– Anthony Lund, Music Room
Release Date: 06-March-2012
Genre: Rock / Anthem Rock / Americana / Garage
Publisher: (C) 2012 Bruce Springsteen
Label: Columbia Records
Time: 51m 47s
Review Date: 22-February-2012
Format: Streaming MP3
JivePK: Not Currently a Jivewired Member
Find it at:
Artist Website | Amazon | iTunes
Track Listing:
01. We Take Care Of Our Own 3:54
02. Easy Money 3:37
03. Shackled And Drawn 3:46
04. Jack Of All Trades 6:00
05. Death To My Hometown 3:29
06. This Depression 4:08
07. Wrecking Ball 5:49
08. You've Got It 3:49
09. Rocky Ground 4:41
10. Land Of Hope And Dreams 6:58
11. We Are Alive 5:36
* The iTunes pre-release contains two additional songs, Swallowed Up (In The Belly Of The Whale) and American Land that are not included in this review.
Review:
Premature Evaluation: checking out the new Bruce Springsteen album Wrecking Ball which drops March 6th -- the old, signature Springsteen sound is there, the sound we haven't really heard since The Rising -- but it's not really brimming with the epic-ness that, as Springsteen fans, we were all hoping Wrecking Ball would be. It has it's moments, but it's more of a warning track fly ball than a home run.
If I may toss my main argumentative salvo, I just don't think that the Occupy Movement and this country's expanding economic rift, the themes that this album tackles, warrant the stadium-rock infrastructure that is signature Bruce Springsteen. Stadium Rock died with the birth of the MP3 and as much as I love Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball sounds a little more 2001 than it does 2012.
We Take Care Of Our Own will probably be the consensus-best song on the album. But, the songs Shackled And Drawn and Death To My Hometown, which owe a lot of their swagger to Springsteen's recent work with the Dropkick Murphys, work better for me, and that may be because both sidestep the anthemic path that most of Wrecking Ball occupies. Shackled And Drawn has that Dropkick Murphys, straight-out-of-Ireland, ale-pounding, tin-whistle attitude and Death To My Hometown is backed by a rousing as hell gospel-centric choir. For the past twenty years or so, The Boss has fancied himself as somewhat of a rock 'n roll evangelist, and both songs bathe in rapture-rattling preachiness, but they work.
The rest of the tracks are decent enough, though nothing ground breaking. However, it is the monumental Land Of Hope And Dreams, a song that Springsteen and his band of E-Streeters have been performing live for the past few years, that is the big winner for me. Land Of Hope And Dreams is a wonderful tribute to the late Clarence Clemons with a sax solo that elicits full-on body chills and features that classic combination of power, spiritual insight and lyrical tenderness that has endeared us to Bruce Springsteen and The E-Street Band for nearly forty years.
Jack Of All Trades fits thematically with the album's concept, but it also demonstrates the awful Springsteen vocal twang that he developed in the mid 1990s when he discovered his spiritual kinship to Pete Seeger. That twang, to me anyway, just isn't something you do vocally when you are known as The Boss. It's the guitar outro that saves this song, but again, it's a little outdated. Bruce goes full-on Seeger with We Are Alive, and along with This Depression, this album strays somewhat toward Springsteen's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, his 2006 toe-dip into the Americana songbook, in it's slower-paced numbers.
I could do without the embarrassing electronic drum kit and hip-hop feel of Rocky Ground completely. If anything could be classified as anti-Springsteen, this song would be that song.
I don't know. I just keep waiting, as a listener and fan, to be pushed over the edge, like I was when Bruce kicked the E-Street Band to the curb and put out the amazing and ambitious Tunnel Of Love. The title song would fit wonderfully on that album as a matter of fact, though it does get a bit long-winded at the close. Still, as I listen to each song on this album I feel somewhat unfulfilled.
If you are a Springsteen fan, this album absolutely belongs in your collection, if only to remind you that at one time Springsteen, his music and being a fan of his music were all really cool things. But new albums demand new fans, and I don't think this album will connect with it's intended audience.
It must be a difficult task being Bruce Springsteen and facing nearly insurmountable expectation. Heavy lies the crown, no doubt, and that reputation, along with said expectation, is certainly a double-edged sword. For me, nothing beats the trio of Born To Run, Darkness On The Edge Of Town and The River, and if that is the type of Bruce Springsteen music that rocks your socks, this album will disappoint. If you are a post Born In The USA fan, you will probably like Wrecking Ball much more. If you've never been a fan of Bruce Springsteen, this album won't change that. It’s a pretty good album -- like I said, almost a home run -- but I just can’t help wishing it was a little better.
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