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" Bruce Springsteen writes lyrics wound tight. Whatever has held his characters back all these years \u2014 factory jobs, austere fathers, surprise babies, loneliness, whatever, doesn&amp;#039;t matter \u2014 kindled the need to be anywhere other than where they were and do something, anything, other than what they were doing. There isn&amp;#039;t a record of his that doesn&amp;#039;t bleed frustration.  Now here is Working on a Dream, his fifteenth studio album, and apparently the wound has healed, the tourniquet is being unwrapped, and the blood is rushing back into the limbs. He&amp;#039;s in a good mood. The sound alone tells you that \u2014 he&amp;#039;s adding mortar to the towering, wall-of-sound sound he started on his last record, Magic, and that he worshipped when he was growing up, and it&amp;#039;s melodic and poppy and you can whistle the songs. They come into your head while you&amp;#039;re walking, which has happened only rarely since &amp;quot;Dancing in the Dark.&amp;quot;  But like that lonely, sad, catchy song, beneath the roll-down-the-window hooks of these new tunes are pools of darkness. Because all may not be well, but things are looking up. And that is Bruce Springsteen&amp;#039;s ultimate talent: pitch-perfect assessment of what&amp;#039;s going on in America, even if on the surface it sounds as if he&amp;#039;s only talking about a pretty girl who works at the supermarket. It&amp;#039;s why, at 59, he may still be the future of rock and roll. RELATED STORIES: SUPER BOWL: The Odds on Springsteen&amp;#039;s Halftime Set List WHAT I&amp;#039;VE LEARNED: Little Steven on the Boss (and that Other Boss) REVIEW: Springsteen&amp;#039;s Magic ARCHIVE: Springsteen Finally Lets Us Inside "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a5581/bruce-springsteen-working-on-a-dream-012909/>