Working on a Dream

Background and recording

The album was officially announced on November 17, 2008, along with its track listing. It originated from work Springsteen and the E Street Band were completing for Magic; the song "What Love Can Do" was written as a "love in the time of Bush" meditation but felt like the start of something new. Encouraged by producer Brendan O'Brien, Springsteen wrote "This Life," "My Lucky Day," "Life Itself," "Good Eye," and "Tomorrow Never Knows" over the following week.

These were recorded with the E Street Band during breaks on the Magic Tour, with most finished in just a few takes. As with Magic, most tracks were first recorded with a core band of Springsteen, drummer Max Weinberg, bassist Garry Tallent, and pianist Roy Bittan, with other members' contributions added later. It was the last album to feature new work from founding E Street Band member Danny Federici, who died in April 2008; his son Jason also contributes.

Steve Van Zandt stated that Working on a Dream, The Rising, and Magic form a trilogy "in terms of sound, concept and writing style," moving "toward the pop-rock form – this one more than the other two."

Release

Springsteen debuted the album's title track live on November 2, 2008, in Cleveland, singing it with Patti Scialfa at a rally for Barack Obama. A shortened version later played during NBC's Sunday Night Football halftime show on November 16. Radio stations began playing the single on November 21, and it became a free download through iTunes and Sony BMG's website three days later. "My Lucky Day" hit Amazon in the US on December 1, while "Life Itself" was offered as a free Amazon download on December 28.

The album surfaced online on January 12, and a week after that, NPR.org and Sony BMG's Irish site streamed it at no cost for seven days. Physical sales started in Germany and Ireland on January 23. A heavy promotional push followed: appearances at the Golden Globes, Obama's inauguration, a new greatest hits collection, the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show, and a hoped-for slot at the 81st Academy Awards. That last plan fell through when "The Wrestler," the song Springsteen wrote for the film, didn't earn a nomination—Rolling Stone called it "shocking news."

Springsteen remarked that it was probably the busiest month of his life. In February, a condensed version of "Working on a Dream" appeared during the Super Bowl performance, and VH1 Classic aired a making-of documentary. The Working on a Dream Tour kicked off on April 1.

Critical reception

Working on a Dream hit number one on the Billboard 200 right out of the gate, but critics were all over the map on this one. The review site Metacritic gave it a 72 out of 100, which was the lowest score Springsteen had gotten for any of his six albums from the 2000s. The New York Times saw the early tracks as a sign of a "more hopeful, less bleak" Springsteen, one who spoke "the voice of an honest striver redeemed by love and hard work." Rolling Stone went all in with a five-star review, calling it as big and ambitious as Born to Run.

On the flip side, Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times said the nicest thing you could say was that it was "boisterously scatterbrained, exhilaratingly bad." Greg Kot from The Chicago Tribune thought parts of it were a "silly" self-parody, though he liked "My Lucky Day" and the title track. He pointed to "The Last Carnival" and "The Wrestler" as the real standouts, saying they showed Springsteen at his best and accidentally revealed what the rest of the album was missing.

Pitchfork agreed with E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt that the album wrapped up a trilogy that started with The Rising in 2002 and continued with Magic in 2007. Richard Williams wrote in The Guardian that the usual E Street Band sound took a backseat to new experiments, like a string orchestra, Beach Boys-style harmonies, jangling Byrds-like guitars, and a fadeout that echoed "I Am the Walrus." Fans saw it as one of Springsteen's most varied albums, and critics picked up on influences from the Wall of Sound, girl groups, and British Invasion pop.

It also nodded to Springsteen's own past, with "The Last Carnival" acting as a follow-up to "Wild Billy's Circus Story" from 1973. The album moved 224,000 copies in its first week, knocking Taylor Swift's Fearless off the top spot after a seven-week run. It was Springsteen's ninth number-one album in the U.S., tying him with the Rolling Stones for fourth place behind the Beatles (19), Jay-Z (11), and Elvis Presley (10). It also topped the Billboard Top Rock Albums, Top Digital Albums, and Top Internet Albums charts. By September 2010, it had sold over 3 million copies worldwide, with more than 585,000 in the U.S.

Track listing

"The Wrestler" first appeared in August 2008 at the 65th Venice International Film Festival debut of the film The Wrestler and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song at the 66th Golden Globe Awards on January 11. The album version, without the end-credits string introduction, became available on iTunes on December 16. "A Night with the Jersey Devil" first appeared in October 2008 on Springsteen's website with a Halloween-themed music video, but subsequent press releases omitted mention of it, and Springsteen sources confirmed it had been removed for reasons unknown.

It was announced as the 14th track on the Japanese CD edition but is not on the current track list; the video is featured on the DVD included with the deluxe edition. "Frankie Fell in Love" was recorded during the album sessions but not released, later reworked for the 2014 album High Hopes. The deluxe edition includes a 38-minute documentary showing behind-the-scenes footage of the recording, produced, directed, and edited by Thom Zimny.