One Track Mind: Bruce Springsteen, “Hurry Up Sundown” from American Beauty (2014)

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A workingman’s song, one built for mashing the gas pedal down with your steel-toed boot, “Hurry Up Sundown” heralds an unexpected gift: More new music from Bruce Springsteen, just months after his last full-length album.

And it’s just that: Springsteen, playing everything except drums. But unlike the dark ruminations of similar solo efforts like Nebraska or Tunnel of Love, this song is a raucous, hard-bitten celebration — a clarion-call for quitting time. It’s like a scuffed-up Beach Boys song, fashioned especially for the Rust Belt.

[READ OUR FULL REVIEW HERE: Unfortunately, by the time we got through all four songs on Bruce Springsteen’s ‘American Beauty’ EP, “Hurry Up Sundown” had lost some of its initial luster..]

“Hurry Up Sundown,” a song demoed for 2014’s High Hopes with Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails, Devo) at the traps, is part of a four-song EP called American Beauty set for release on April 19, 2014 as part of Record Store Day. Only 7,500 copies of this special 12-inch vinyl project will be released.

The EP is rounded out by “Mary Mary” (from the 2007 Magic era), “Hey Blue Eyes” (which didn’t make the final run down for 2009’s Working on a Dream) and the title track, also from the High Hopes sessions.

Nick DeRiso