Has Bruce finnaly become irrelevant?

I wasn't in the loop to get the album the other day.So I haven't heard any of the tracks.

I do how ever like what oats is doing (a track a day)I'll wait until it comes out the day before my birthday.

I think over all it will be an O.K. album.But I will admit...When I first read the song list I viewed it like the last leg of the WB tour.

No real thought to it.Like he didn't care about it as much as he should have.

Last leg of the tour was the same way as he was falling on full albums night after night.Like he was just giving up on trying to think what songs to play.

Tom I have no doubt adds a new sound and twist to the tracks.But I would rather he did it with the remaining E Street Band instead of him. 

The lyrics I see on some of these are well over his usual lyrics.He used to keep the lyrics pretty clean.But now he's pushing lyrics that will get the parental advisory warning sticker. 

I will buy the album..because lets face it..it's Bruce...How could I not.

Yet to be seen if I like it enough to play it a lot or it gets put on the CD tower to collect dust

I have listened to the album 4-5 times now and I like it more and more. Maybe a little more lightweight and not as important and thematically consistent as WB but very enjoyable. Great production! To me Bruce is as relevant as ever.

i'm waiting till it's available officially when i will buy it

As for musical landscape, yeah I'd say he's irrelevant.  The piece from the producer in Rolling Stone teases us with 30-40 unreleased songs. Superb.  And these 12 made the cut!!! 

The Rising was pretty good.  Magic was OK.  WOAD was horrid.  Wrecking Ball was ok.  How soon before full album shows show up on the next tour??

His live shows are still great and the charitable work and support of younger artists along the way (Jesse Malin, Gaslight Anthem, etc.) are terrific. 

During Wrecking Ball there were like 18 people on stage when Patti was there.  Now we are adding Morello to the mix. 

My favorite tour was Devils and Dust - just Bruce.  Wish he would strip down to say Max, Garry, Roy, one guitarist and Jake/horns as needed.  Do and album and a tour for that.  Then for me these songs might have worked. 

Now he is just putting out drivel to fulfill his record contact and pay for Jessica's next horse.

I don't like to listen to MP3s so I don't care to hear a Bruce album the first time as an MP3 download. Of course, all of us have already seen/heard High Hopes and Dream Baby Dream. Both are okay versions of mediocre songs, but definitely nothing to get excited about, which is my current attitude about the album as a whole. I preordered the album from Amazon to get the bonus DVD and when they manage to get it to me is when I'll listen to it for the first time. 

I can wait til it is out officially on CD. I thought Wrecking Ball had the worst ever title track for a Bruce album. Simply embarrassingly bad for a major artist. The track High Hopes may have topped that so I'm not in any hurry to hear the rest of it,

I think it's SPL that has gone from being relevent to a place where, well just look at the state of it!

Pity.

A stripped down band would be going back in time to a place Bruce has already been.  Plus 1/3 of that stripped down band is gone. From all I've read and seen the past few years, Bruce enjoys going places and in directions he hasn't before.  That being said I listened to the album over and over all day yesterday.  The bitrate on this DL was very good for sound and I already pre-ordered at Amazon.  I like many of you have to have every official release.

This album has grown on me more and more.  Even though there are tunes on this that we've all heard live and on boots, they are still very good songs.  Don't forget they were not on official releases except American Skin. I personally dislike Dream Baby Dream but Bruce loves it.  The rest of the new songs and the Wall, I'm liking more and more.  It's a lighter album, not as much sax and peppier than I first thought.

Anyway Yes I think Bruce is as relevant as ever! He's not in his twenties or even his thirties.  What was relevant than may not be as much so now that he's in his 60's or at least may have a different perspective to it.

relevant or not to tohers..

we love him

I , in common  with LB, am not interested in listening to the leaked MP3 version of the album and prefer to wait until I receive my official copy.

However, I do have some concerns about the validity of this release based on the background of how this album was created.   Bruce seems to have taken the template for WB to an unacceptable extreme. 

With WB  he took a number of newly written songs and melded them with a couple of older songs to form, IMO,  an excellent , thematically complete album  and one that I continue to play.

High Hopes appears to follow a similar pattern but whereas WB seemed to have been put together with due care and attention in ensuring the older tracks fit seamlessly together with the new  songs,  High Hopes seems to be just a hotch potch of songs he has thrown together  in order to get a new album out there ASAP. As I said I haven’t heard it yet so I could be doing it an injustice.  

I watched Springsteen & I the other day. It really is awful beyond words. How could they sanction the release of that? Col Tom Parker would have been proud. I guess it'll only be watched by other nutty Bruce fans but surely it can only damage his reputation. The featured fans are the type of people you move away from on a bus.......

Bruce has been irrelevant for quite awhile, and will stay so until he writes half a dozen good songs again and tours sensibly to showcase them rather than just to grow even richer on the oldies stadium tour/festival circuit.  

to me, definitely!     Ditto, definitely!!

Mando,

I perceived it exactly the same way before I heard it.  Now that I've been listening to it, I've changed my mind with the exception of one track.  I can be pretty thick headed but wait until you listen to it in it's entirety a few times.  By the way the leak was an official copy, just a bit early.

I've never been on that short bus, what's it like?

Actually I think they would need an elongated bus as we would all be on it. lol

It's not a hot topic because the album is not good.

Hey , It's New Years Eve.  Most are partying not hanging out here.  Which is what I would be doing but for other reasons, we're not this year.

That being said there are almost 50 online here right now.  I just checked Backstreets and there were only 18 there. 

Happy new Year form Norway Oats. Its 0115 here right now, 2014 is not old. Bruce is irrelevant but I really don't care. I am irrelevant as well. But when we have folks like you and other Brucefans around, and when you feel you belong to this music and community, What the heck!! The new album, I like it. Some good stuff here and some loose ends that don't fit. But I am too old to be a smart ass and analyze everything. Just enjoy it folks, it's just a record and it deserve a tour that focus on the record. Happy new year to you all.

Same to you, 37 minutes to go here on the East Coast & well said.

ps: hopefully Beth thinks I'm still a bit relevant, at least in certain areas.

2x

While I waited patiently for the official release of WB,

this time I dl'ed the leak,

and Mando nailed it without even listening to it.

Some nice songs put together,

but nothing particularly important.