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Bleachers: Bleachers review – uninspiring shades of Springsteen with Jack Antonoff and co

The New Jersey-born superproducer of Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and more can’t quite capture the same magic with his own band

They’ve secretly been the backing band on recent albums by Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and St Vincent, in large part because frontman Jack Antonoff’s day job is being the most in-demand producer in the world, responsible for many of the defining pop records of this decade – it’s not for nothing that he recently won the producer of the year Grammy for the third time in a row. His fourth album with Bleachers begins in the much the same vein as its three predecessors, with strong echoes of fellow New Jerseyite Bruce Springsteen, most notably on Modern Girl, and to a lesser extent the National on motorik opener I Am Right on Time. As you’d expect, given Antonoff’s production chops, these are all tastefully realised, but there’s precious little excitement to be found in the likes of the Auto-Tuned ambient of The Waiter or the Needles and Pins-lite of Woke Up Today.

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