Heaven's Wall

Welcome to Day 6 of our 12-day examination of the 12 songs on Bruce Springsteen's new album, High Hopes. As we indicated at the start, rather than a straight review, we're having a running dialogue based around each song as we listen to it. 

So. Day 6, Song 6: "Heaven's Wall."

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Dan Tapper

OK. Shall we scale "Heaven's Wall?" Track 6?

Scott Peterson

Let's do it.

Dan Tapper

Hello gospel!

Scott Peterson

Gospel! With some world music in the percussion.

Dan Tapper

Cindy and Curtis are back in full stride!

Funny. You hear a little bit of a U2 thing going on here? Like circa early 00s?

Oh, hi Tom!

Bruce's voice is pretty delicate here.

I can see this easily turning into a concert staple, huh?

Scott Peterson

I'm not sure I do hear the U2. Other than the gospel lyrics.

Sister Soozie!

Musically, I really like this. But lyrically it just doesn't work for me in the slightest.

Dan Tapper

Yep, there she is. Soozie adds a nice touch, no?

Scott Peterson

Produced by Brendan O'Brien with Ron Aniello.

You think the distorted guitar on the left is Bruce and the clean on the right is Tom? Or think they're both Tom?

Dan Tapper

Agree 100%. I like the music an awful lot. But the lyrics are pretty meh. And wow, I just got to Morello's solo. That's some fractured glass he's throwing at us.

I thought both guitars were Tom, actually.

Scott Peterson

Maybe they are.

Dan Tapper

Nice breakdown. He does that a lot on this record—I don't recall him doing a ton of the start-stop thing before, huh?

This can replace "Raise Your Hand" if he goes back to collecting signs!

Scott Peterson

That's interesting. He has a couple famous breakdowns, but not many if any where the beat keeps going.

Dan Tapper

LOVE the ending, though. Cold stop!

Scott Peterson

Interesting. That song felt a lot shorter than it was.

Yeah, I love the dead stop, too--more on this album than most of his, by far.

Dan Tapper

That notwithstanding, this is still my least favorite track so far. But I could see me liking it a lot in concert.

Scott Peterson

Have we ever discussed that? How odd his clear preference for fadeouts is?

If this was turned into a solo spot for various members, yeah, this could work. I could see them pogoing and/or a conga line.

Dan Tapper

Ever since Born to Run, right? Where the title track, "Backstreets," "She's the One" and "Jungleland" all ended on stops. Since then isn't it mostly fadeouts?

Scott Peterson

Ayuh. Almost all. To the point where you can hear them stop on "Glory Days," but it's still a damn fadeout. Same all the way back on "Blinded by the Light," the first dang song on his first dang album. Weird.

Dan Tapper

Maybe after the lawsuits he learned things in life don't just end. They more fade away.

Scott Peterson

I think you're onto something. 

Dan Tapper

"Cautious Man" ends cold. :-)

Scott Peterson

I think there's something going on with it. I think he likes the idea of his songs, his art, continuing on forever. 

Dan Tapper

We've discussed what it would have sounded like if "Jungleland" ended right with "Tonight...in...jun...gle...land." And then silence. Damn. Chills.

(Not that Roy's amazing coda and Bruce's wailing at the end are nothing to write home about.)

Scott Peterson

It's like the Voyager or whatever that was we sent out to space.Just goes on forever and ever, like a line in geometry, or our high school geometry classes, or me running my mouth.

Dan Tapper

You mean that mix tape we sent out there in the 70s?

Or my Jewish/Catholic guilt.
A'ight. Assessment so far? I'm enjoying this. No real misfires like on Working on a Dream. You can see where a couple tracks are clearly not previous-album-worthy. But I like the effort and the outcome so far at the halfway mark.

Scott Peterson

Well, Working on a Dream only had the one absolute bomb, yes?

Dan Tapper

True. But early on it also had some weaker sisters in "What Love Can Do" and, I'm now thinking, "Outlaw Pete." And "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Life Itself" are a bit low, too.

Scott Peterson

I think "Outlaw Pete"'s so much better than the conventional wisdom would have it. It may still be a failure, but it's a seriously ambitious one

Dan Tapper

I give the ambitiousness, yes. Just gets so silly and really does take too long, I'm afeared.

Scott Peterson

See, I like all three o' those. They may be weak by his standards, but I love how melodic they are, and how oddly dark "What Love Can Do" and "This Life" sound. Musically, not lyrically—the complete reversal of his regular M.O.

And you know what? I disagree on "Outlaw Pete." It starts silly, sure, and then gets more and more serious. And lays out one of his major themes, I think, but we don't notice 'cuz its starts as a spaghetti western as done by Seth MacFarlane.

Dan Tapper

Yes, they are lovely. Well, not "Life Itself," necessarily. Too meandering. But "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Surprise Surprise" are gorgeous melodies. Just lyrically lacking.

Scott Peterson

I think "Tomorrow Never Knows" crushes "Surprise Surprise."

Dan Tapper

I think you are correct. I just can't get past the opening of a 6-month-old robbing a bank.

Scott Peterson

Damn. We're like two guys from opposite coasts who both end up in a small baseball stadium in Nebraska but can't agree on where to sit

Dan Tapper

See, I like "Surprise" better.

THIRD BASE SIDE!

Scott Peterson

You're insane. Just to the 1st base side of home plate.

Dan Tapper

You are a madman. OK. So gimme your quick assessment of the album's first half.

Scott Peterson

"Outlaw Pete" starts off silly, sure, in a Babe the Blue Ox sorta nutty mythology, but he's exploring themes like predestination. He's back to "you inherit the sins, you inherit the flames" and "well, if I had one wish in this god forsaken world, kids, it'd be that your mistakes would be your own—yeah, your sins would be your own."

Dan Tapper

Damn you and your good points.

Scott Peterson

I'm so thoughtless.
Okay. First half: very good. Feels piecemeal. Feels like what it is, a bunch of good songs by an excellent artist put together well. Sounds better than the lyrics are, but not in the same way as Working on a Dream did, where that was on account of the killer melodies. Some things that are new for him, sonically, if not actually new. Possibly overusing some production techniques. Tom Morello's his muse. Which is so funny. Since he hasn't been nutty for a musiciany musican since he was a teenager.

Dan Tapper

Ayuh. He sees Tom Morello when he drifts off to sleep at night.

I think it's because Morello seems to really get what Bruce does. You can hear it on Rage's version of "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and on that splendid solo at the end of "Jack of All Trades."

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COMING TOMORROW—TRACK 7 FROM HIGH HOPES: "Frankie Fell in Love"