Apparently Bruce and part of the E Street Band were assembled at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park last weekend running through all the songs from the Darkness album. The band spent most of last Sunday afternoon there, playing several versions of each song. While nothing is certain or confirmed, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that there could be a connection to the Darkness boxset project, which, according to the latest information, should be released sometime in the spring. What exactly last Sunday's recordings - provided the action was being recorded - will be used for is anyone's guess. It could be part of a documentary, or it could be for an extra disc of Darkness live versions. Time will tell. Or not.

There's been a lot of speculation this time around about whether the Working on a Dream Tour would be the last E Street Band tour. Well, now we have the official word from Bruce himself: the band plans to continue for "many, many years". The statement is put forward by Bruce in an interview in Billboard conducted before the Nashville show. Of course, Bruce doesn't go into details about whether indivial members are up for it, and if you belong to the group of fans who thought the band was already more or less over with when Danny Federici passed away, this, of course, doesn't change anything. But for the rest of us, there is reason to believe that we haven't experienced the thrill of the legendary E Street Band for the last time. Read the Billboard interview yourself if you don't believe me.

In other news, Jon Landau has recently confirmed that a Darkness box is still planned for release and also hinted that there may be some sort of DVD release culled from the Working on a Dream Tour coming out in the new year. All we can do is wait and hope.

In a rare interview with Billboard, Jon Landau just made what must be the closest thing to an official confirmation of the much talked about Darkness anniversary set. The set has been rumored for a couple of years, but has disappeared from the radar screens in the last six months. Until today that is. Jon Landau specifically confirmed that the set is "near completion" and that it will be finished and released when they have "six weeks to finish it", This is indeed great news, but with Bruce's work schedule, those six weeks may still be a little into the future.

Jon Landau also commented on the Wal-Mart Greatest Hits. He refutes the criticism it has received by saying that Bruce albums have already been sold in Wal-Mart for years and adds that Bruce has not endorsed the release, but rather left it to Sony and Wal-Mart to market it.

Read the whole article here.

It had to happen. The entire Working on a Dream album has now leaked and has spread like a California hill fire among the hardcore fan community. Reactions to it are very mixed, to put it mildly. Probably even more so than usual. Only "Outlaw Pete" and "The Wrestler" are somewhat universally praised. The rest have divided the fans in two fractions: those who think it's the worst garbage since Human Touch and those who praise the new direction (and it really is a new direction) as the best thing since [insert title of your favorite album]. I'll withhold the official Greasy Lake opinion until it's been officially released, but I can say that I "ain't hatin' it".

So, how did I get hold of it? a lot of you may ask. Well, all I know is that it was in my inbox when I turned on my computer this morning. I honestly don't know how to find it online. It was on YouTube earlier, but has probably been removed from there already. Even if I did know how to get it, I simply could not share that information on a public website. To be honest, I would personally prefer if these leaks didn't happen. It takes something away from the official release day and everything leading up to it. But when it's sitting there staring at you in your inbox, it takes more will-power than I can muster to resist sneak-peeking. I'm sure most of you can relate.

Yesterday Amazon.co.uk published 30-second samples of all the songs on the new album, but as of right now they seem to have disappeared again. Possibly because within hours the samples had spread to places like YouTube and and Megaupload. Or because they weren't supposed be published in the first place.

But the cat is out of the bag and thousands of fans got to listen to the snippets. They were able to hear that the description that was recently posted on this page wasn't too far from the truth. A mix of classic E Street Band and some interesting experimenting. To these ears it sounded like it may be slightly less melodic and bombastic than Magic, but still nothing like the rather tuneless and understated Devils & Dust (I know, I know, "Long Time Comin'" is a splendid tune). However, drawing any major conclusions based on very short samples would be a mistake. Especially since the best of Bruce's music has always been the songs that didn't open up until after several listens. Heck, if I'd started out by only hearing 30-second clips of the Darkness album, I'm not sure I would have become the fan I am today. So whether you thought the Working on a Dream clips sounded promising or the opposite, just forget about them when you pop the CD in the player for the first time on January 27 (or push the Play button on your iPod).It'll be a much better experience for it.

The below picture that is allegedly showing the cover art for the Working on a Dream album has appeared on the official Bruce site, brucespringsteen.net. It doesn't say specifically that it's the cover art, but under normal circumstances you would assume so. But really, could this really be it? It has prompted a collective "you have got to be kidding me!" on various message boards, andI must admit that even though I  can find something positive in almost anything Bruce does, and  even though Bruce hasn't had a truly great and memorable (to casual music fans) album cover since Born in the USA, this will take the price as the ugliest thing to come out of Thrill Hill in... like... forever. Apart from the typeface, it's pretty much a disaster. Is it a children's album? Is it a Christmas album? It's certainly doesn't signal "new monster album by legendary rock 'n' roll boss Bruce fooking Springsteen" like it should. There are at least 10 bootleg cover artists out there who could have done a much better job. So hopefully this is not the real thing, and if it is, hopefully it doesn't say anything about the actual music

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In the last several days no less than three songs from the Working on a Dream album have been made available to the public. Two of them as both audio and video. First, the title track is available via iTunes for free through December 9. Also, a video of the song can be seen on some Swiss news magazine website. Next, one of the bonus tracks, "The Wrestler" (which at the moment looks like it will be the only bonus track) is featured in the trailer of the movie of the same name. The trailer can be seen here, and if you watch the whole thing all the way through, it is followed by a complete and uninterrupted playback of the stark ballad. Finally, "My Lucky Day" can be seen as a video on Amazon.com. Like the "Working on a Dream" video it was recorded at Brendan O'Brien's studio in Atlanta during the recording of the album. If you live in the US you can even purchase an mp3 of the "Lucky Day" song for only $0.99. Why the rest of the world doesn't have this opportunity is probably something you have to be a copyright lawyer to understand. All I know is that this a bullet-proof way to create lots of new music pirates out of people who don't even want to be music pirates. When does the music industry realize we live in a globalized world?

An anonymous person has sent us a song-by-song description of the Working on a Dream album. How he got to listen to the album or if he's even trustworthy, I will leave for each of you individually to judge. But it sounds plausible, and I have personally no reason to think it's not true. There are probably lots of tentative copies out there with Sony executives, marketing people, and others. Time will tell how much truth there is to this, but here goes:

Track list:
1. Outlaw Pete
-The E street band do Pete Seeger. A rollocking tune about badass Pete lots of harmonica, lots of organ.
2. My Lucky Day
- as heard on Amazon a mid tempo rocker like Lonesome Day, again strong organ presence.
3. Working On a Dream
- Title track we have all heard.
4. Queen of the Supermarket
-Probably the most enticing title on the album is a ode to a Supermarket worker? Or Dweller? Glockenspiel opening. Certainly no ‘For You’ or ‘Sandy’, but still heavy on the feelings.
5. What Love Can Do
- Very Byrds like, Max on fire on this track lots of twelve string guitars it reminded me of ‘twelve mile high’ in parts
6. This Life
- Big band sound, lots of organ. Imagine a fast Secret Garden with the big man pulling out a sax solo at the end. A grower I am sure.
7. Good Eye
- Brilliant blues harmonica microphone number. Very similar to the stage versions of ‘Reason to Believe’ & ‘NJ Devil’, the most innovative track on the album. This is Bruce pushing the boundaries not cruising. More like this please Bruce.
8. Tomorrow Never Knows
- Light country tinged skip along with Soozie contributing Violin. Starts with a steel guitar intro, you can imagine this done solo ala ‘Waiting on a Sunny Day’ – acoustic.
9. Life Itself
- Slow burning rock. With backtracked guitar, very reminiscent of ‘The Fuse’.
10. Kingdom of Days
-Big wall of sound, very reminiscent of recent Brendan O’Brien produced tracks. This records ‘Girls in their Summer Clothes’.
11. Surprise, Surprise
- 60s pop, very pop and up track, kind of throwaway.
12. The Last Carnival- Standout track. Is this a ode to Danny? It starts with an accordion intro, lots of end of days reminiscing and very dreamy end of summer felling. Suddenly stops then a choir comes in before fading to end.

Overall very patchy, you get the feeling Bruce and the band are cruising. Easy to see why some of theses tracks where left off ‘Magic’, yet where Bruce does innovate and push we get standouts such as Outlaw Pete, Good Eye & Last Carnival. Might not be Tunnel of Love or Darkness but certainly no Human Town either some of these songs will reawaken when done live or when stripped of the Brendan O Brien wall of sound.

As of today you can listen to streaming audio of the song "Workin' on a Dream" on at least two music sites: Q1043 and something called iheartmusic.com. The latter unfortunately is only available from within the US. Reactions to the song are as always mixed, but there's no doubt fans are a tad more skeptical this time around than was the case when "Radio Nowhere" was first heard in the fall of 2007. At the same time, a poster on the Backstreets message board, BTX, has caused controversy by claiming to have heard the full album and revealing detailed information about some of the songs. Whether the information is trustworthy is up to each of us individually to decide, but it does sound plausible. Read a summary here.

The new Bruce Springsteen studio album that has been much rumored and talked about lately, is now official. In a press release from Shorefire Media released a few hours ago, the album was announced for January 27. It's called Workin' on a Dream and contains 12 songs plus two bonus songs: "The Wrestler" (from the recent movie of the same name) and "A Night with the Jersey Devil" (the surprise Halloween attack from a few weeks ago). The rest of the track list looks like this:

1. Outlaw Pete
2. My Lucky Day
3. Working On a Dream
4. Queen of the Supermarket
5. What Love Can Do
6. This Life
7. Good Eye
8. Tomorrow Never Knows
9. Life Itself
10. Kingdom of Days
11. Surprise, Surprise
12. The Last Carnival

Read the complete press release.