One of the Greatest Recording Experiences I’ve Ever Had
September 10, 2020 8:46 AM   Subscribe

Bruce Springsteen will release Letter to You, a new rock album recorded live in his New Jersey home studio with the E Street Band, on October 23rd. [Rolling Stone]
posted by chavenet (19 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
a new rock album
Ah crap, I was hoping he'd release an industrial album
posted by thelonius at 8:48 AM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]


I'm a big fan. It was fun watching the rumor mill process the scraps of this over the last few days. At one point there was a completely different album title ("The Storm") and tracklisting floating around.
posted by Miko at 8:49 AM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


OK now I watched/listened. I think it's solid! It makes me excited for the rest of the album. I'm really glad it's an E-Street-focused album, which I'd really hoped for after the character-driven solo thing that Western Stars was. The production is amazing and his vocal sounded great. It looked like the whole video was filmed on his farm in Central Jersey, and mostly before COVID (because of the snow - we haven't had any snow since COVID struck).
posted by Miko at 8:58 AM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]


Ah crap, I was hoping he'd release an industrial album

His last one was country so you never never know.
posted by octothorpe at 9:30 AM on September 10, 2020 [4 favorites]


his vocal sounded great.

Exactly. I was stunned. Sounded (at least through computer speakers) a lot like he did on The River, and that was (yikes) 40 years ago.
posted by martin q blank at 10:07 AM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]


That song was promising. I can hardly wait for the album.
posted by Gelatin at 10:14 AM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


Well, that's the first Springsteen song I've listened to straight through since..."The Rising"? Mainly because that cropped up in a lot of 9/11 programming.

I parted ways with Mr. S. around Born in the U.S.A. (and wasn't much of a fan of either Nebraska or The River). The band, its orchestration, had lost so much of the variety and nuance that had marked his early albums as it (and he) bulked up for stadium touring. His writing also moved to a blunt, literal concision (really evident in "Letter to You") that eschewed the lovely and poetic logorrhea of his first couple of LPs.

I hope he does some interesting things with his early songs on the new LP; I might check those out. But, to his credit, he's in good voice, which can't be easy for an arena/stadium singer in his style.
posted by the sobsister at 11:20 AM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]


I have a special fondness for the first 3 jazz/R&B-influenced albums as well. But I've kind of rolled with all of his musical changes since then and appreciate them all in their own way. I think 40+ years of that would have worn me out - we have Van Morrison for that sorta thing ;) He's done a whole lot of experimenting..but this seems to hint at a pretty straight-up rock record, which would be great!
posted by Miko at 3:14 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


Ah crap, I was hoping he'd release an industrial album

Until then, may I offer a Suicide cover to hold you over?
posted by Ian A.T. at 3:38 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]


Anything he's doing with the E St Band will be worth hearing - been awhile, hoping they can capture the groove and ride it to the promised land.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 5:03 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


Chiming in to say damn, that vocal was strong as hell- not sure what I was expecting; but Bruce has many voices and this one is the one I needed to hear.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 6:44 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]


Until then, may I offer a Suicide cover to hold you over?

Wow, those crowds are just blindingly white.
posted by snofoam at 7:31 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


Musically, it sounds like a Darkness/River outtake, which is a good thing, although the missing sax sticks out. Lyrically, of a much more recent vintage, also not a bad thing. But is the guy ambidextrous? Most of the time the video shows him writing with his left hand, a few times with his right. The guitar has always been righty. If so, another new tidbit to dump into the bruce trivia barrel.

I would buy the album if it's mostly like this. And when I think about it, I've only bought 3 of his since Nebraska, and one was the must-have Tracks. Tunnel of Love grew on me, Ghost of Tom Joad never did, and at that point I got off the bus.

One more vote for those first two albums -- they were like a jazz-inflected confluence of Dylan, Tom Waits, and so many great 60s bands, and I never found it anywhere else until I kinda gave up and grudgingly expanded my musical taste.
posted by morspin at 11:59 PM on September 10, 2020 [2 favorites]


I am not hugely versed in Springsteen. He has some great songs. (And The Feelings version of Born to Run is magical.)

The band sounds fine in this recording, but it kind of drives me crazy that the word letter basically has three syllables in the verse and then one syllable in the chorus. Was there no one in the room to tell him to do a rewrite on those lyrics?
posted by snofoam at 5:29 AM on September 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


Was there no one in the room to tell him to do a rewrite on those lyrics?

I love Springsteen, but I don't think he's in any rooms these days where anyone tells him to rewrite things. His autobiography makes it very clear that the nickname "The Boss" isn't just about his success.

I liked this first song, and I will buy this album. I listened to his autobiography with Springsteen reading it, and it sort of changed the way I feel about him. Not that I like him less, but it made me see him as more self-aware. I can imagine that he probably thought he'd be out touring to support this album, and I wonder how he's managed without performing for 7 months. He's pretty clear that one of the ways he copes with depression is live performance.
posted by gladly at 5:44 AM on September 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


blindingly white

Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" is the black "Born To Run" - she gets out of town, and everything still drags her under the waves
posted by thelonius at 5:55 AM on September 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


I wonder how he's managed without performing for 7 months.

One of the biggest ways has been doing a 10-part series of DJ sets on Sirius XM, called "From His Home to Yours." THey're hugely great.
posted by Miko at 10:59 AM on September 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


Thelonius, that’s a great point about “Fast Car”! I’ll only add that an older Springsteen himself also did a revision on his younger self’s wide-eyed idealism of the highway in “The Ghost Of The Tom Joad”:

“Well the highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes”

posted by Ian A.T. at 1:30 PM on September 12, 2020 [1 favorite]




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