Bruce Springsteen has officially revealed his plans for his first new album in five years, Western Stars. The new solo record is due out June 14th via Columbia Records. The announcement comes after days of posting gradual visual hints to his social media accounts The album marks Springsteen’s first collection of new, original songs since 2012’s Wrecking Ball. He also released an album of covers and re-worked originals, High Hopes, in 2014.
As The Boss notes in a press release, “This record is a return to my solo recordings featuring character-driven songs and sweeping, cinematic orchestral arrangements. It’s a jewel box of a record.”
The announcement press release also notes that “the 13 racks 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.”
Related:Bruce Springsteen Delivers Surprise Performance At Cancer Benefit In New York City [Watch]
As he told Variety late last year, the new album is “influenced by Southern California pop music of the Seventies. 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 mind. It gave me something to hood an album around; it gave me some inspiration to write.”
Much like his previous two albums, Ron Aniello produced the album alongside playing bass, keyboard and other instruments. Western Stars features work from over 20 musicians including original E Street Band keyboard player David Sancious and violinist Soozie Tyrell as well as organist Charlie Giordano, who currently plays with the group. Jon Brion, who’s best known for his work with Kanye West and Fiona Apple, also contributed plays celeste, Moog, and farfisa to the album. Springsteen’s wife and E Street bandmate Patti Scialfa is responsible for the vocal arrangements on four songs and contributes her vocals on several others.
Springsteen has kept his focus on his solo work of late, as he spent much of the last two years in New York performing his one-man Springsteen on Broadway show.
Bruce Springsteen will release the first single from the album, “Hello Sunshine”, at midnight tonight, so keep an eye out for that. You can check out the full track list for the album below.
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