Resting on his laurels and looking back at his many successes does not seem to be for late sixties Bruce Springsteen. Well, on his previous (live) album (2018) he looked back, but lonely dabbling on a guitar. Successor Western Stars is of a completely different order. It is Springsteen's ode to country & western and orchestral music from the 50s / 60s. A concept that makes the great singer-songwriter
… he is fully blossom again. With his characteristic grainy voice, he sings about American fringe characters and losers such as an expired actor (Western Stars) and an incapacitated stuntman (Drive Fast (The Stuntman)). Characters who invariably seem to be doing their stories hanging from a bar. They are accompanied by sultry strings in spicy songs that recall the Springsteen from (1980) and (1984). Springsteen in top form as a composer and performer, in other words. (MR)more