It’s been a great year of music so far. Over the next few weeks, I’m planning on posting about some of the music I’ve been listening to in 2009. I’ll start with the first album that really grabbed me this year, Bruce Springsteen’s Working on a Dream. Released in January, this was the first must download of 2009 for me. I gave it multiple listens early on, and I was immediately impressed. I put it aside, though, once U2’s No Line was released. But recently, I’ve returned to The Boss’s latest and I have to say it’s one of my favorite albums of the year so far. The album sports a wide range of song styles, from the wistful working man pop of the title track to the roadhouse blues of “Good Eye” and the gospel-choir tinged “The Last Carnival”. “Tomorrow Never Knows” sounds like a lost CCR track.

The highlight of the album, without a doubt, is the eight minute western epic “Outlaw Pete”. Springsteen uses the great American cowboy narrative and our infatuation with the West to plumb the themes of death, justice, redemption and forgiveness. I can’t help but think my Dad would’ve loved this song; Outlaw Pete is as conflicted and tortured a character as any Cash ever wrote about. (Well, except maybe that guy sitting in Folsom Prison.) Easily the coolest song of the year so far and ranks right up there with U2’s “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” and “Breathe” and M.Ward’s “Never Had Nobody Like You” as my favorites of 2009. See the embedded video below to listen.