Bruce Springsteen has played a lot of roles both on and off the stage over the years: solo artist and bandleader; lonely guy and married father; melodramatic rock opera auteur, brooding folksinger and purveyor of nostalgic, witty bar-band rock. Add to that raucous, expansive idealist and somber, disillusioned social critic, and the range of the man\u2019s work and musical vision becomes clear. The question each time a new album appears is always: which Bruce are we going to get this time?<\/p>\n
My first impression of Springsteen\u2019s 17th studio album Wrecking Ball<\/i> was that the answer might be all of \u2018em. Lead single \u201cWe Take Care Of Our Own\u201d is a thumping rocker, an anthem that is thematically an almost seamless sequel to 1984\u2019s \u201cBorn In The USA,\u201d complete with easily misunderstood, ironically intended chorus. It\u2019s a song about America\u2019s failure to take care of our own, how we failed during Katrina, how we failed during the recession, how we\u2019re still failing today. The bridge lays it out: \u201cWhere\u2019s the eyes, the eyes with the will to see \/ Where are the hearts that run over with mercy \/ Where\u2019s the love that has not forsaken me \/ Where\u2019s the work that will set my hands, my soul free \/ Where\u2019s the spirit that will reign over me \/ Where\u2019s the promise from sea to shining sea.\u201d\u00a0 This is an anthem to a country that\u2019s lost its way, its compassion, its humanity.<\/p>\n
But the single\/album opener is really a bit of sleight of hand. There are exactly three songs here with that sort of expansive \u201975 \u2013\u201985 Bruce feel, and they all emerge from a dark place with narratives about striving to overcome great trials and difficulties. For the most part, the album is taken up with one angry-folksinger screed after another against the villains Springsteen identifies as having plundered America\u2019s economy and spirit over the past few years. Many of the tracks are rendered in the style of 2006\u2019s We Shall Overcome:<\/i> The Seeger Sessions<\/i>, setting aside the sturdy thump of the E Street Band (who are nearly absent from this recording) in favor of a kind of barnyard ensemble of acoustic guitar, fiddle, organ, banjo, euphonium, pennywhistle, sousaphone and clarinet, not to mention garbage-can drums, all centered around Springsteen and multi-instrumentalist-producer Ron Aniello.<\/p>\n
At the core of it all, though, lies one simple truth: dude is PISSED. <\/p>\n
If you didn\u2019t figure it out from \u201cWe Take Care Of Our Own,\u201d there\u2019s no mistaking the intent of the next five tunes, the guts of this album. First up, \u201cEasy Money\u201d is a Seeger Sessions<\/i>-styled rant against the modern culture of greed, very much in the Woody Guthrie populist folksinger tradition, and also a direct descendant of 1982\u2019s spare, haunting Nebraska<\/i>. With full ensemble, strings, and fat chorused background vocals on second half, \u201cEasy Money\u201d unfolds as a populist gospel tent revival complete with a seething, sarcastic sermon (\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to it mister \/ You won\u2019t hear a sound \/ When your whole world comes tumblin\u2019 down \/ And all them fat cats, they\u2019ll just think it\u2019s funny \/ I\u2019m goin\u2019 on the town now, lookin\u2019 for easy money\u201d).<\/p>\n
\u201cShackled and Drawn\u201d follows a similar template, with the bridge again providing the topic sentence: \u201cGambling man rolls the dice \/ Workingman pays the bill \/ It\u2019s still fat and easy up on banker\u2019s hill \/ Up on banker\u2019s hill, the party\u2019s going strong \/ Down here below we\u2019re shackled and drawn.\u201d This is also where the album\u2019s secondary theme\u2014mortality\u2014enters enters the picture as Bruce sings \u201cAnother day older, closer to the grave.\u201d You can see why Springsteen would want to place this track third; even though it\u2019s not the most powerful song on the album, it\u2019s the one that really ties everything together thematically. <\/p>\n
The six-minute \u201cJack Of All Trades\u201d has a dirge-like quality and explosive finish reminiscent of a Nebraska<\/i>-era tune given a fleshed-out arrangement. It\u2019s a workingman\u2019s lament about taking whatever work you can to get by, that lurches into a full-on Dixieland downbeat horn section before taking a sudden, nasty turn. The narrator has said all of the things that he\u2019s going to do to bring in an income and take care of his family, trying and trying to reassure both them and himself, but in the end he doesn\u2019t believe his own words. And so, finally, without warning: \u201cSo you use what you\u2019ve got \/ And you learn to make do \/ You take the old, and you make it new \/ If I had me a gun, I\u2019d find the \/ Bastards and shoot \u2019em on sight \/ I\u2019m a jack of all trades, we\u2019ll be alright.\u201d It\u2019s Nebraska<\/i> again, economic despair giving rise to violent impulse\u2014and then guest Tom Morello\u2019s electric guitar comes in and gives otherworldly, elegaic voice to the man\u2019s anger and despair.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeath To My Hometown\u201d has the feel of a deranged funeral march, upping the tempo without changing the subject, three and a half minutes of emphatic outrage at the scorched-earth tactics of corporate interests and the human destruction they leave behind. \u201cSing it hard and sing it well \/ Send the robber barons straight to hell \/ The greedy thieves who came around \/ And ate the flesh of everything they found \/ Whose crimes have gone unpunished now \/ Who walk the streets as free men now \/ They brought death to my hometown.\u201d \u201cThis Depression\u201d follows, a big, spooky number that again harks back to Nebraska<\/i> (\u201cBaby I\u2019ve been down \/ But never this down \/ I\u2019ve been lost \/ But never this lost\u201d) before Morello returns to give voice to this roiling emotion with another stinging solo.<\/p>\n
The title track is where resilience and defiance return to the forefront. Originally written to commemorate the last show ever played at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, it\u2019s a perfect fit here, a muscular anthem about defying the huge odds stacked against you: \u201cC\u2019mon and take your best shot \/ Let me see what you\u2019ve got \/ Bring on your wrecking ball.\u201d The arrangement and melody remind of \u201cThe Rising,\u201d a sense of momentum and loftiness that grows as the song builds to a wordless climax, riding high over Max Weinberg\u2019s relentless, slamming backbeat. <\/p>\n
Using contrast to transition from the album\u2019s second to third act, \u201cYou\u2019ve Got It\u201d is a slinky, sensual love song, a Springsteen specialty that\u2019s otherwise absent from this album, featuring piano, horns and Greg Leisz\u2019s spectacular slide guitar. The most controversial song on this album for Springsteen die-hards is also the one I found most impressive. “Rocky Ground” is an airy, ruminative gospel number that features female background vocals throughout, and pivots neatly to a gorgeous Michelle Moore rap on the bridge. It\u2019s daring and unexpected, and also as fresh and vital as anything Bruce has recorded in 30 years. Its only real antecedent in his catalogue is 1993\u2019s Oscar-winning \u201cStreets Of Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the anchor position at track ten comes \u201cLand of Hope and Dreams,\u201d an anthem Springsteen\u2019s been playing live since 1999 but hadn\u2019t issued in studio form until now. In the context of this album, its urging-on verses and Clarence Clemons\u2019 soaring sax solos take on a double meaning. \u201cLand\u201d could be a song about overcoming hardship, or it could be a song about the final journey we all take one day to a land where our troubles can\u2019t follow us. \u201cWe Are Alive\u201d is the album\u2019s gently declarative finale, starting out spare before blossoming into a skittering banjo-fiddle duet\u2014and quoting Johnny Cash\u2019s \u201cRing Of Fire\u201d\u2014somewhat of a sequel to \u201cBlood Brothers,\u201d declaring the sort of undying, everlasting brotherhood reflected in Springsteen\u2019s remarkable eulogy for Clemons, quoted in the liner notes: \u201cClarence doesn\u2019t leave the E Street Band when he<\/i> dies. He leaves when we<\/i> die.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deluxe edition of this album tacks on an uneven pair of songs that are both very much in the Seeger Sessions<\/i> vein. The ponderous \u201cSwallowed Up (In The Belly Of The Whale)\u201d quickly overstays its welcome, but \u201cAmerican Land\u201d is a treat, a rollicking immigrants\u2019 anthem that Springsteen jigs and shouts through with help from fiddle, hurdy gurdy and big chorused vocals.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Wrecking Ball<\/i> is a deadly serious, often powerful statement of rededication from one of rock\u2019s most important artists. The latter is a mantle Springsteen has often worn uncomfortably, but this time out he owns it, producing a document that\u2019s both an emphatic socio-political statement, and as bold an experiment as any 62-year-old musical superstar has ever produced. It\u2019s not my favorite thing he\u2019s ever done\u2014it\u2019s hard to find the man inside all of these characters and allegories\u2014but its artistry and impact are undeniable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5832],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42563","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bruce-springsteen","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42563"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}