Bruce Springsteen would probably be the first to admit that he\u2019s a bucketful of contradictions. An ambitious kid who fought his way to the top and immediately hated the glare of the spotlight. An artist who\u2019s bounced back and forth repeatedly between still, somber solo work and raucous anthems played with a band whose population increases every year.<\/p>\n
Last but not least, Springsteen is a prolific songwriter and recording artist who for decades was famously neurotic about releasing anything that didn\u2019t feel just right to him, averaging a new album every four or five years\u2014at least until 2005, when he abruptly started churning out new albums every other year.<\/p>\n
Springsteen\u2019s sixth studio album since 2004, High Hopes<\/i>, came together in a rush that leaves it feeling somewhat half-formed, yet undeniably intriguing. While in the process of starting to pull together some tracks for an album he intended to build from unreleased songs from the past decade, he learned that longtime foil Steven Van Zandt would be unavailable for the upcoming Australian leg of the E Street Band\u2019s seemingly never-ending tour. To sub for Van Zandt, Springsteen invited former Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, a Springsteen admirer who\u2019d previously guested on a number of live dates on the Wrecking Ball tour. <\/p>\n
Partway through the band\u2019s swing Down Under, Morello suggested they add a cover song\u2014\u201cHigh Hopes,\u201d originally by the Havalinas\u2014to the live set. In Springsteen\u2019s words, \u201cTom then proceeded to burn the house down with it.\u201d Sensing lightning in a bottle, Springsteen took the band into the studio immediately, in Sydney, and cut two tracks that ended up on this album: a studio version of \u201cHigh Hopes\u201d and another cover, of Australian punk band The Saints\u2019 \u201cJust Like Fire Would.\u201d From there, says Springsteen, \u201cTom and his guitar became my muse, pushing the rest of this project to another level.\u201d<\/p>\n
The end result is undeniably a hodgepodge\u2014seven songs featuring Morello\u2019s bold, aggressive guitar work, paired somewhat awkwardly with five without him; three covers (a lot by Springsteen standards); one full-band re-imagining of a well-known acoustic Springsteen tune (\u201cGhost Of Tom Joad\u201d); the first studio recording of a song the band has been playing live for almost 15 years (\u201cAmerican Skin (41 Shots)\u201d); and, on the three oldest tracks here, heretofore unreleased performances by departed E Street Band members Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici.<\/p>\n
The title track, it must be said, does indeed set the house on fire, deploying a 19-person attack featuring the full E Street ensemble, a five-man horn section, a chorus of backing vocalists, and Morello\u2019s screaming, charismatic leads slicing through the whole thing like a straight razor heated to 400 degrees. Despite having featured three great guitarists in its history (Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren and Springsteen himself), E Street has never really been a \u201cguitar band\u201d; with Morello in the mix that changes, giving the band a second focal point beyond their leader\u2019s distinctive voice and words.<\/p>\n
Morello\u2019s work lights up song after song the rest of the way. He adds menace to the back-alley fable \u201cHarry\u2019s Place,\u201d playing his solo off Clemons\u2019 in a way that makes you wish the two could have met and done battle onstage while Clarence was still on this earth. Morello\u2019s furiously inventive leads turn \u201cAmerican Skin (41 Shots)\u201d into a billowing, haunting anthem, and unleash the rage that\u2019s always been hiding inside \u201cThe Ghost Of Tom Joad.\u201d \u201cJust Like Fire Would\u201d rings with purpose, a great fit for the E Street crew, while \u201cHeaven\u2019s Wall\u201d finds Morello goosing gospel with grit. <\/p>\n