Album Review: Bruce Springsteen covers soul classics on Only The Strong Survive

Only the Strong Survive may not be an essential addition to the collection of some Springsteen fans, but The Boss is clearly having a ball going back to some of the favourite songs of his youth

Fri, 04 Nov, 2022 - 08:05

Ed Power

★★★★☆

“About my voice - first of all, I don't have much of one,” wrote Bruce Springsteen in his 2016 memoir, Born To Run. Many fans felt he was short-selling the soulful bulldozer quality of his vocals and Springsteen has evidently come around to their way of thinking. That impassioned delivery is the centrepiece of his 21st studio album – a tribute to the soul records he grew up on in the 1960s that doubles as a showcase for his heartwarming rasp.

Only The Strong Survive is Springsteen’s second covers collection of the 21st century and a companion piece, of sorts, to the first, 2006’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. That project was a love letter to the folk music of Pete Seeger that brought a Springsteen-esque thump to a familiar repertoire of Depression-era protest songs.

With Only The Strong Survive, the focus shifts to the R&B and soul classics of Springsteen’s youth. Among the staples at which he takes a tilt are Jerry Butler’s Only The Strong Survive, The Commodores' Nightshift, and Tyrone Davis’s Turn Back the Hands Of Time.

Bruce Springsteen: Only the Strong Survive.

Springsteen approaches the material with reverence. But he is not afraid to bring his own perspective to the recordings- which often end up sounding like undiscovered Springsteen gems rather than fateful covers. And true to his promise to centre the LP around his voice, the material has been rebuilt as a vehicle for his distinctive style.

At 73 Springsteen isn’t the thunderer of yore. However, that softening around the edge of his vocal brings out an engaging vulnerability as he turns the title track into a noir-ish epic and reimagines the Walkers Brothers’ The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More as a late-in-life lullaby.

Above all, Only the Strong Survive is an artist working entirely in his comfort zone. Springsteen assembled the album in his home studio not long after his most recent LP, Letter To You. He did so with the E-Street band horn section and with backing vocalists Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell, Michelle Moore, Curtis King Jr., Dennis Collins and Fonzi Thornton.

Anticipation is of course high as Springsteen prepares to take the E-Street Band back on the road in 2023, including three dates in Dublin. Fans will probably hope cuts from Only the Strong Survive do not feature prominently on the setlist. It is very much a record for Springsteen rather than his audience. Still, as indulgences go, this missive from the 73-year-old sparkles with soulful wisdom and joie de vivre.