REVIEW

Bruce Springsteen's "Only the Strong Survive" pays homage to great songwriters who came before him

Springsteen's album of covers benefits from repeat listens, with songs taking on greater nuance at each new pass

By Kenneth Womack

Contributing Writer

Published November 11, 2022 9:00AM (EST)

Bruce Springsteen (Photograph by Danny Clinch/Shore Fire Media)
Bruce Springsteen (Photograph by Danny Clinch/Shore Fire Media)

There's a lot to be admired in "Only the Strong Survive," Bruce Springsteen's 21st studio album. But I find myself enjoying it in dramatically different ways than, say, his 1970s-era masterworks "Born to Run" and "Darkness on the Edge of Town." Those records stirred our intellect and our emotions via the excitement of the artist's storytelling and attendant musical drama. With "Only the Strong Survive," Springsteen succeeds, simply put, by elevating our senses through the pure power of song.

Much of this album's sensory impact should be credited to the album's atmospherics. A collection of carefully selected cover versions, the LP sounds like the music and textures from soul and R&B's heyday. That's not to suggest that the album feels dated—far from it. Rather, Springsteen and co-producer Ron Aniello's careful attention to sonic detail results in establishing a soulful ambiance that draws listeners in from the snare shot that kicks the title track into being. In so doing, they establish a musical thread that drapes itself across the balance of the album—indeed, right on through to the final cut, "Someday We'll Be Together."

And then there's the matter of Springsteen's vocals, which feel right at home in the grooves of the cover versions that he has selected. With "Only the Strong Survive," he's in fine fettle as a singer, affording homage to the music and an era that has clearly existed at the heart of his life's inspiration. At times, the album makes for a dizzying array of standout vocal performances, as Springsteen reels off unforgettable takes of such 1960s classics as "Hey, Western Union Man," "Don't Play That Song," and "7 Rooms of Gloom."

As incredible as those numbers prove to be, Springsteen shifts into yet another gear altogether for "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," Jimmy Ruffin's Motown hit. In a career filled with awe-inspiring musical highs, his vocal interpretation of "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" makes for one of his finest performances, brimming with drama and foreboding.

"Only the Strong Survive" is an album that benefits from repeated listenings, with Springsteen's cover versions taking on greater nuance with each new pass. He recently remarked that making the LP marked his effort to  "do justice" to "the great American songbook of the '60s and '70s." With "Only the Strong Survive," he demonstrates his artistic debt to his American R&B and soul roots. But it proves to be more than that: By producing an album's worth of top-flight cover versions, Springsteen pays powerful homage to the songwriters and musicians who paved the way for his own vaunted place among their number.


By Kenneth Womack

Kenneth Womack is the author of a two-volume biography of the life and work of Beatles producer George Martin and the host of "Everything Fab Four," a podcast about the Beatles distributed by Salon. He is also the author of "Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles," published in 2019 in celebration of the album’s 50th anniversary, "John Lennon, 1980: The Last Days in the Life" and the authorized biography "Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans" (November 2023).  Womack is Professor of English and Popular Music at Monmouth University.

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Bruce Springsteen Music Review