New Music Reviews: Springsteen, Wet Leg, and Edwyn Collins

This week we have missives from New Jersey, the Isle of Man, and the Scottish highlands. Read on for details…

Bruce Springsteen

Faithless

2025, 7/10
If you’re keeping track at home, we’re up to the third disc in Springsteen’s Tracks II set. Springsteen wrote Faithless on commission, for a “spiritual Western”. He wrote it after the Devils and Dust tour in late 2005, but the movie was never made, and the material languished in the vaults.

With the low-key, piano-based songs, it sounds like a Tom Waits album. In particular, ‘All God’s Children’ feels like a Waits tribute, with a rough-hewn vocal. There’s a gospel choir on the climactic ‘Let Me Ride’, but much of the record is gentle.

Befitting a soundtrack, four of the eleven tracks are instrumental. The title is deceptive – it’s often immersed in spiritual themes. On ‘My Master’s Hand’, he sings “I’ll live in the shelter of my master’s hand
I’ll live in the love of my master’s hand.” The atmospheric title track is my favourite song here.

Faithless is brief but charming, a fascinating different direction from Springsteen.

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Wet Leg

Moisturizer

2025, 8.5/10
Wet Leg’s name comes from an Isle of Wight expression denoting visitors to the island, recognisable because of wet legs from getting off the boat. Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers’ charming, innuendo-laden hit ‘Chaise Longue’ went viral in 2021. Even though their first album was solid, I was concerned they’d be a gimmick, a passing trend.

On their second album, they’re a full band rather than a duo, with their touring band promoted to full membership. It’s justified, as Moisturizer is tough rather than twee. Teasdale leans into a rock star persona, brash but still quirky. The final effect is suprisingly close to the Pixies.

Lead single ‘Catch These Fists’ is immediately exciting and propulsive.

….dancing with your friends, being silly, and for that to be obnoxiously interrupted by some person trying to pick you up, it’s a very common occurrence, and very, very obnoxious. I think I’m conditioned to be so polite about things, but that particular night, I was not very polite.

Rhian Teasdale, Variety

‘Don’t Speak’ is a nice change of pace. Hester Chambers wrote the song for her partner, Wet Leg guitarist Josh Mobaraki, and her gentler voice is endearing. Teasdale and Mobaraki cowrote almost half of the songs on the record, including the pretty ‘Pokemon’, with Teasdale hitting lovely high notes. But more often, Teasdale hits a blend between sassy and lovestruck, like on ‘Mangetout’ and ‘Pillow Talk’.

Wet Leg are still a little gimmicky, but Moisturizer is substantial.

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Edwyn Collins

Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation

2025, 6/10
Edwyn Collins’ two best-known hits came in different guises, and in different decades. In the 1980s, he fronted Orange Juice’s funky new-wave hit ‘Rip It Up’.

In 1994, he returned to the mainstream as a solo artist with the hard-hitting, gimmicky ‘A Girl Like You’.

In 2005, he suffered two cerebral haemorrages. At one point, he could only say four things – “yes”, “no”, his wife’s name, and “the possibilities are endless”.

Up in Helmsdale [in the Scottish Highlands], in my studio, I have an art deco radiogram speaker which has a sort of sunburst thing with that phrase written on it. For £60 on eBay – pristine! It was the BBC World Service motto. When we were casting about for a title for the new record, it seemed like a great expression. Grace said, if you’re going to call it that you have to write a song with that title. So I did.

Edwyn Collins, The Guardian

I like Orange Juice, but Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation is a weird entry point to explore Collins’ discography. It comes the same year as Collins’ farewell tour, and it’s what you expect from an aging songwriter. There’s wisdom and an aged voice, but not as much melodic flair as before. It’s not surprising that Collins is sometimes sentimental, like on ‘It Must Be Real’.

There are affecting moments, like the way Collins’ voice cracks on ‘The Mountains are My Home’. And the more energetic tracks are often impressive, like the title track and ‘Sound as a Pound’.

Collins’ comeback from a stroke is inspiring, but you probably want to start an exploration with his earlier records.

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