Bruce Springsteen

Only the Strong Survive (2022)

	

  1. Only the Strong Survive
  2. Soul Days
  3. Night Shift
  4. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
  5. The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
  6. Turn Back the Hands of Time
  7. When She Was My Girl
  8. Hey, Western Union Many
  9. I Wish it Would Rain
  10.Don't Play That Song
  11.Any Other Way
  12.I Forgot to Be Your Lover
  13.7 Rooms of Gloom
  14.What Becomes of the Brokenhearted
  15.Someday We'll Be Together
  
  


  
  

I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. As I've stated in many other reviews of Springsteen's work, I've never been a fan of when he decides to litter his concerts with other people's material. For an artist who has gobs of original, high-quality stuff, it always seems like a gyp when he decides to throw in a classic from his past that he likes, but much of the audience couldn't care less about. I never mind when an up and coming artist does this, as Springsteen did when he performed Detroit Medley from a recording from 1975 that showed up years later as the release Hammersmith Odeon, London 1975. Once you get a fair amount of your own material, though, I prefer to hear that.

So we finally get an album out of "covers" from when Bruce was young. To be fair, the main is about 17 years older than I am, so it's hard for me to really resonate with most of what's here. When teenage Bruce was groovin' to these tunes on a transister radio in blue collar New Jersey, I was still learning how to crawl. So such nostalgia doesn't really work for me.

Perhaps this is why the only song here that is from my youth, The Commodores Night Shift from 1985, is the only song that I manage to find listenably let alone enjoyable. Well, I guess an artist is going to do what an artist wants to do, and Springsteen had put out two very good albums of original material as of late, so he gets a free pass here.

I managed to make it through this thing once, and even that was challenging. I know I'm selfish to state such things, but when one things of the hoards of new material this artist has that hasn't officially seen the light of day (pun intended), one wishes he would get some of that material out and polish it up instead.