Wrecking Ball.
The Boss is angry, no doubt. Raging is fact, and rage might lead to great albums sometimes, but rarely subtle ones. Wrecking Ball is not subtle. The songs bludgeon as Bruce rails against injustice and inequality. He has visited similar landscapes before - The River did it better and more thoughtfully, for instance, and Nebraska more subtly. What seems to be lost is the human element, the small time characters that used to inhabit The Boss's songs are not much more than ciphers on Wrecking Ball. There's no doubting the raw power of such declamatory outbursts, but I feel I'm being preached to somewhat.
A couple of other things also stand out. Despite the rabble-rousing and fury, despair and futility are often just a step behind - lyrics such as "If I had me a gun I'd find the bastards and shoot 'em on sight" and "Hard times come, Hard times go - Yeah just to come again" give things a desperate edge. Then there's the religious overtones of the second half of the album. I have nothing against a good old spiritual singalong, despite being an atheist myself, but here whilst sometimes sounding great, these concluding tracks seem slightly disingenuous, or perhaps it is just that actually life is gonna be shit for many in working class America for the foreseeable future, so they'd better all just look forward to the afterlife!
There certainly seems to be little doubt that Springsteen still identifies with his roots, and Wrecking Ball is a sincere cry in the darkness. Unfortunately it is rather unfocussed, the strokes a little too broad, too simplistic to make a this one of his better albums. Musically the album is Bruce in cinematic Rock n Roll mode, but the same comments apply - too broad, lacking a little focus and subtlety.
If I seem to be damning Wrecking Ball with faint praise, then that is not really my intention. I am enjoying it - it is a big bold brash slice of Americana with its heart in the right place. The songs will probably sound great at this summer's gigs. I just wish that it was a little less bombastic, a little less obvious at times.
Still at least he is saying something. It is a pretty poor state of affairs when it takes a 62 year old to voice the discontent of millions. Where are the rest of the protest songs from anyone remotely mainstream FFS? Is political music dead?