Bruised Arms & Broken Rhythms

Swedish singer covering Bruce Springsteen. Holmsten’s vocal range is amazing - both in the range of timbres she can produce, and the styles she covers. The songs run the gammut of styles. A few of the songs are awful, but the good ones really stick with you. The conceit of “woman singing love songs about a woman” doesn’t always work, but there’s something illuminating (and perhaps shocking) hearing Springsteen’s lyrics in such a clear and spare setting.

FCC Clean. Faves: 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 6?, 12

1. Highway 29 - A chance sexual encounter, a murder, a very spare musical setting
2. Dancing in the Dark - the 80’s/psuedo-darkwave setting is great, until the sax solo ruins it
3. The River - acoustic guitar and brushed snare, Americana,
4. Sad Eyes - Piano and double-tracked high-pitched vocals, sounds like it was recorded in Brooklyn
5. Badlands - Awful Amy Winehouse wannabe yuck
6. Born to Run - very slow, precious, with a backing chorus, I can’t tell whether it works?
7. Soul Driver - Beautiful, raspy vocals right up front over quiet plucked guitar and violin. Excellent.
8. State Trooper - Sounds like Suicide?!?!
9. Lift Me up - slowed-down early 60’s girl group except it’s male backing vocals, then gets hipster jammy.
10. We take care of our own - Sounds the most like an actual Bruce Springsteen song. Driving, builds, anthemic
11. Incident on 57th St - Painful shrieking, recorded “live in a room” except then the room changes, I really dislike this one
12. Streets of Fire - Muted, sotto voce, treble all the way down kind of like early Cat Power
13. Tougher than the rest - Electronic drums that sound like a Casio keyboard preset, very 80’s
14. You’re Missing - Affected “little girl” vocals effected with some distortion, maybe a banjo in the background? Iffy