Bruce Springsteen: High Hopes

7.4

The Boss is back with a new album full of covers, outtakes and lost tape recordings. He decided to re-record his own classics with a modern edge. Some of it works, but some of it lacks the energy and magic the original versions had. For example, “The Ghost of Tom Joad” features Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello spewing guitar noises all over it. But would there ever be a better rendition than the stripped down acoustic version? Was it even necessary to make an attempt at bettering a song like that? Perhaps Springsteen is not trying to modernize himself, but offer another flavor to his songs. Some will say this is a cash grabber, others will question it, and his loyal-to-the-bone fans will devour the record as usual. Springsteen’s in that weird place in an artist’s career, where everything he puts out is a success much like his predecessor Bob Dylan. But that can get in the way of a songwriter’s mojo. Call it a controversial album, a mockery, or merely another quickly produced half-baked compilation made by a prolific musician that can’t slow down, nevertheless it will be known as a curveball from The Boss in the list of his discography. And maybe that’s just what he wanted to throw at us. I must say, the title is intriguing for such an unambitious record for Springsteen. "High Hopes"?