After dropping hints on his social media accounts all week, Bruce Springsteen has finally announced details about Western Stars, his upcoming album out on June 14th. “This record is a return to my solo recordings featuring character-driven songs and sweeping, cinematic orchestral arrangements,” Springsteen said in a statement. “It’s a jewel box of a record.”
According to a press release, “the 13 tracks of Western Stars encompass a sweeping range of American themes, of highways and desert spaces, of isolation and community and the permanence of home and hope.”
Like his previous two albums, Ron Aniello produced the album alongside playing bass, keyboard and other instruments. Over 20 musicians play on the album, including original E Street Band keyboard player David Sancious and violinist Soozie Tyrell and organist Charlie Giordano from the current edition of the group. Jon Brion – best known for his work with Kanye West and Fiona Apple – plays celeste, Moog, and farfisa. Springsteen’s wife and E Street bandmate Patti Scialfa is responsible for the vocal arrangements on four songs and sings on others.
Western Stars is Springsteen’s first album of new, original songs since 2012’s Wrecking Ball. “[The] record is influenced by Southern California pop music of the Seventies” he told Variety in December. “Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, those kinds of records. I don’t know if people will hear those influences, but that was what I had in my mind. It gave me something to hook an album around; it gave me some inspiration to write.”
