Bruce Springsteen‘s latest single, available this week as a free download from iTunes (after surreptitiously bouncing around the internet), is almost an anomaly in Bruce’s catalogue. It is completely driven by guitars with a sparse lyric.
Bruce’s best work historically is piano-based, with dense lyrics or at allusive lyrics that plug into larger concerns. “Radio Nowhere” is none of this.
This is a song that break no new ground, that has a rather standard rock lyric, but somehow drags me back, forces me to listen over and over. It has to be the guitars, which drive the song hard with a grinding foward motion, or the way Bruce’s buried vocal will rise from the mix as he almost shouts:
I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm
The song maybe called “Radio Nowhere,” but it certainly is Bruce’s most radio-friendly song in years.
I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm
Also worth noting are several songs: a B-side by The Strokes — a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me (the Ecology)”; the new single by Beck, “Timebomb” (quite hot); and a bluegrass/blues piece by King Wilkie called “The Wrecking Ball.” Good stuff all.
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Hank Kalet 