Where do you start when reviewing a new Springsteen album? With

sixteen albums under his belt spanning over a quarter of a century, the man and his music really need no introduction. Working on a Dream is the follow up to 2007’s Magic, which saw the reunion of the full E-Street band and the return of the big band sound.

Magic centred on the political frustra-

tions of liberals in America under the Bush administration. Writing songs with political angst is where Springsteen excels, so it’s with some concern that I approach WOAD, released in the days following the inauguration of Barack Obama.

The album opens with the eight-minute epic Outlaw Pete. Lyrically the song is enjoyable enough, following a narrative conjuring images of wild-west cowboys, but it’s the music that really shines. Every stage of the character’s life is punctuated with a suitable tempo while the band moves from throwing everything in to just vocals and harmonica. There are too few artists today who can write a song that can stimulate your interest with every listen.

My Lucky Day, an upbeat, radio-friendly pop song changes the mood of the album altogether, clearing the way for the rest of the album’s unashamed optimism. The title track follows, bringing with it Springsteen’s trademark politics-of-the-man-on-the-street.

A gritty tale of an average Joe slaving away at some mundane job, the song would sit well next to Born in the USA were it not for it’s unexpected hopeful-ness. Queen of the Supermarket has the classic E-Street band sound, with

xylophone and all. Another narrative song, with the

whimsical subject of admiring the check-out girl in a supermarket. Not quite your typical pop song material, but it seems somehow fitting on this album. At the halfway point the album takes a disap-pointing dip. The final songs are perfectly passable pop songs, but they don’t have any memorable characteristics.

This Life is a feel-good anthem, as is the country ballad Tomorrow Never Knows. Both help with the overall positive feel of the album but do not stand out as single tracks. These average tracks sum up the challenge of reviewing albums from such established artists. Were they from a new band I would be raving about them, but from a man who’s summed up periods of history in 3 minute pop songs, it all seems a little disappointing.

Bonus track The Wrestler, sound-track to the film of the same name, shows that Springsteen can still belt out heart moving tracks in the vein of Streets of Philadelphia. It leaves one wondering if he could follow the footsteps of Randy Newman, providing films with high qual-ity soundtracks during his downtime between albums.

Mike Smith

12 MUSICmusic@palatinate.org.uk

Friday 27 February 2009palatinate.org.ukINDIGO

MUSIC

flickr id: aurelian

Bruce SpringsteenWorking On A DreamColumbia«««««

The Boxer Rebellion was formed through a chance meeting between

Tennessee native Nathan Nicholson

(vocals/guitar) and Australian Todd Howe (guitar). The line-up was made complete with college friends Piers Hewitt on drums and Adam Harrison on bass. >>>After Nicholson being taken unex-pectedly and seriously ill after the release of their debut album Exits, the band was put on hold. Now The Boxer Rebel-lion are back with their second album, Union. It signals the first unsigned band in history to break the Billboard Top 100 Albums chart on digital-only release.>>>The Boxer Rebellion sound something like Death Cab For Cutie but with a stronger punch and harder edge. Although at moments the vocals teeter on drawl, the heavy guitars and pounding bass drums carry the sound through. >>>The tribal-drum explosions of the opening track, Flashing Red Light Means Go begins the album on a high. Unfortunately, it goes somewhat downhill from there. The subsequent tracks lost

my attention and I found the choice of Evacuate as the single for release to be a disappointment. Its catchy lyrics delivered through strained vocals against a ‘danceable’ beat sound is nothing new. >>>I was just about ready to peg the album ‘just another alt band’, when Misplaced played and the album took a sharp turn for the better. The following five tracks are powerful, there is genuine emotion behind the lyrics with each track gradually building to its full throttle.>>>The enigmatic The Gospel of Goro Adachi is the album’s saving grace. The music-box opening and haunting lyrics demonstrate this band’s true talent. Silent Movie brings the album to a calm, composed conclusion exemplifying The Boxer Rebellion’s capacity to move through not only a range of tempos, but also emotions.

Anna Codrea-Rado

The Boxer RebellionUnionSelf Released«««««

After the immense success of their first album, How to Save a Life, with

its best-selling single of the same name, The Fray attempt to sustain their popular acclaim with their rather blandly entitled second release, The Fray. The word slow-burning may have been invented for The Fray. Except the problem is that this follow-up from the Denver-based

band ultimately fails to ignite its listeners’ ears. Most of the songs seem to blend into a poor man’s amalgamation of Snow Patrol, Coldplay, The Script and numerous other similar acts. >>>The album’s lyrics are often lost amongst the repetitive drum beats and what feels like vague background noise. Even after much careful concentration, it is difficult to understand the point of The Fray; just what is it that they want to tell us? Syndicate opens on a promising note, with its well-constructed and uplifting melody, whereby the band assure us: “Baby don’t forget / You haven’t lost it all yet”. >>>And the record’s lead single, and Grey’s Anatomy staple You Found Me, with its haunting refrain of “Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me / Lying on the floor, where were you? Where were you?” perfectly encapsulates that sense of being awake at 3am wondering what has become of your life. >>>However, the sombre attempts of lead singer Isaac Slade to rouse listeners into some kind of emotional reaction with his overwrought lamentations during subsequent songs only serves to increase the so-so feel of the record.

Piano-harmonies, guitar riffs and unoriginal string arrangements seem to be casually thrown into the melting pot of general angst. >>>Indeed, there is something painfully ironic about the titles of the latter songs on the album.>>>Where The Story Ends and Enough For Now prove a hilarious but rather unintended commentary on audience endurance levels, as The Fray wade deeper into the musical quicksand of their own creation. The former track is so mind-numbingly dull, and sung in such a dreary tone, that it is practically coma-inducing; I had actually had to leave the room to regain consciousness. Whereas, Enough For Now is merely a watered down version of You Found Me, featuring mumbling vocals and sweeping orchestration to disguise its mediocrity. >>>Overall, The Fray is a disappointing effort. The Fray’s distinctly lazy offering eludes any real engagement with its music. One can only hope that they receive the wake-up call in time, instead of coasting along on the relative merit of the occasional single.

Francesca Teoh

The FrayThe FrayEpic«««««

DAN

NY C

LINC

HC

HU

FFMED

IA

Album ReviewsPalatinate takes a look at the latest album offerings from Bruce Springsteen, The Boxer Rebellion and The Fray

Singles Palatinate’s single reviews

Britney SpearsCircus «««««The husky voice and manufactured pop riffs, this time round blended with big-top sounds, signals Britney’s comeback. The lyrical claims that “I’m like the ring leader, I’m like a fire cracker I make it hot when I put on a show” are somewhat overambitious, as Circus is nowhere near as fiery as Womaniser. However it is still a gem in the pop crown, not to mention that the video is hot.

Kode 9 Digidesign «««««If previewing fresh new Burial mate-rial on Benji B’s 1Xtra show on Friday wasn’t exciting enough, Kode 9 has once again redefined the boundaries of electronic music with his label Hyperdub’s latest single. Featuring Bristol prodigy Joker’s Digidesign and 2000F + J Kamata’s You Don’t Know What Love Is, Hyperdub’s latest release leads the way in dubstep’s trend towards chip tune sounds and off-kilter drum synth patterns . Dig-idesign’s gritty analogue bass lines, contrastingly harmonious synths and stripped down drums at 140 bpm culminates in a left field complexity absent from many current electronic offerings. Similarly, You Don’t Know What Love Is utilises squelchy synth parts and understated drum beats, alongside a digitalized vocal hook to almost romantic effect. Hyperdub have kicked off the new year well, one can only hope releases of the same calibre are to follow.

GuidoOrchestral Lab«««««Another young producer beginning to make waves in the UK is Guido. Following months of airplay his Orchestral Lab and Way U Make Me Feel finally saw the light of day last week. Released on pioneering Bristol label Punch Drunk (brainchild of the inimi-table Peverelist), Orchestral Lab is a perfect blend of horn and string parts, instantly taking the listener back to grime’s DIY sound of the late-1990s, and sparse drum beats reminiscent of DJ Pinch, that are wonderfully off-set against the heavy synth bass that routinely drop in. On the flip side Way U Make Me Feel is an amalgamation of a slow, almost dragging bass part with an insane, braindance drum pattern that could have been lifted straight out of Aphex Twin’s seminal Richard D. James. This is an amazing release from a young producer whose talent appears to know no limits. I’d even have bought it just for the A-side.

Architecture In HelsinkiThat Beep«««««Melbourne based Architects In Helsinki display a casual 808 infused rush of electro pop with their latest offering, That Beep. The CSS style lyrics ride the crunchy synth sound in a way which gets under your skin, probably for most, in a twitchy and annoying way. Think Hot Chip with a similar sense of nostalgia and oh-so-catchy riffs.

Robert Tinker Anna Codrea-Rado