Bruce Springsteen

Only the Strong Survive (2022)

	

  1. Only the Strong Survive
  2. Soul Days
  3. Night Shift
  4. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
  5. The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore
  6. Turn Back the Hands of Time
  7. When She Was My Girl
  8. Hey, Western Union Many
  9. I Wish it Would Rain
  10.Don't Play That Song
  11.Any Other Way
  12.I Forgot to Be Your Lover
  13.7 Rooms of Gloom
  14.What Becomes of the Brokenhearted
  15.Someday We'll Be Together
  
  


  
  

Given the breadth and depth of Bruce Springsteen’s original catalogue, it was perhaps inevitable—but no less surprising—that he would eventually dedicate an entire studio album to covers. Only the Strong Survive arrives not as a mere footnote, but as a deliberate, lovingly constructed homage to the soul and R&B music that shaped his formative years. That the project exists at all is less a lapse in creativity than a curious act of reverence. Whether it resonates with the listener, however, may depend on one's own relationship to the source material.

Springsteen has long been inclined to pepper his live performances with covers, particularly in the encore sections of marathon shows. These inclusions, while sometimes crowd-pleasing, have often been met with a measure of ambivalence by longtime fans who would have preferred another original deep cut over yet another spin through Trapped or Raise Your Hand. The frustration is understandable: few artists possess as many unreleased but fully developed songs as Springsteen, and the decision to reach for someone else's catalogue—when his own vault is bursting—can feel, at times, like a missed opportunity.

Now, the cover album has arrived. And, as it turns out, it’s not the rootsy folk detour or the blues-inflected throwback one might have expected. Rather, Springsteen turns his attention to the soul classics of the 1960s and early ’70s—songs that once crackled through transistor radios across working-class New Jersey, where a teenage Bruce presumably soaked them in with reverence and longing.

For listeners of a certain age—Springsteen’s age—the selections will no doubt evoke nostalgia. But therein lies the complication: this is a deeply personal record rooted in a specific musical adolescence that may not be shared by all his listeners. For those born a decade or two later, the connection to this material may be, at best, secondhand. It’s telling that the one song that stands out here as particularly accessible—The Commodores’ Nightshift from 1985—is also the most recent. Its inclusion acts almost like a bridge, easing the listener into a collection that otherwise trades heavily in pre-disco sentiment.

The performances are competent, sometimes even joyful, but rarely essential. There is little sense of reinvention here; Springsteen doesn’t reinterpret so much as reanimate. His vocals are strong—remarkably so for a man in his seventies—and the arrangements are clean and respectful. But in remaining so faithful to the originals, the album risks becoming a museum piece: well curated, but ultimately lacking the urgency that has defined even his quietest original works.

And that, perhaps, is the root of the disappointment. Springsteen has, in recent years, proven that he still has plenty to say. Both Western Stars and Letter to You were thoughtful, beautifully rendered albums that reflected an artist in full control of his narrative voice. Only the Strong Survive, by contrast, is more of a palate cleanser. It makes no claims to greatness and asks little of its audience. It is, one suspects, a record Springsteen made for himself—and fair enough.

Still, it’s hard not to wish that the time and energy spent on this exercise had been applied to the mountain of original material that remains, tantalisingly, in the vault. For the faithful, Only the Strong Survive is a pleasant diversion. For others, it may feel like a detour too far. Either way, its arrival reminds us—perhaps unintentionally—that while Springsteen can still sing with power and conviction, it is his own words, and not others’, that continue to matter most.