Bruce Springsteen – Letter To You

Bruce and the E Street Band – what a nice gift! Bruce and the band are in a total late 70s groove. They sound great. We don’t need any additional challenges and so the gang is presenting us the audio equivalent of comfort food.

This is Bruce’s most meta album. The last few years Bruce has been very reflective: the memoir, the Broadway show and now this album. Many of the songs reflect on what it means to be Bruce, the meaning of Rock and being in a band.

The album was recorded live over four days with minimal guitar overdubs at the end of last year. In interviews Bruce says he avoided presenting demos to the band. Instead he just gave them the songs and let things happen organically. The result is a classic E Street Band vibe.

There are new songs and unreleased songs from early in his career. The new songs are reflective. The old songs are wonderfully wordy and represent a more naive and not fully formed Bruce – which is perfect juxtaposition given the retrospective nature of the album.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you have witnessed my amazement at the ability of ancient rock stars to deliver late career excellence – if not one last masterpiece. I can add Letter To You the list of late career masterpieces. If you have access to Apple TV check out the excellent documentary on the making of the album.