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Product Description
Review
On Easy Money, the second song on Wrecking Ball, Bruce Springsteen does as he often does: he licks the air and takes the temperature of the age. "We’re going on the town now," he sings, "looking for easy money." He then adds that "When your whole world comes tumbling down… all them fat cats, they’ll just think it’s funny." If in years to come seats of high learning devote degree courses to Springsteen’s work, there may well be a credit to be earned examining just why, when it comes to lyrics, there are no flies on The Boss.
For years now he and his E Street Band have toured in a private jet; in 2009, a special plea had to be made for him and the group to appear at Glastonbury, as that festival’s appearance fees are markedly lower than he is used to. The man is, by any measure, a member of the Golden Circle of Rock Stars. But at no point in his towering career has there ever been the impression that the songs Bruce Springsteen sings come from the mouth of a multi-millionaire.
The release of Wrecking Ball ushers in another remarkable notion: that when married to its two predecessors – 2007’s Magic and Working on a Dream, released two years later – Springsteen currently finds himself in a vein of form equally as rich as that mined in the period between 1975 and 1980, covering the classic albums Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River. But while the emotional parameters are here the same as they ever were – characters in pursuit of love and justice told from a viewpoint of instinctive moral alliance with the underdog – musically this is a work that is as varied and surprising as any to which its author has placed his name.
It may be odd that despite his worldwide appeal, and his experience of this world, Bruce Springsteen never takes his stories outside of the USA – here the settings stretch from New Jersey’s Meadowlands to the New Orleans Superdome, but not much further. But when it comes to the songs that carry these stories, the range is rich and varied. Taking his cues from the Celtic feel of We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, as well as heartland rock and the soul music of urban America, this is the sound of disparate compositions that somehow exist in a unified setting.
Featuring contributions from (among others) Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello as well as the late Clarence Clemons, by way of the Victorious Gospel Choir, Wrecking Ball is a work of commanding range and masterful execution. The fact that it comes from a man who exclusively seems to become more commanding with age only adds to its magnificent appeal.
--Ian Winwood
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Product Description
STANDARD EDITION : New 2012 studio album from The Boss! Features the final performances of Clarence Clemons (E Street Band). Cameo by Tom Morello (Nightwatchman and Rage Against The Machine). Includes "We Take Care Of Our Own".
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
118 of 126 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I think this is a really fine Springsteen album. Although I have been a fan for decades I don't think that every album is a classic, but I suspect that this may turn out to be one. The man certainly hasn't lost any of his ability to write a fine song, and there is a passion and often a rage running through Wrecking Ball which gives it real power. There is also a variety of material and styles here - country, gospel and even a little rap make an appearance - with some deeply introspective, almost Nebraska-style moments through to driving rockers like the title track, which I find makes the whole thing a riveting listen from beginning to end.
It is the rage which strikes you most forcibly. Springsteen has always had a passionate love of his country and of its ordinary, decent people. He now also has a raw despair and fury at those who cheat those people and twist his country away from what he thinks it should and could be. This is thunderously and uncompromisingly overt in several songs - for example Jack Of All Trades ("If I had me a gun I'd find the bastards and shoot `em on sight") and Death To My Hometown:
"...Send the robber barons straight to hell -
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
And brought death to my hometown."
Powerful stuff, and a great song which is sung with a fury and blame very different from the sad, fatalistic acceptance of economic hardship in songs like The River and My Hometown in the 80s. There is more on this album than just rage, though. Springsteen's strength as a songwriter has always been his ability to write a good, straightforward tune and to convey important human experiences and truths through singing about the small specifics of life, especially working life. He does a great job of that on this album and it is also good to see that he can still write a fine, direct love/lust song in You Got It.
That great voice is still just as great, and the production is, as always, excellent. There is, of course, one giant absentee and I found the huge gap left by Clarence Clemons yawned at me on occasions, despite a fine brass section. Clarence makes his only appearance on Land Of Hope And Dreams - Track 10 - and to hear him suddenly so far through the album was almost unbearably poignant. It is a great tribute to a man whose sound I have loved and which has followed me down three decades and more.
I warmly recommend this album, especially to those who may be wondering whether they really need another Springsteen album. I think you do need this one - it is excellent.
(By the way, the Deluxe Edition contains two extra songs tagged onto the end. For what it's worth, I think they are OK but nothing special. You may want to spend the little extra for the sake of completeness and for the extra artwork, but my feeling is that the album comes to a natural, well-judged close with We Are Alive and I actually prefer the album without them.)
It is the rage which strikes you most forcibly. Springsteen has always had a passionate love of his country and of its ordinary, decent people. He now also has a raw despair and fury at those who cheat those people and twist his country away from what he thinks it should and could be. This is thunderously and uncompromisingly overt in several songs - for example Jack Of All Trades ("If I had me a gun I'd find the bastards and shoot `em on sight") and Death To My Hometown:
"...Send the robber barons straight to hell -
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
And brought death to my hometown."
Powerful stuff, and a great song which is sung with a fury and blame very different from the sad, fatalistic acceptance of economic hardship in songs like The River and My Hometown in the 80s. There is more on this album than just rage, though. Springsteen's strength as a songwriter has always been his ability to write a good, straightforward tune and to convey important human experiences and truths through singing about the small specifics of life, especially working life. He does a great job of that on this album and it is also good to see that he can still write a fine, direct love/lust song in You Got It.
That great voice is still just as great, and the production is, as always, excellent. There is, of course, one giant absentee and I found the huge gap left by Clarence Clemons yawned at me on occasions, despite a fine brass section. Clarence makes his only appearance on Land Of Hope And Dreams - Track 10 - and to hear him suddenly so far through the album was almost unbearably poignant. It is a great tribute to a man whose sound I have loved and which has followed me down three decades and more.
I warmly recommend this album, especially to those who may be wondering whether they really need another Springsteen album. I think you do need this one - it is excellent.
(By the way, the Deluxe Edition contains two extra songs tagged onto the end. For what it's worth, I think they are OK but nothing special. You may want to spend the little extra for the sake of completeness and for the extra artwork, but my feeling is that the album comes to a natural, well-judged close with We Are Alive and I actually prefer the album without them.)
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Considering that unfortunately we're not still in the 1980's, this is one of Bruce's best albums to date since then. He's still got it that's for sure! Classic Bruce Americana style mixed with some Celtic and gospel music and he's got some great hits on his hands. Personal favourites are 'Land Of Hope And Dreams', 'American Land', 'We Take Care Of Our Own', 'Shackled and Drawn', 'Death To My Hometown' and 'Easy Money'. If he turns up at any of the British festivals this year and sings any of these he'll go down a storm!
35 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I was lucky enough to be at the Giants Stadium on September 30th 2009 when Bruce strode out and first performed "Wrecking Ball" and got the MP3 of it a short while later when it was released so to see it on the new album was a bit of a shock especially as the album includes "Land of hope and dreams" too as the live version of this has appeared on the "Live in NYC" album before. Is he having trouble writing songs I thought but then when I read that he rejected 40 odd songs to put this album together I guess that he's crafted this album to tell the story as he wants to tell it (and as "Land of hope and dreams" features the last recorded sax that The Big Man left us with it would be valuable for that if it weren't a great song anyway).
This is a very dark album and as close to a concept album as you'll ever get from Bruce Springsteen - he starts with "We take care of our own" which, if you listen to the lyrics, "we "being the USA patently do not although I can see it being a rabble rouser.
The album next deals with the subject of "Easy Money" - a theme obviously explored before in "Meeting across the river" on "Born to run".
He explores the themes of being a working class blue collar kind of guy who wants to find work - wherever it can be found - in the next two tracks - "Shackled and drawn" and "Jack of all trades" then comes the first of the real stand out tracks - "Death to my hometown" which sounds very much as though this was a hangover from the "Seeger Sessions" album.
"This depression" finds Bruce in, well, depressive mood as the song's title says - this is the album's "low" point as the songs from hereon in are hopeful starting with the folksy sounding "You've got it" - what is "it" though ? I think it's hope.
The next track - "Rocky Ground" looks to become a stone cold classic, folky and very "religious" in it's language even incorporating a little rap in the lyrics. The chorus sounds like a Southern baptist evangelical choir. It's fabulous.
Next up the aforementioned "Land of hope and dreams" - again a fabulous track, full of hope at where "we" are going now - on "this train" full of "whores and gamblers"
The ordinary edition ends with "We are alive" again full of religious symbolism - the message here is that the body may die but the spirit never will
The special edition adds "Swallowed up"(in the belly of the whale) which, if it isn't an old hymn, damn well sounds as if it should be and concludes with another version of "American Land" which sounds the same as the version on the "Seeger Sessions" album - still a great track even if I do wonder why we need it again !
So there you have it - one man's journey (and it is mainly one man as the E Street Band don't make much of an appearance on this album) from despair into hopelessness and out the other side into a (hopefully) bright future.
To my mind, and having only listened to it three or four times, I think it's great. It sounds to me like a cross between "Nebraska" or "Tom Joad" and "The Rising" with a healthy dollop of "The Seeger Sessions" thrown in for good measure
This is a very dark album and as close to a concept album as you'll ever get from Bruce Springsteen - he starts with "We take care of our own" which, if you listen to the lyrics, "we "being the USA patently do not although I can see it being a rabble rouser.
The album next deals with the subject of "Easy Money" - a theme obviously explored before in "Meeting across the river" on "Born to run".
He explores the themes of being a working class blue collar kind of guy who wants to find work - wherever it can be found - in the next two tracks - "Shackled and drawn" and "Jack of all trades" then comes the first of the real stand out tracks - "Death to my hometown" which sounds very much as though this was a hangover from the "Seeger Sessions" album.
"This depression" finds Bruce in, well, depressive mood as the song's title says - this is the album's "low" point as the songs from hereon in are hopeful starting with the folksy sounding "You've got it" - what is "it" though ? I think it's hope.
The next track - "Rocky Ground" looks to become a stone cold classic, folky and very "religious" in it's language even incorporating a little rap in the lyrics. The chorus sounds like a Southern baptist evangelical choir. It's fabulous.
Next up the aforementioned "Land of hope and dreams" - again a fabulous track, full of hope at where "we" are going now - on "this train" full of "whores and gamblers"
The ordinary edition ends with "We are alive" again full of religious symbolism - the message here is that the body may die but the spirit never will
The special edition adds "Swallowed up"(in the belly of the whale) which, if it isn't an old hymn, damn well sounds as if it should be and concludes with another version of "American Land" which sounds the same as the version on the "Seeger Sessions" album - still a great track even if I do wonder why we need it again !
So there you have it - one man's journey (and it is mainly one man as the E Street Band don't make much of an appearance on this album) from despair into hopelessness and out the other side into a (hopefully) bright future.
To my mind, and having only listened to it three or four times, I think it's great. It sounds to me like a cross between "Nebraska" or "Tom Joad" and "The Rising" with a healthy dollop of "The Seeger Sessions" thrown in for good measure
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Damned fine!
Damned fine Bro - damned fine . From the "out" there's tracks that have just rang a chord in the brain throughout the day . Read more
Published 3 days ago by Treborus
Wreckin ball vinyl lp
This is a great record at a great price so much more to be heard from an lp compared to the cd version which is still good for the car
Published 13 days ago by lph101
New Build Americana
Similar in scope to 2002's excellent The Rising but altogether different in tone, Bruce has returned to reinvent himself a little by adding some folk sensibilities into the mix. Read more
Published 15 days ago by ratmonkey
Best work since Magic
As a relative newcomer to Bruce's music, I first started listening to Magic a few years back having heard a couple of songs being payed on radio 2, since then i have generally lost... Read more
Published 17 days ago by R. Lymer
Pale shade of the old Springsteen
A mass of empty, boring songs of just another false rich prophet of the poors.
The first track is the only decent, the second is something already heard one thousand times,... Read more
The first track is the only decent, the second is something already heard one thousand times,... Read more
Published 22 days ago by Lucazest
Bruce Sringsteen Wrecking Ball
Bruce keeps extending and renewing. A superb mix of fast and slow songs. Plenty of references to styles of music in the imaginative arrangements. Thoughtful lyrics as always. Read more
Published 26 days ago by Peter Thomas
Fantastic Album
Bruce definitely has the world economy on his mind, but his perspective rings true just as much for the UK as the US. Read more
Published 26 days ago by R. Lowe
Raw and visceral....
OK - Springsteen is not a blue collar worker whose livelihood has been stolen by the greedy bankers, but to me, this does not detract from the power of this album to move you. Read more
Published 28 days ago by DR.T
The best yet
This is his best since Born to Run. much is a lament for the American blue collar worker. You can empathise with much of what he has to say. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Ipod novice
wow
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN NEVER FAILS.LOVE THIS CD. A MIXTURE BETWEEN OLD AND NEW SOUNDS. A JOY TO LISTEN TO. CANT WAIT FOR ANOTHER CD TO BE RELEASED.
Published 1 month ago by june
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