ARTIST: Bruce Springsteen
ALBUM: Wrecking Ball
LABEL: Columbia Records
RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2012
The Boss is Back
Written by Dan Sinclair
Okay, New Jersey, time to forget about Snooki and rejoice: Bruce Springsteen has a new album! Wrecking Ball is the seventeenth studio album from the Boss of America’s blue-collared faithful. Though some may be disappointed that not all members of Bruce’s E Street Band helped record, many will be pleased to know Sopranos actor Stevie Van Zandt, Conan O’Brien’s band leader Max Weinberg and Bruce’s wife Patti Scialfa were all heavily featured alongside the recently deceased Clarence Clemons. The album was produced by Ron Aiello and Springsteen himself.
Wrecking Ball kicks off with the familiar sounds of “We Take Care of Our Own.” I say “familiar,” not because it was the first single released (so you probably already heard it on the radio), but because it sounds straight from Born in the USA; perhaps between “Glory Days” and “Dancing in the Dark.” It’s got that inviting drumbeat ready to explode, which then turns in to what sounds like the culmination of Springsteen fans everywhere clapping and stomping their feet in unison in eager anticipation for the guitar and and the Boss’s grizzled, yet soothing voice singing about his favorite subject: AMERICA! At first it seems to be reminiscent of “Rah Rah USA” propaganda, proudly proclaiming “Wherever this flag’s flown, we take care of our own!” But when Bruce asks, “Where’s the promise from sea to shining sea,” over and over again, you realize that this is not a boast of how great Americans are, but rather a simple reminder of how great we can be when we take care of each other.
The next two tracks, “Easy Money” and “Shackled and Drawn,” follow suit with that familiar Springsteen sound but add new elements with a gospel choir backing up those working class heroes playing guitar, bass and drums. The blend seems to flow well and it sounds like everyone’s having a good time. The later tracks, “Land of Hopes and Dreams” and (tribute to the old Giant’s Stadium) “Wrecking Ball,” also fit this mold along with “Rocky Ground,” which features a rap by Michelle Moore in the middle of it—a first for any Bruce Springsteen album.
The standout song comes at track four with “Jack of All Trades,” with Bruce digging deeper and getting darker with a moodier, slower song. It’s here that we begin to see that this album isn’t just all about feeling good and loving your country, but actually has some depth as well. Sure it shares that working-class theme that many Springsteen songs do, but it’s presented in a more natural, personal bearing-of-the-soul way without all the bells and whistles, as if even though there are other instruments, all you hear is a deep, gruff voice and a guitar. This song, as well as the honest and desperate “This Depression” and the lonely “Baby, You’ve Got It,” deserve a shot on your playlist alongside Johnny Cash and Tom Waits.
Wrecking Ball also features “Death to Your Hometown” and “American Land,” both sounding like classic Irish folk songs with fiddles, bag pipes and sing-a-long choruses. Listen for them the next time you hit the pubs looking for a Guinness or two. Also, the experimental bonus track, “Swallowed Up (In the Belly of the Whale), where it sounds as if Bruce is telling you a simultaneously eerie and soothing bedtime story about the sea, is worth a listen if only to ask yourself, “What the hell is this?”
While Wrecking Ball may never necessarily feel like a giant ball of steel breaking new ground, it should at least knock down some walls around those who think Bruce has lost something over the years. His longtime fans will love it and it has enough solid songs on it that any music lover can find a few they can’t help but listen to over and over again.