RON POPE

Work 7/10

Masquerading under the sort of John Doe title that Pope’s spiritual godfather Bruce Springsteen really ought to have given to an album long before now, Work finds Pope more in thrall to the e Street Band than ever on vivacious blue-collar anthems such as “Can’t Stay here” and “Let’s Get Stoned”. Yet he’s at his best when the swagger is set aside on the banjo-laden “Someday We’re All Going To Die”, the gentle lilt of “The Weather” and the plaintive title track, which filters its obvious Nebraska influence via the 21st-century troubadourisms of Ryan Adams or Josh Ritter. heart-onits-sleeve, everyman rock at its most universally appealing.