I've been listening to Springsteen's new album repeatedly the last couple of days, and I like it a lot. Not terribly surprising; I've liked just about all of his stuff. The most interesting thing about this one is the degree to which it doesn't *sound* like a Springsteen record. There's one throwback to the sound from the '70s and '80s (ironically enough, titled "Livin' in the Future") but it sounds out of place here. While the lyrics are unmistakably Springsteen, the melody lines, the harmonies, the chord progressions and the arrangements are all subtly different.Others have already pointed out the sonic similarities between the single, "Radio Nowhere," and the Drive-By Truckers' "Never Gonna Change." My ears also picked out hints of The Magnetic Fields (in "Girls in their Summer Clothes" and "Your Own Worst Enemy, two great tracks) and Teenage Fanclub (the opening of "You'll Be Comin' Down" reminded me a lot of "Start Again").It's funny, 'cause the instrumentation is pretty much the same -- heck, the players are the same, too. But there's something fresh here. "Gypsy Biker" starts out with the familiar Springsteen wailing harmonica, then gets so lush that even the familiar Springsteen stinging Telecaster guitar lines sound ... different.Kudos to the band and producer Brendan O'Brien, who surely deserves a lot of the credit for letting Springsteen be Springsteen without plowing the same musical ground yet again.