TheSound
An Englishman in New York
My friend Jackie (Jersey Girl) told me to copy my 'review' post of the new Springsteen album over here to the Album Review section from the Boss Official thread - so never been one to argue with her!!... here it is in case anybody gets the album, or maybe considering getting it, and wants to add their own thoughts...
My Review : Monday March 5
OK, I think I now finally have my head around this album after quite a few plays today…but I swear I am listening to an out and out protest album here, as surely as if I was listening to Neil Young’s ‘Living with War’ album, or Steve Earle’s ‘The Revolution Starts Now’...it's strong stuff.
So, as quickly as I can!!....the opening track ‘We Take Care of Our Own’, a typical Bruce blue collar call to arms, maybe his best single he’s released since ‘Girls in Their Summer Clothes’…7/10…it gets even better with ‘Easy Money’, great vibe, first of the several ‘celtic rock’ sounds on here, though we never really find out why the character is packing a gun, unless he’s out to kill the ‘fat cats’ that the song is aimed at…8/10….another ‘gaelic’ sounding rocker next with ‘Shackled and Drawn’, at this point the album is kicking like a mule, this track owes a lot to the Seeger Sessions guys, but I can’t (yet) quite pin down what I think he’s saying in this song…8/10….next is the only real ballad on the album, ‘Jack of All Trades’, in fact it’s really a waltz, there’s the most beautiful, plaintive trumpet solo as Bruce’s character is obviously down on his luck and looking for work, but hey, he seems to be threatening some “bastards” with a gun again!! – talk about angry, Bruce!!…8.5/10….then we get ‘Death to my Hometown’ which is the third of his ‘tin-whistle and fiddle’ rockers on the album, but not a track that I like at all, in fact it’s quickly going to start to irritate me, it’s just way too karaoke for words, and I have no idea why a musician of Bruce’s genius and stature is here so deliberately sounding exactly like a Dropkick Murphys wannabee, though the meaning of the song could hardly be more explicit, Bruce just wants to send the robber barons “straight to hell, the greedy thieves who came around and ate the flesh of everything they found” …..but only a 4/10…. next up is ‘This Depression’ which is a bit of a funeral dirge tempo-wise, but features the most ear splitting John Bonhamesque drum sound on any Springsteen track on any album, I mean this is just Zeppelin’s ‘When the Levee Breaks’ updated with beautiful lyrics – not just about the general economic depression, as people will assume, but he’s actually talking to his girl about his own state of mind - an enigmatic and hypnotic track….8.5/10….then the title track ‘Wrecking Ball’ is up next, one of the two tracks which Bruce fans will recognise, as it’s an older song, it’s basically a love-letter to the old Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands which they knocked down a few years ago, the scene of many Bruce concert triumphs, and I love it, or as much as any Redkins fan can ever love a song about the old home of the Giants and the Jets – though of course it’s not just about a football stadium, Springsteen would never do something as crass as that on such a finely crafted album, it’s a much wider analogy of the ‘wrecking ball’ financial system destroying the economy, and it fits perfectly with the mood of the album…8/10….next up is ‘You’ve Got It’ which begins less stridently, but burns like a fuse from a gentle acoustic opening, to suddenly kick into some seriously rocking slide guitar and blazing horns, again, one of the best tracks, I can’t wait to hear this song given the E Street Band treatment live in Manchester in June…9/10… next is my absolute favourite track on the album, maybe the best song he has written since ‘The Rising’, the soulful ‘Rocky Ground’ – again this will be just amazing live, to me it’s ‘Streets of Philadelphia Mk II’ with a delicious Michelle Moore rap and gospel topping, just glorious captivating stuff, and unlike anything he has ever tried before, breathtakingly daring for a rocker like Bruce to merge rap, gospel, and soul, and yet manage to totally pull it off…10/10… then next we have the amazing ‘Land of Hopes and Dreams’ the old Bruce concert favourite which is so fitting for this album, plus I’m guessing it has the very last exquisite sax solo Clarence ever gave on record before he died, so this is surely a tribute to him, a great rock anthem of a track, actually based partly on ‘This Train’ the old negro spiritual…9/10…finally the album ends with the defiant ‘We Are Alive’ which is Bruce at his most compelling lyrically, starts off so reflectively, then he suddenly moves into an addictive banjo-based barn dance with a hint of Mexican tijuana brass, it’s just so uplifting and absorbing, this is Bruce with his campfire folkie hat on, telling us stories, almost shades of Tom Joad and Devils and Dust….8.5/10
There is very little to find fault with at all on this album, I mean really, one bad track actually, the rest is triumphant on every level, to me it’s not even the same artist that gave us the last album, I really don’t know who that was. I’m just so happy that we still have an artist like Bruce, a guy of 62 years old who is still creating, still challenging his audiences to listen to something new and different, and most of all unafraid to write hard-hitting songs like this, America (and the world) is so f***** up just now, and we need somebody to stick their neck out and say something like this, instead of all the bland vacuum-packed posturing we get from many established star bands and artists, ‘Wrecking Ball’ is better than I could ever have hoped for, best Springsteen album for a decade, and one of his most important ever, because this record speaks directly to the uncertain times we live in, it's uncompromising and very thought provoking stuff lyrically, as well as being so rich and clever musically. It's fantastic.
Coda : Tuesday March 6 I am playing it again this morning, I keep hearing things I love. It's incredible that Bruce somehow seems to have almost created a whole new genre/musical language - if you said that you could mix traditional Irish, gospel, country and western, and a sort of Billy Preston soulfullness, and put it all into one song, I wouldn't have believed it could work, but Bruce pulls it off every time. I can't get the haunting 'Rocky Ground' out of my head at all - not that I'm trying to all that hard! There's also I am starting to notice some pretty subtle religious stuff referred to, on several tracks there are references to faith and God and Jesus, and that whole gospel feel to the record that underpins a lot of the tracks is almost like Bruce going one step further from that whole 'Ministry of Rock 'n Roll' thing that he does at concerts. I love it. And also the production is amazing, there's a kind of a wall of sound he's created which is amazing, I checked and there are actually 51 musicians featured on the album at various times, including lots of backing vocals, a gospel choir, a chamber orchestra, a horn section, and of course at least one rock band, though he's enough players there to form about 3 bands!! None of us expected something of this quality.
THE END!
1. "We Take Care of Our Own" 3:54
2. "Easy Money" 3:37
3. "Shackled and Drawn" 3:46
4. "Jack of All Trades" 6:00
5. "Death to My Hometown" 3:29
6. "This Depression" 4:08
7. "Wrecking Ball" 5:49
8. "You've Got It" 3:49
9. "Rocky Ground" 4:41
10. "Land of Hope and Dreams" 6:58
11. "We Are Alive" 5:36
2. "Easy Money" 3:37
3. "Shackled and Drawn" 3:46
4. "Jack of All Trades" 6:00
5. "Death to My Hometown" 3:29
6. "This Depression" 4:08
7. "Wrecking Ball" 5:49
8. "You've Got It" 3:49
9. "Rocky Ground" 4:41
10. "Land of Hope and Dreams" 6:58
11. "We Are Alive" 5:36
My Review : Monday March 5
OK, I think I now finally have my head around this album after quite a few plays today…but I swear I am listening to an out and out protest album here, as surely as if I was listening to Neil Young’s ‘Living with War’ album, or Steve Earle’s ‘The Revolution Starts Now’...it's strong stuff.
So, as quickly as I can!!....the opening track ‘We Take Care of Our Own’, a typical Bruce blue collar call to arms, maybe his best single he’s released since ‘Girls in Their Summer Clothes’…7/10…it gets even better with ‘Easy Money’, great vibe, first of the several ‘celtic rock’ sounds on here, though we never really find out why the character is packing a gun, unless he’s out to kill the ‘fat cats’ that the song is aimed at…8/10….another ‘gaelic’ sounding rocker next with ‘Shackled and Drawn’, at this point the album is kicking like a mule, this track owes a lot to the Seeger Sessions guys, but I can’t (yet) quite pin down what I think he’s saying in this song…8/10….next is the only real ballad on the album, ‘Jack of All Trades’, in fact it’s really a waltz, there’s the most beautiful, plaintive trumpet solo as Bruce’s character is obviously down on his luck and looking for work, but hey, he seems to be threatening some “bastards” with a gun again!! – talk about angry, Bruce!!…8.5/10….then we get ‘Death to my Hometown’ which is the third of his ‘tin-whistle and fiddle’ rockers on the album, but not a track that I like at all, in fact it’s quickly going to start to irritate me, it’s just way too karaoke for words, and I have no idea why a musician of Bruce’s genius and stature is here so deliberately sounding exactly like a Dropkick Murphys wannabee, though the meaning of the song could hardly be more explicit, Bruce just wants to send the robber barons “straight to hell, the greedy thieves who came around and ate the flesh of everything they found” …..but only a 4/10…. next up is ‘This Depression’ which is a bit of a funeral dirge tempo-wise, but features the most ear splitting John Bonhamesque drum sound on any Springsteen track on any album, I mean this is just Zeppelin’s ‘When the Levee Breaks’ updated with beautiful lyrics – not just about the general economic depression, as people will assume, but he’s actually talking to his girl about his own state of mind - an enigmatic and hypnotic track….8.5/10….then the title track ‘Wrecking Ball’ is up next, one of the two tracks which Bruce fans will recognise, as it’s an older song, it’s basically a love-letter to the old Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands which they knocked down a few years ago, the scene of many Bruce concert triumphs, and I love it, or as much as any Redkins fan can ever love a song about the old home of the Giants and the Jets – though of course it’s not just about a football stadium, Springsteen would never do something as crass as that on such a finely crafted album, it’s a much wider analogy of the ‘wrecking ball’ financial system destroying the economy, and it fits perfectly with the mood of the album…8/10….next up is ‘You’ve Got It’ which begins less stridently, but burns like a fuse from a gentle acoustic opening, to suddenly kick into some seriously rocking slide guitar and blazing horns, again, one of the best tracks, I can’t wait to hear this song given the E Street Band treatment live in Manchester in June…9/10… next is my absolute favourite track on the album, maybe the best song he has written since ‘The Rising’, the soulful ‘Rocky Ground’ – again this will be just amazing live, to me it’s ‘Streets of Philadelphia Mk II’ with a delicious Michelle Moore rap and gospel topping, just glorious captivating stuff, and unlike anything he has ever tried before, breathtakingly daring for a rocker like Bruce to merge rap, gospel, and soul, and yet manage to totally pull it off…10/10… then next we have the amazing ‘Land of Hopes and Dreams’ the old Bruce concert favourite which is so fitting for this album, plus I’m guessing it has the very last exquisite sax solo Clarence ever gave on record before he died, so this is surely a tribute to him, a great rock anthem of a track, actually based partly on ‘This Train’ the old negro spiritual…9/10…finally the album ends with the defiant ‘We Are Alive’ which is Bruce at his most compelling lyrically, starts off so reflectively, then he suddenly moves into an addictive banjo-based barn dance with a hint of Mexican tijuana brass, it’s just so uplifting and absorbing, this is Bruce with his campfire folkie hat on, telling us stories, almost shades of Tom Joad and Devils and Dust….8.5/10
There is very little to find fault with at all on this album, I mean really, one bad track actually, the rest is triumphant on every level, to me it’s not even the same artist that gave us the last album, I really don’t know who that was. I’m just so happy that we still have an artist like Bruce, a guy of 62 years old who is still creating, still challenging his audiences to listen to something new and different, and most of all unafraid to write hard-hitting songs like this, America (and the world) is so f***** up just now, and we need somebody to stick their neck out and say something like this, instead of all the bland vacuum-packed posturing we get from many established star bands and artists, ‘Wrecking Ball’ is better than I could ever have hoped for, best Springsteen album for a decade, and one of his most important ever, because this record speaks directly to the uncertain times we live in, it's uncompromising and very thought provoking stuff lyrically, as well as being so rich and clever musically. It's fantastic.
Coda : Tuesday March 6 I am playing it again this morning, I keep hearing things I love. It's incredible that Bruce somehow seems to have almost created a whole new genre/musical language - if you said that you could mix traditional Irish, gospel, country and western, and a sort of Billy Preston soulfullness, and put it all into one song, I wouldn't have believed it could work, but Bruce pulls it off every time. I can't get the haunting 'Rocky Ground' out of my head at all - not that I'm trying to all that hard! There's also I am starting to notice some pretty subtle religious stuff referred to, on several tracks there are references to faith and God and Jesus, and that whole gospel feel to the record that underpins a lot of the tracks is almost like Bruce going one step further from that whole 'Ministry of Rock 'n Roll' thing that he does at concerts. I love it. And also the production is amazing, there's a kind of a wall of sound he's created which is amazing, I checked and there are actually 51 musicians featured on the album at various times, including lots of backing vocals, a gospel choir, a chamber orchestra, a horn section, and of course at least one rock band, though he's enough players there to form about 3 bands!! None of us expected something of this quality.
THE END!
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but when I hear songwriters writing about hard times I'm rarely hearing anything revolutionary. They usually seem to be pointing out the basics and then bringing it together in a rallying chorus. I mean yes, I know things are bad, you are preaching to the choir, but good songwriting to me is given either a hands off ambiguous tale of a time/situation where the audience can connect in their own way or a different perspective of a situation that makes one think. As far as the tracks you posted those three tracks you posted are enough to get my attention musically and the only one I have reservations about is "We Are Alive" which for me the barn dance part just sounded a little hokey for me. Three out of four and bad though! 
Not sure if I'll buy this one right off but this has pushed me a little further which you can't ask for more in a review! 
