High
Hopes is a collection of orchestral dad-rock arena
pleasers, packed with strained-sung inspirational hooks such as “this is your
sword and this is your shield” and the incredibly witty “Just like fire would” (it
sounds like “just like firewood”. Get it???).
The lyrics aren’t all cheese, but moments of true lyrical depth are few and far between. Tom Morello offers some largely tasteful guitar solos throughout - well, up until the track “The Ghost of Tom Joad” that is, before he devolves into tuneless guitar wankery for what must be a good two minutes.
The lyrics aren’t all cheese, but moments of true lyrical depth are few and far between. Tom Morello offers some largely tasteful guitar solos throughout - well, up until the track “The Ghost of Tom Joad” that is, before he devolves into tuneless guitar wankery for what must be a good two minutes.
Truth be told I’ve never been a fan of The Boss
and didn’t have particularly high hopes for this record - if any hopes at all -
which might beg the question “why did you bother listening to it?”. Well, maybe
I just detest Springsteen so much that I jumped on the chance to rip him apart.
Maybe that’s unprofessional of me. Maybe I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this
morning. Fuck you, Springsteen.
★★☆☆☆
TRACK TASTER:
TRACK TASTER: