Every Monday, I make myself a playlist of (mostly) new songs. It gets me in the habit of hunting for new music and hopefully gets me embracing fresh trends. This is the Monday Mixtape.

Bruce Springsteen, “Sundown”
The new Bruce album Western Stars is a startlingly majestic album cover in search of some solid tunes, but it’s hard to deny Springsteen’s minimalist ode to the Laurel Canyon sound. I keep waiting for every song to find a second gear, though the only one that really does anything remotely like chugging is “Sundown,” which cashes a lot of checks on a surprisingly light touch on the old-man-at-the-end imagery. Springsteen might be playing himself by releasing a definitive Dad Rock album the weekend of Father’s Day, but maybe he’s just more business savvy than I give him credit for. And he still has a hell of a damn voice.