that seemed like a good idea on paper ★★☆☆☆

An album of Bruce Springsteen soul covers; that sounds like a good idea on paper. It’s the music he grew up with and that he and his E-Street Band have been able to fall back on live since their early days half a century ago.

But the E-Street Band is not participating the album Only The Strong Survive. The now 73-year-old singer recorded his somewhat gratuitous choice of soul classics from Jerry Butler to Diana Ross and the Temptations with Ron Aniello. That producer played most of the instruments, after which the songs were sauced with strings, wind instruments and a choir. Too bad, because some Springsteen’s previous record Letter To You (2020) so well was that it was a real band album, on which you could hear that they all wanted to squeeze out the best again.

What makes this cover album so disappointing is, first of all, the sweet, wide spread sound. The production is flat and actually you only bounce back during Frank Wilsons northern soul-pestle Do I Love You (Indeed I Do). The title song is sung rather convulsively and how slippery it is night shift from 1985’s The Commodores right here? You expect to be in the middle of a steaming soul party, but The Boss doesn’t really get loose. Also the guest role in two songs by Sam Moore, by the soul duo Sam & Dave, does not convince Springsteen. That he lacks the desperation and depth in Levi Stubbs’ voice 7 Rooms of Gloom of the Four Tops cannot be blamed on him. Well, he doesn’t really know how to sing a single song to himself.