You can hear Bowie, Neu, Eno, The Pogues, Throwing Muses, Lee Perry, Jesus And Mary Chain: and that’s just on Springsteen’s first track…
Both Weller and Springsteen have always worn their influences heavily, of course, both of them self-consciously, even pathologically eager to weave their own myth into one strand of their nation’s narrative: blue-collar, male, romantic, principled, unbending. Both have always wanted to simultaneously hug you, punch you, kiss you, infect you, inject you, provoke you, change you, keep you just the way you are. Both have always wanted to make your life better, while reminding you just how crap that life can be. Both have always wanted to make the world different. And both have always stood imperiously apart from that world. Continue reading »