Bleachers: Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night review – Jack Antonoff returns to his roots | Pop and rock



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NOTJack Antonoff, originally from New Jersey, is best known as the affable super producer who has played the role of midwife in works by Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Lorde. Big on the tunes, Antonoff’s aesthetic nonetheless embodies intriguing contradictions: a maximalist pop is also a child of the guitar at heart, balancing look-at-me jazz hands with understated vocals and atmospheric fuzz. In 2014, Bleachers’ debut was full of nods to Bruce Springsteen. In 2020, the man himself performed in the backing vocals on the track Chinatown, which is no longer Boss.

So many American actors have played Boss moves in recent years – the killers, the war on drugs – but this Bleachers album feels like it’s about showing someone where Antonoff grew up in. Jersey; at least a third of it is fueled by cheerful poses from the E Street Band, their anthems pleasantly crammed with vulnerability. It all feels very personal, with Antonoff continuing to channel the underdog status on songs such as How Dare You Want More. There is also a lot of watermark: string arrangements by Annie “St Vincent” Clark, contribution by Warren Ellis and a writing credit for Zadie Smith.

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