Six artists to spin while we're waiting for a new Bruce Springsteen album.
Yes, yes, I know -- there’s no substitute for Springsteen. But the fact of the matter is, it’s been more than four years since "High Hopes,” and with Bruce planted on Broadway at least through June, it may be a while before we see new music coming our way. (His alleged “orchestral rock” album is starting to feel like a distant memory, and it never even came out.)
So while we wait, I thought I’d share some suggestions for some newer artists who might help to scratch your Springsteen itch -- some of them musically, and others through a lyrical sensibility and worldview that recalls Bruce’s approach. Results guaranteed or your money back.
Brian Fallon/The Gaslight Anthem. Fallon’s currently sort-of on-hiatus band The Gaslight Anthem used to be almost too on-the-nose in its nods to Springsteen, right down to references to “The River” and “Bobby Jean” on their breakthrough 2008 album “The’‘59 sound.” His first solo album, 2016’s “Painkillers,” avoids name-checking Bruce and his characters, but it does recall Springsteen’s full-throated arrangements, unabashed sincerity and of course a certain love for cars and what happens in them -- “I only stop to tell her that I love her at the red lights,” he sings on “Red Lights,” a line worthy of one of Bruce’s early Asbury Park outcasts. Plus, he’s from Jersey! LISTEN TO: “Meet Me By The River’s Edge” from “The ‘59 Sound,” and “Long Drives” from Fallon’s “Painkillers.” (Fallon has a new album, “Sleepwalkers” out Friday.)
Craig Finn/The Hold Steady. The Hold Steady frontman Finn has heard his group compared to the E Street Band for years, especially prior to the departure of Bittan-esque keyboardist Franz Nicolay in 2010. But while the Hold Steady’s cast of characters is made up mostly of drugged-out losers who don’t realize the party’s over, Finn’s solo work features a more well-rounded bunch of … Well, they’re still losers, but more in the vein of Bruce’s Nebraska-era sad sacks. Taken together it’s a great body of work, full of notably strong female characters and a literary sense of loss and redemption. LISTEN TO: “Constructive Summer” and the title track from The Hold Steady’s 2008 album “Stay Positive,” and “God In Chicago” from Finn’s 2017 solo record “We All Want The Same Things.”
Frank Turner. Turner holds the distinction of being maybe the only artist ever to do a decent cover of “Thunder Road,” which is probably enough to recommend him in and of itself. But his work as a whole echoes Springsteen’s intensity, along with a clear-eyed view of a world that tends to favor those that don’t necessarily deserve it, and a belief in the healing power of rock ‘n’ roll. Plus, if the punk undercurrent to Turner’s vibrant folk-rock doesn’t get your blood pumping, you may be dead. LISTEN TO: “I Still Believe” from 2011’s “England Keep My Bones,” and “Four Simple Words” from 2013’s “Tape Deck Heart.” (Turner’s “Be More Kind” -- a Springsteenian credo if ever there was one -- comes out May 4.)
Hurray For The Riff Raff. With a band name that could be Bruce’s motto, Alynda Segarra’s brutally authentic mix of Puerto Rican rhythms and gutsy Americana may not especially recall Springsteen musically. But her songs -- full of disenfranchised “others” and folks grasping for reasons to believe -- could definitely take place in his world. Her latest, 2017’s striking “The Navigator,” tells a heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful story of someone in desperate search of the country we carry in our hearts. LISTEN TO: “Crash on the Highway” from 2014’s “Small Town Heroes,” and “Rican Beach” and “Pa’lante” from “The Navigator.”
Jason Isbell. If Bruce Springsteen had been from Green Hill, Alabama rather than Freehold, New Jersey, he might have sounded a lot like Jason Isbell. (Or if Isbell had been from Freehold, he might have … Well, you get the idea.) If there’s another current artist whose albums are this populated by multi-layered characters who feel as real as the person sitting next to you, I don’t know who it is. And Isbell’s poignant takes on life’s sudden detours and fleeting joys, along with his keen desire for social justice, will feel familiar to any Springsteen acolyte. LISTEN TO: “Elephant” from 2013’s “Southeastern,” “24 Frames” from 2015’s “Something More Than Free,” and “White Man’s World” from 2017’s “The Nashville Sound.”
Kingsley Flood. I’ve previously described the Boston-based Kingsley Flood as a band that rocks hard while at the same time tackling tough questions about what it means to be an American, which is about as Springsteenian as it gets. Like Hurray For The Riff Raff, they’re a band that’s traced what it means to be an “other” in the U.S., something lead singer Naseem Khuri -- of Middle Eastern descent but raised in suburban Boston -- is all too familiar with. Their excellent 2016 album “Another Other” -- with its tales of individual struggle and income inequality -- feels like a not-too-distant cousin to “Wrecking Ball.” LISTEN TO: “Waiting On The River to Rise” from 2013’s “Battles,” and “The Bridge” and the title track from “Another Other.”
Who’s your favorite Springsteen substitute? Tell us in the comments. You can listen to all the above-mentioned tracks in the Spotify playlist below.