As Bruce Springsteen has moved into the evensong of his nearly fifty-year-long recording career, the tone of his music has softened, as evidenced by the melodic orchestral sound of 2019’s Western Stars. It is no real surprise that for his 21st studio album, Only the Strong Survive, he has chosen the well-trodden path of releasing a collection of soul and R&B covers. Given the influence of the lyrical content and style of Springsteen’s early music, it is understandable why the New Jersey rocker announced that this album would be songs from “the great American songbook of the ‘60s and ‘70s”.
Even as a prolific singer-songwriter, Springsteen is no stranger to covers. His live sets are peppered with songs such as ‘Twist and Shout’ and ‘Jersey Girl’, while 2006’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions album was an interpretation of the folk music of Pete Seeger. What Springsteen has always managed to do with covers is to imbue the songs with his own style—a tinge of Jersey Shore rock and roll. He has also always managed to bring a sense of fun.
From the outset, it is clear that Only the Strong Survive is a labour of love for Springsteen rather than a radical working of old standards. The album highlights that he has a greater tonal range than his gravelly-voiced anthems would suggest. As the singer remarked during a November 2022 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, “I am really a bar singer and I have a good voice for five sets a night…but I lack the finesse, precision and tone of my greatest heroes so on this album I really focussed on the singing and took it up a notch”. This album is very much about the voice. For an album created during the Covid lockdowns, this feels anything but isolated—this is a record that delivers like a warm, richly-produced sonic embrace.
The album contains fifteen soul and R&B tracks all produced by long-time producer Ron Aniello. Despite the announcement of a 2023 tour with the E. Street Band, this record features none of the Boss’ long-serving band. Aside from Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave) featuring on two tracks, ‘Soul Days’ and ‘I Forgot to Be Your Lover’, Aniello acts as his one-man band. The production is an opulent deeply-layered mix of bass organ, horns and gospelesque backing vocals.
While there are some lesser-known tracks, the overall song choice plays it safe. All the crowd favourites are here; in the form of Jimmy Ruffin’s ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted’, The Walker Brothers’ ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’ and Diana Ross & The Supremes’ ‘Someday We’ll Be Together’. Most listeners will struggle to detect any noticeable changes in the musical production of these well-known heartbreakers. It feels a little lazy and, for that reason, these tracks are the low points of the album. Springsteen simply delivers faithful renditions, even if his voice is sounding particularly great.
Where Only The Strong Survive shines is when Springsteen gets the chance to let the “bar singer” loose on the material. On ‘Turn Back the Hands of Time’, above soaring horns, Springsteen belts out the lyrics like he has turned back time to one of his E. Street Band fuelled marathon gigs. Only the doo-wop style backing vocals remind us that this is an R&B cover. Similarly, on ‘Don’t Play that Song’, the gravelly vocal delivery, the spoken word interlude and the raucous horns feel like we are at a party at The Stone Pony. Springsteen even manages to get in a spoken word reference to “Those summer nights down by the shore” before launching into the final chorus. This track gives us a glimpse of the potential of this album if the New Jersey troubadour had injected more of his style into these classics.
That’s not to say that this album isn’t a worthy addition to Springsteen’s catalogue. The joy of Only The Strong Survive is hearing Springsteen blast out music that he loves. Who would have thought that the bandana-wearing icon who powered through ‘Born in the USA’ would be equally at home delivering a raspy soulful rendition of the Commodores’ ‘Night Shift’? Yet just as those stadium anthems lifted a generation, here we are with Bruce-the-crooner lifting us “higher and higher”. This is a record that may play it safe but it showcases versatility; Springsteen is equally at home on the disco-soul standard ‘When She Was My Girl’ as he is on the Northern soul bop ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’. The latter is particularly poignant as the jangly introduction evokes memories of so many opening bars from the late great E. Street legend, Danny Federici. Springsteen belts out the lines “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” in the preacher role he plays in countless concerts, but also as fan paying homage to the music that inspired him. The preacher reappears at the beginning of the soul powerhouse ‘7 Rooms of Gloom’ where the raspy delivery echoes the delivery on his version of Edwin Starr’s ‘War’ in the 1980s.
The highlight is The Temptations’ “I Wish It Would Rain’ where the legendary gruff Springsteen vocals segue into sublime falsetto soul. This song showcases what this album is all about: here is an artist paying tribute to the music that inspired his long career. The singer-songwriter puts down his pen and the guitarist hangs up his guitar to focus on singing.
If there is one criticism, it is that since beginning to co-produce with Aniello, Springsteen appears to be taking fewer risks with his music. However, as a celebration of soul standards and a demonstration of Springsteen’s vocal range, Only The Strong Survive is pure joy. After proving that he is strong enough to survive fifty years as a recording artist, no one would begrudge Springsteen this album. And, any fan of Springsteen asking the question of this album, “Do I Love You?” would undoubtedly reply, “Indeed I Do.”
Words by Andrew Butcher
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