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Review by Backstreets

Bruce Springsteen is 62 years old. Since the release of such universally acknowledged classic albums as Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River, much has happened in his life, as it has for anyone fortunate enough to reach that age. He has married, divorced and remarried. He is the father of three children who are at various stages of young adulthood, and chronologically at least, he could be a grandfather. He has become fabulously rich and world famous. He has seen more of the world than a commercial airline pilot, and in doing so, has become acutely aware that there is a whole world beyond the Jersey Shore and the bright lights of the sold-out stadiums and 4-star hotels. He has witness the untimely deaths of people close to him, including two members of his E Street Band (Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons). He has seen dramatic changes in his industry stylistically, technologically, and from a business perspective. Quite simply, he has thought about and experienced things that probably seemed impossible and unfathomable to him when he was in his youth. Given all of that, it is not surprising that his latest releases have not focused as directly on the themes and stories and experiences of a Born to Run or a Darkness. Springsteen has seen and lived too much for that. If he tried to make another Born to Run the result, in my eyes and to my ears, would likely be a colossal failure and embarrassment, as a 62 year old man with all of his history and life experience singing about cars and girls and youth would not ring true. Springsteen’s challenge these days is how to remain relevant and timely in 2012, while also holding to the core values that have always been the foundation of his music. This is of course the challenge that all rock musicians face when they reach a certain age, when the mantra of “hope I die before I get old” rings flat because not only did that not happen, but also because the singer turns out to be glad that it did not.

For that reason, I think it grossly off the mark to judge Springsteen’s current release, “Wrecking Ball”, by comparison to those past standards. He will never be 18 or even 45 again. Neither will much of his audience. Nor can this album be judged without reference to the times in which it was written and released. In 2012, America and the world are still struggling not only to recover from a financial crisis that has impacted many, but to make sense of and respond to the causes of that crisis. It is not at all surprising that those issues and questions would influence the album. But for those who feared an overly political album, especially in view of Springsteen’s increasingly vocal partisan involvement in recent years, there should be little of concern here. If this album is political, it is politics with a small, not capital, “p”. It is, in the best tradition of Springsteen’s writing and much of American music in general, an album about the state of our times and the real human beings that exist in them and struggle to survive and make sense of the world.

It is also possibly Springsteen’s most ambitious album in the sense of reaching beyond his comfort zone to explore different styles of music and production techniques. It draws heavily from traditions of folk, blues, country and gospel, and in that sense owes much to his underappreciated Seeger Sessions project. There are also some surprisingly modern influences, not the least of which is the appearance of a female rapper who takes a verse on one track. And the writing has moved from the epic storytelling and imagery of a “Jungleland” or “Incident on 57th Street” to the personal and immediate.

Although many of Springsteen’s albums can be heard as narratives or stories, this album is particularly suited to such an interpretation, and really is best listened to uninterrupted, from beginning to end. It begins with a rather typical E Street arena anthem, “We Take Care of Our Own”, which is nevertheless intriguing in its ambiguity. Does he mean this song as an indictment of our collective failure to live up to the ideal expressed in the song’s title? Or is the song a celebration of the spirit that moves individuals, families and communities to rally to the assistance of their fellows when institutions and governments cannot or will not? Then, too, is the song a biting indictment of the limited vision we sometimes have of who “our own” are that causes division between people of different races, faiths, and nations? In any event, while the song is somewhat typical Springsteen fare musically, it is an opening salvo that sets the tone for how the rest of the album may be thought of and listened to and the questions it evokes.

“Easy Money” follows the opening track. Stylistically and musically reminiscent of “Atlantic City” from Springsteen’s solo “Nebraska” album, the song is about a couple whose “world [has come] tumblin’ down” and feel forced to go outside the law to get the money they need to survive. Like the character in Atlantic City, it appears the protagonist in this song seems to have no illusion that this endeavor will end favorably. The couple put the dog and cat out of the house before they embark on their journey, likely because they know they probably will not be returning. And when at the end Springsteen sings of having “a date on the far shore, [where] it's bright and sunny” the unmistakable conclusion is that he is not referring to a place on this Earth, but rather another more eternal place.

In contrast, the common laborer in the next track, “Shackled and Drawn” takes comfort and salvation in his work, even while for others more fortunate “it's still fat and easy up on bankers hill.” Set to an infectious stomping beat, with a theme and a sound that would have fit perfectly on a Johnny Cash “American Recordings” record, the song tells the story of a man who “picks up the rock [and carries it] on” because “the shovel in the dirt keeps the devil gone.” This character has chosen a different way of dealing with the hard times than the one in Easy Money.

The lovely and haunting “Jack of All Trades” blends the fatalism and desperation, on the one hand, and the resilient acceptance, on the other hand, of the previous two tracks. The character continually assures his spouse that “we’ll be alright” thanks to his ability to do odd jobs. Yet he also declares that if he had a gun he’d “shoot the bastards on sight”, and the earlier line “the banker man grows fatter, the working man grows thin” makes clear who he means. If the prior track would have been right at home on a Johnny Cash album, this song seems tailor-made for the grim Dust Bowl stylings of Merle Haggard.

“Death To My Hometown” follows and is, in many ways, the most appealing and fascinating song on the record. It has a militarist pipe-and drum feel blended with the unbridled and contagious joy of a Celtic reel that calls to mind the Pogues (or the Boston-based Dropkick Murphys, with whom Bruce has played recently), yet the lyrics paint a picture of a small town that has been destroyed not by war, but by the greed of the robber barons. It is both a call to arms and a joyous dance through the economic graveyard, and should be powerfully delivered live by the hybrid E Street/Seeger band that will be backing Springsteen on his upcoming tour.

The first half of the narrative comes to an end with “This Depression”, a wrenching slow number that brings to mind some of the more emotionally powerful offerings on the album The Rising such as “You’re Missing”. Yet even as the singer describes his spiral into hopelessness, he clings desperately to the lifeline of a love that will give him a reason to survive. Tom Morello, of Rage Against The Machine, delivers a blistering guitar solo.

Having descended into the depths, Springsteen begins to claw his way out in the second half of the album with the album's title track, “Wrecking Ball”. The song was originally written as a celebration of and final tribute to New Jersey’s now-destroyed Meadowlands Stadium. Although the lyrics still focus on the Jersey-specific references, it is clear that the inclusion of the song on this album as its title cut is intended to more generally express a bitter defiance of the economic forces that cast their spell earlier in the record, with a repeated incantation that “hard times come and hard times go” that ends with the in your face challenge to “bring on your wrecking ball.”

“You’ve Got It”, a sexy pop number, may at first seem a bit out of place sequentially (I might have placed it just after “This Depression“ in the album’s order). It is, however, a catchy and sexy love song that boldly affirms that when it comes to romantic (and physical) attraction, “ain't no one can break it, there ain't no one can steal it” - presumably, Springsteen means to say, not even the bankers and robber barons that, in the first half of the record, have managed to bring everything else to ruin.

“Rocky Ground” is one of the truly standout songs on the record, and perhaps, with “Death To My Hometown”, the most “un-Springsteen” number from a stylistic standpoint. It features a female rapper who takes the lead vocal in the chorus (and also delivers a soulful rap interlude toward the end of the song). Both the arrangement and the lyrics create an unmistakable gospel feel that, while underscored with lamentation and sorrow, begins to transition the record’s massage into the familiar one of faith that pervades so much of Springsteen’s most enduring work.

“Land of Hope and Dreams” carries on the “Rocky Ground” message and baptizes it with hope. Longtime Springsteen concert-goers will have heard this previously unreleased (as a studio song) anthem for many years. Here, Springsteen ups the tempo somewhat to infuse its Curtis Mayfieldesque call for everyone to get on board the train of faith that turns away none, saint or sinner, loser or winner, with even more urgency. He also adds a more overtly spiritual ambiance to the song by again sampling the exhortations of a southern gospel sermon, and by including the last saxophone solo from the late Clarence Clemons that is likely to appear on a Springsteen record.

The album closes with “We Are Alive”, infused with a folk beat and a mariachi trumpet band, and evoking memories of Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash. At first a simple tribute to fallen fighters for justice throughout the years, the song builds to a glorious affirmation of life that perfectly closes the album. Having begun the journey of this record in confusion, anger and despair, Springsteen closes the dialogue with a defiant declaration that, for all of its unfairness and difficulty, life endures, and is worth living. In that sense, then, the song, like the rest of the album, resonates perfectly with the best of Springsteen’s body or work, regardless of time.

Overall, while longtime Springsteen devotees especially may find Wrecking Ball disappointing in its almost brazen departure from the familiar styles and themes of his earlier work, there is an abundance of worthy material for the heart, mind and soul to make this record a worthy addition to anyone’s collection.

(Note: "Wrecking Ball" will be released on March 6, 2012. The "deluxe" version of the album includes two bonus tracks - “Swallowed Up (In the Belly of a Whale”, a brooding, experimental quasi-gospel musing, and “American Land”, a studio version of a romping Celtic-style tribute to the immigrants that built America and the promise of the nation (“there‘s treasure for the taking for any hard-working man who‘ll make his home in the American Land“), which has become a staple of Springsteen shows since the Seeger Sessions tour.)