being in the vein of "Girls in Their Summer Clothes," "Your Own Worst Enemy," "I'll Work For Your Love," and "Waiting On A Sunny Day." Those songs represent the more pop-oriented songs from the last two E Street Band records. I happen to like three of those four songs quite a lot, so the idea of a pop record doesn't bother me a bit. I can't wait to hear the cries of "Judas!" from some of the notoriously bitchy longtime fans because you can guaran-damn-tee they are coming. Actually I'm blacklisting certain Springsteen-themed web sites because I just don't want to hear it, and by "it" I mean their bitching, not the record. I can't wait to hear the record.
Article comments
1 - Doug
Great news. I like everything that Springsteen does, so any new album is aces with me. I think he is the most under-appreciated musician of our times. Who else has such a wide ranging repertoire of work, and who else performs it all with his brand of panache?
Bring on January.
2 - Pico
"Tomorrow Never Knows," eh? That should be interesting...
3 - Josh Hathaway
I have my fingers crossed. I'm hoping for good things and clearly cannot wait until the record drops.
4 - JC Mosquito
Sometimes with songwriters, the floodgates just open up and all sorts of stuff comes flying out with hardly any effort at all. Let's hope this embarrassment of riches of "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" style music carries on - we'll see y'all here or somewhere abouts come January I'm sure.