Bruce Springsteen
Letter To You

This Bruce Springsteen album is truly great. Apart from just a couple of tracks that don't excite me, the rest is a real pleasure to listen to. For me, overall, it is one of Bruce's best, just slightly below his absolute masterpieces, and I'm talking about albums like Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Nebraska. Even the previous album, the melancholic and semi-acoustic "Western Stars" (2019) was, in my opinion, a real surprise. Beautiful melodies and rarefied atmospheres; a touching album with pearls of the highest value; an album to be placed almost on the same level as a "Nebraska" (1982). Practically, Bruce, despite his 71 years, is experiencing, at least creatively, a second youth; maybe on stage now he won't be the human fury he was until a few years ago, but these last two albums prove an author, compositionally, once again highly inspired, almost at the level of his best times of the '70s and early '80s. And this new "Letter to You" is here to prove it. Why? Because it exudes passion from every note, both in Bruce's voice and in the way the E Street Band follows their undisputed leader. Recorded live in just a few days, from the first note, the album immerses you in a wide and imposing "live" sound; it feels like you're really at a "E Street Band" concert and have the musicians right next to you.

The first track immediately knocks you out: "One Minute You're Here," a slow and hypnotic song, and one of the most beautiful on the album. The arpeggio is reminiscent of "Highway 29" from the 1995 acoustic album "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (not coincidentally, that album often spoke of "ghosts" as well).

Bruce's voice is whispered and very touching, and I don't recall ever hearing Bruce sing so heartfeltly (perhaps with the exception of the previous "Western Stars"); despite his voice being little more than a whisper, it feels like he's in front of you; it's as if he's there, in front of a fire, in the dark night, amidst an immense expanse of fields, in the heathland, reminding us of the fragility of our existence; the song is indeed a reflection on death, though woven with great romance; a cry of love, in the midst of the darkest night the earth has ever known: "Big black train comin' down the track. Autumn Carnival on the edge of town. The sound of footsteps on a gravel road. The stars fall from a sky black as stone. One minute you're here, the next minute you're gone."

A beautiful song, short but profound and of great emotional impact.

"Letter to You," the second track on the list, and also the "title track" of the album, is, unlike the previous one, a classic Bruce Springsteen rock and romantic song; open melody, explained and heartfelt voice, and the E Street Band in full gear following their leader. The song is practically a "statement of intent" from Bruce himself; a very personal song, like the previous one, by the way; here, however, it doesn't deal with death but talks about what the artist Springsteen finds important in making art; you can almost see Bruce, locked in his studio, in the dim light, with a guitar in hand, trying to compose a new song, bringing out all his emotions and his heart:

"I took a pen and wrote down my head. I tried to summon all my heart finds true. Things I found through hard times and good. All of them written with ink and blood. I dug deep into my soul . I took all the sunshine and rain. All my happiness and all my pain."

"Letter to You" is an excellent track, and Bruce sings it with so much passion and conviction that it grabs you from the first to the last note, just as if in every single word Bruce poured out his entire soul, his passion, and his big heart; Bruce simply does what every artist should do, which is bring out everything good inside, putting in the soul and heart, without fear of expressing oneself. After all, that’s why he’s so famous because he never left anything to chance and always put all his endless passion into what he did, whether you like it or not. And this song is just yet another demonstration of that. The E Street Band is in top form, and the song flows beautifully. "Letter to You" is ultimately a very romantic rock song about the power that art has, and music in particular, that power through which we can express ourselves, our hearts and our true and deep soul, give it to others, and maybe make people feel better, heal them, and improve their lives through our creativity.

"Burning Train" is the third track on the list; it’s an energetic and driven rock, a burst of almost punk-like energy as only Bruce can do. Springsteen's voice is as rough and angry as can be, especially in the chorus, and the lyrics speak of passionate yet also malevolent love, and here too, the air of death seems to hover; the two lovers seem like creatures right out of Dante’s Inferno:

I washed you with holy water. We whispered our black prayers and were wrapped in flames. Take me on your burning train... Black sun burning, black wings beating... She sings and floats out of the endless rain... Honey, I'm blessed in your blood, and my heart is aching.

Bruce thus talks about passion, but also a presence that seems a protagonist in this album, death, here under the guise of an unhealthy passion full of suffering, and yet in the chorus, that "take me on your burning train" sounds almost like an angry prayer, as if that "burning train" were the solution; perhaps only on a "burning train" Bruce imagines he can vent all his anger at the course of events in America and in the world; maybe only on a "burning train" lies the only solution to escape the lacerating pain he's feeling for his America under the grip of the pandemic. After all, that "take me on your burning train" seems almost like a prayer that the inevitability of death doesn't scare us but rather becomes almost our travel companion, a presence somehow salvific, that serves to make us feel simply more alive (this concept is better revisited in the track "Ghosts").

"Janey Needs a Shooter" is the fourth track; a song written back in the ’70s , revisited just for this album and taken up magnificently. The track is excellent, as are the previous ones. Bruce sings with all the passion, anger, and energy he has in his body and the band follows him admirably; a tough and gritty rock ballad, in pure and classic Springsteen style.

Two somewhat mediocre tracks follow, they seem like out-takes from "Magic" (2008), in my opinion one of his worst albums (next to "Human Touch" and "Tunnel of Love"). In "Last Man Standing" Bruce sings of the past, remembering a deceased friend, member of his first band. The lyrics are not bad: "Raise me up, angels band, in some place high, loud and grand. Deep in the heart of the crowd. I’m the last man standing."

"House of a Thousand Guitars" is instead one of the album's masterpieces. The track almost makes one praise it as a miracle. A beautiful song with a truly superb melody, sung by Bruce with his heart on his sleeve. The track goes straight to the soul. It somewhat echoes the heart-string pulling atmosphere of "Thunder Road," even though the lyrics are the opposite of "Thunder Road," bare and essential; yet this song has such a romantic and dreamy atmosphere that it truly feels like being inside something magical, where love, peace, and harmony can bring a little light to these dark times. The song seems to represent the dream of a world where just a little music, played in a small bar, can bring back serenity, a sense of unity and brotherhood that we need in these dark times. The song also speaks of pain and wounds and even a "criminal clown" (probably Trump) and asks music to bring truth back to the world and give us the strength to stay united. The American "thunder road," the dream of great hopes, now lives entirely in the power of music, the only thing that maybe can truly unite us again. This track has something romantic and poignant in the way Bruce sings the words he's written; there's also a lot of melancholy, but also a lot of hope; it seems almost like a message in a bottle, as if to say "unite" however you may to find the passion for life, for music, and the hope for the future.

The red moon shines in the valley.

Bells ring in churches and prisons.

I count my wounds and count the scars...

The criminal clown stole the throne.

Steals what he can never own.

May the truth resound from every bar in every little town.

We'll light up the house of a thousand guitars...

Meet me darling, when Saturday night comes.

All the fine souls near and far.

We'll meet in the house of a thousand guitars...

Here the discontented and bored

wake up, searching for the lost chord

that will keep us together,

until there are stars in the sky...

Brother and sister, wherever you are,

we’ll meet in the house of a thousand guitars.

"Rainmaker" is the most explicitly political song of an album that often seems very autobiographical and inward-looking instead. Here Bruce pours out all his anger towards the America in which he lives, where the American dream is dead and buried under the Trump administration, probably he's the "rainmaker" of the title. "Withered fields dying under a barren sun. We prayed, but no good comes...The rainmaker says that white is black and black is white. Says the day is night and night is day." The track is a good energetic rock and sung with the usual verve and anger typical of Springsteen.

Next is "If I Was the Priest," an excellent track that still comes from the past, from the '70s. The song is sung and played with great energy and taste; a very vibrant track, in perfect style of the E Street Band's best times.

And then comes "Ghosts," which for me is the absolute masterpiece of the album, not so much for the composition, but for the meaning and the overwhelming and energetic force. It's an anthem to the beauty of life through death; Bruce imagines reuniting with the ghosts of his dead friends and through them managing to feel all the energy and force of life. It is thus an anthem to rebel against death through death itself. A wonderful song; it is also the most joyful of the album; despite talking about ghosts, it is indeed filled with a sense of liberation and revenge, as if death managed to reach us to give us the strength to move forward, through friendly presences that help and comfort us from the afterlife. Musically it is a driven rock/rock 'n roll. It has an almost punk aggression, but also the joyful spirit and desire to win of Springsteen's best rock songs, with that "la-la-la" finale that fills you with good humor. A track that perhaps is truly capable of bringing the dead to life.

"Song for Orphans" is the penultimate track and is another excellent song. It seems straight out of Bob Dylan's magical hat but is instead the product of an early Springsteen in composition, always quite influenced by the bard from Duluth, but the interpretation of the older Springsteen and the strength of the E Street Band make the track really intense and successful, complete with harmonica breaks between verses. A truly captivating track that grabs and holds from the first to the last note.

I'll See You in My Dreams is instead a track of the latest composition; it is short but intense and beautiful, full of passion and poignant romanticism. The song is dedicated to all of Bruce's deceased friends, and perhaps in particular to "Big Man," the historic saxophonist of his band, of whom Bruce was a great friend; they were like brothers and his passing, in 2009, was a great loss for Bruce, both artistically and in private life; a wound probably never healed; in his autobiography Bruce writes that losing "Big Man" was like "losing the rain," losing thus something that gave him vital nourishment (among other things, after "Big Man's" death, Bruce fell into a bad period of depression lasting several years, approximately between 2011 and 2014). The lyrics are brief but touching and profound: I'll see you in my dreams, when all our summers are gone. I'll see you in my dreams. We’ll meet, live, and laugh again. I'll see you in my dreams, beyond the river, because death is not the end, and I'll see you in my dreams.

A little poetic masterpiece in music, dedicated to the people who were loved and whose passing cannot be accepted and whose "ghosts" are always there, close to us, to lend a hand in difficult moments and whisper sweet words during our dreams.

Great album Mr. Bruce Springsteen; you may have aged but your heart now beats, perhaps, stronger than ever.