Bruce Springsteen - Letter To You ALBUM REVIEW

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It goes without saying that Bruce Springsteen is a music icon. One of the most recognizable names in any industry, Springsteen has been able to command the stage with his presence alone, no matter what type of venue. The typical concert with the E-Street Band, alone on the Broadway stage, or even in front of a small and intimate audience, The Boss has cemented himself as one of the best performers and songwriters of all time. With Covid closing most venues, many artists have gone back to the studio, some of them even hitting their supposed creative peaks here. With Bruce’s new album Letter To You, this is his first album with the E-Street Band as his backing band since The Rising in 2002. When he released Western Stars, I thought that that was his best record since at least Nebraska. I was excited for this new album, but I had this thought in the back of my mind that couldn’t stop it from comparing to Western Stars. Never mind that, let’s just get right into Letter To You.

Letter To You is a rock album with singer-songwriter vibes. When I close my eyes, I see an old man telling stories around the campfire, sharing the most important moments of his life with his family, specifically his children, or even his grandchildren. This collection of songs aren’t the typical “working man” or “struggling hero” ballads, but a look at how much Springsteen has done for the past five decades, entering his sixth. While there still is these topics that Bruce has nearly perfected, there’s a little more variation there. The recording sessions were live, so there isn’t anything that’s re-done. It’s mostly done in one take, and it’s some of the most beautiful instrumentation I’ve heard all year. It’s nostalgic of Bruce’s earlier projects, which felt somewhat lacking in some of his more recent studio albums. As always, Springsteen’s storytelling is top notch, and if I’m being totally honest, that’s never gonna change.

The best way to summarize Letter To You is as another Bruce Springsteen record, but in a positive way. It doesn’t have a cinematic scope like Western Stars, but it’s replaced by the intimacy that The Boss gives to the tracks here. It feels so nostalgic to just listen to Bruce sing about himself, and that’s bolstered by his reunion with his E-Street Band. Letter To You proves that Western Stars wasn’t just a stroke of late-career genius. Bruce Springsteen’s still got it.


7/10


Stream Letter To You here

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