Confessions of a Conservative Atheist
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While Western Stars was released to significant critical acclaim in 2019, it marked a stylistic departure for the Boss and certainly isn’t a rock album by any means. If you are looking for screaming guitars, the usual glockenspiel, and pounding drums, you will not find them here. You will, however, find a compilation of sorts… Continue reading Springsteen’s Western Stars and the most underrated album ever made
Barely half as many couples are getting divorced and more couples are getting married than in recent years. Some experts attribute the trend to being intentional about your mate and choosing companionship rather than romance. Perhaps Springsteen put it best in “Tougher Than the Rest,” or even Shakespeare hundreds of years earlier in Romeo and… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Tougher Than the Rest” and the dramatic decline in divorce rates
The search for something better defines us, and will always do so. The only way to cope is to tell the world itself to fuck off. We can rise above our fates only if we spit fate itself in the face and live in the moment. “Badlands” isn’t my favorite Bruce Springsteen song. A perennial at… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Badlands” and the moment that just don’t come
A forgotten gem from Tunnel of Love offers no gloss, cover, or potential escape, lyrically or musically until the very end. This couple doesn’t even appear to have fond memories to haunt them. The riff, like we assume their relationship has to be as well, is exceedingly short and simple, pumping up and down like… Continue reading Springsteen’s searing “Spare Parts”
“Man’s Job,” a little known track from Human Touch, presents an interim step on the journey into darkness and despair, before the lover is overwhelmed by loss, treating jealousy as something of a delusion or self-rationalization, the denial phase of grief, right up until the point it isn’t. “Man’s Job” is the first of two… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Man’s Job” and our endless capacity for self delusion
The Boss released Human Touch and Lucky Town on the same day in 1992 to some of the worst reviews of his career. This doesn’t mean there aren’t stellar songs on both including the most poignant take on jealousy in his canon. By Springsteen standards, the early to mid 1990s was the nadir of his… Continue reading “I Wish I Were Blind,” revisiting Springsteen’s oft forgotten classic from Human Touch
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 