By Bas van der Veen

“Perhaps before we start off, a confession is in place: a few of us here are at Marc’s Roots ‘n Rock are unapologetic Springsteen-fans. We might have been a bit late to the party back in the day, joining in around the time Bruce propelled himself to super-stardom with ‘Born In The USA’, but we can still say we’ve hung on for almost forty of The Boss’ fifty years’ career as a recording artist.

And even after all this time and twenty-odd albums since BITUSA, the release of a new Springsteen-record is something to very much look foward to. In the same sense that his concerts are true life events—yes, we’re unapologetic fans…

Yet from the first moment ‘Only The Strong Survive’ was announced with the airing of its first single ‘Do I Love You’, we couldn’t help feeling just a tad underwhelmed with Bruce’s interpretation of his favourite soul classics.

It’s not that we don’t like old-school soul: there’s plenty of Marvin, Wilson, Aretha, Otis, Sam, Dave and others on our record shelves. And especially with The E-Street Band- and especially at said live shows- Bruce Springsteen simply oozes soul.

With the help of the late Clarence Clemons- bless his Big Soul- and Steve Van Zandt- a prolific soul man in his own right- Bruce’s concerts have always been founded on soulful Springsteen- staples such as ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze Out’, ‘Hungry Heart’ and ‘Mary’s Place’. Not to mention the catalogue of soul-tracks The Boss has penned over the years for fellow Jersey-artist Southside Johnny and others (listen to ‘I Don’t Want To Go Home’, ‘The Fever’, ‘Talk To Me’).

Perhaps here lies the root of our lack of enthusiasm: where’s The E-Street Band when we want to hear soul music..? Although admittedly The E-Street Horns are listed in this album’s credits, Sam Moore does two guest appearances and Bruce can be heard on some some guitar parts, all other instruments are credited to producer Ron Aniello. No small feat of course, but one studio musician recording all instrumental tracks seperately, will not create the same atmosphere as, let’s say, a heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, love-making, earth-quaking live band in its prime.

It leaves the tracks all sounding a bit lackluster, as if The Boss was left to sing his favourite soul songs over a karaoke backing track.

Which brings us to the one major positive of this record: Bruce’s singing. Springsteen himself has always been somewhat self-conscious about his singing voice. And to those who doubt whether it’s a good idea to have a septuagenarian pay tribute to the musical heroes of his youth, you’re all not to worry: as often The Boss has had unlimited access to The Fountain Of Youth. With all the shortcomings of the instrumental tracks, it is a treat to hear Bruce truly sing, undoubtedly egged on by the quality of the songs and the brilliance of the original artists: it’s not hard to imagine that their soulful performances set an inspiring bar for him to clear.

We can only look forward to hearing some of these tracks live next summer—with The E-Street Band, please!”