Bruce Springsteen: Only the Strong Survive review - Going back to his roots

Shortly after Bruce Springsteen had recorded his important if ominous 2020 album, Letter To You, he went back into the studio on his ranch in New Jersey. Nothing unusual in that. Springsteen likes to work. He was alone save for producer Ron Aniello and engineer Rob Lebret. They called themselves the Nightshift given the hours they kept and no doubt inspired by the Commodores song they recorded.

The material was drawn from the 73-year-old’s early years when the irresistible rhythms of Motown and other strains of soul were common on the Jersey Shore. Springsteen and sidekick Steve Van Zandt would have sung and played these classic pop songs in famed venues like the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. Through the years they have been regulars in Springsteen encores. These songs are close to him - they unlock a key to his past.

Perhaps after the intensity of the Letter To You sessions with its references to death and the passing of time, these songs brought back a sense of the innocence and joy in the 1960s/1970s when the world was a simpler place for working-class kids with high hopes. Whatever, the Nightshift gradually pulled together 15 different shades of soul, embellishing them with brass, string, voice and rhythm section arrangements that borrow heavily in homage to the lean originals while sparing no expense in the process.

Only the Strong Survive is Springsteen’s 21st studio album but only the second, after 2006′s Seeger Sessions, to feature solely cover versions. His muse was not alone in getting a rest; his E-Street Band were also stood down though the E-Street Horns were not. “I wanted to make an album where I just sang,” said Springsteen. “And what better music to work with than the great American songbook of the 60s and 70s?”

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That statement could be open to challenge, but it would be churlish to cavil at the enduring power of pop standards such as Jimmy Ruffin’s What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted? (1966); Seven Rooms of Gloom (the Four Tops, 1967); The Sun Ain’t Going To Shine Anymore (Walker Bros, 1966); Aretha Franklin’s singalong Don’t Play That Song (1970), and Diana Ross’s last single with the Supremes, Someday We’ll Be Together (1970) - although she actually sang it without them. There are also some more obscure gems such as Tyrone Davis’s Turn Back the Hands of Time (1970) and Frank Wilson’s Northern Soul favourite Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) (1965) while Jerry Butler of The Impressions provided the title track (1970). And the singing? Powerful as you would expect, but his voice has lost nuance through years of playing stadia. Still this is a joyful blast - grandad pop at its best.