Springsteen’s latest “Working” wonders

Bruce Springsteen has had a good two years.

In August he wrapped up the final stretch of his worldwide “Magic” tour with the E-Street Band, playing 100 shows for more than two million fans. All told, the 10-month stint grossed over $250 million.

Not long after that, he pledged his support for then Democratic nominee Barack Obama, going on several stops in battleground states to play – free of charge – in front of thousands of fans. It culminated with Barack Obama victoriously taking the stage on Nov. 4 to Springsteen’s “The Rising” and then singing at his inauguration two months later.

Three weeks ago, Springsteen won a Golden Globe for “The Wrestler,” the theme song for the movie of the same name.

Now, just days before he takes the stage at Super Bowl XLIII, he has released his 24th album, “Working on a Dream.” Not since 1974, with his first two albums, has Springsteen put out back-to-back E-Street Band records so quickly. Recorded during breaks in the last tour, it finds the singer/songwriter in a more joyful mood than he was on 2002’s solemn Sept. 11 album “The Rising,” and the rage-filled “Magic.”

Here characters are, as always on a Springsteen album, not without their trials. But they’re mostly optimistic, hopeful that there are better days ahead. In the title track, he sings: “I’m working on a dream/Though trouble can feel like it’s here to stay/I’m working on a dream/Our love will chase the trouble away.”

In a drastic departure from his other albums, he opens with an epic, sometimes silly 8-minute tale, “Outlaw Pete.” It follows the character from his unlikely birth (at three months old, “He robbed a bank in his diapers/and little bare baby feet/All he said was ‘Folks, my name is outlaw Pete’ “) to his death, and it’s reminiscent of the legends and folklore of the expansive West: “Father Jesus, I’m an outlaw, killer and a thief,” he sings. “And I slow down only to sow my grief.” Later, when he gives up his life of crime and settles down with a Navajo woman, his past catches up to him in the form of a bounty hunter:

“Out of the East on an Irish stallion came bounty hunter Dan/His heart quickened and burdened by the need to get his man/He found Pete peacefully fishing by the river, pulled his gone and got the drop/He said, “Pete, you think you’ve changed but you have not.” The song is beautifully cinematic, following an Aristotelian three-act structure complete with a climax (Pete’s murder of the bounty hunter) and an epilogue, which sees Pete commit suicide “over an icy ledge.”

It is the longest tune by far on what is essentially a pop album, albeit in Springsteen’s different style. The other songs average 3-4 minutes in length, with “My Lucky Day,” the record’s first single, sounding like a cousin to Magic’s “Radio Nowhere.” By far the most bizarre song is “Queen of the Supermarket,” an ode to a beautiful woman the character has become obsessed with. “As I lift my groceries into my cart/I turn back for a moment and catch a smile/That blows this whole f–king place apart.” Clearly, a happier, looser Springsteen than the one who asked just two years ago on “Magic,” in a reference to the Iraq War, “Who’ll be the last to die for a mistake/ Whose blood will spill/Whose heart will break/Who’ll be the last to die for a mistake?”

One of the gems comes in “Tomorrow Never Knows,” a two-minute blink-and-you’ll-miss-it tune that is as simple as it is sentimental. The easy guitar riff and addictive composition leave you wanting more, but in a good way. “The Last Carnival,” an apparent eulogy to “Phantom” Dan Federici, the long-time E-Street Band keyboardist who died of melanoma last year, chronicles a circus shutting down because of the passing of one of their own. “Sundown, Sundown/Empty are the fairgrounds/Where are you now my handsome Billy?” he asks.

Not as far-reaching sonically as “The Rising” nor as emotional as “Magic,” “Working on a Dream” is a different release for Springsteen. But in a world of monopolized radio stations and stale number-one hits, it serves as a reminder that sometimes different is what’s needed to keep things fresh and interesting.

Grade: A

Download (don’t steal): “Outlaw Pete” by Bruce Springsteen