If someone saved this unfortunate year, we’d put our money on Bruce Springsteen. Like he’s waiting for the moment we need him most, here’s the Boss, coming down Thunder Road with a new album to be released. Springsteen announced today that Letter to You, their 20th studio album and follow-up to the Western Stars of 2019, will be released on October 23. He recorded the album with the E Street Band for five days, according to a statement, and it was the first time that they made fully live studio recordings without overdubs.
“I love the emotional nature of Letter to You,” he said, according to Pitchfork. “It turned out to be one of the greatest recording experiences I’ve ever had.” This happens in the title song, primary single and the first offering of the project, which you can listen to below. This is a spectacular, full-blast rock production by Springsteen and his band, centered around Springsteen’s touching vocal performance. The album also features three re-recorded 1970s albums: ‘Janey Needs a Shooter,’ ‘If I Was the Priest,” and “Song for Orphans.” Forty-three days till October 23.
Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You “is Valentine’s Day to his fans, a poem of appreciation to friendship and a celebration of the E Street Band. The prolific artist’s latest documentary also marks the continuing migration of what he describes as his “45-year-old conversation” with his audiences to visual media in film and streaming — this time via Apple TV +.
Springsteen’s narration has a low quality: “Age brings perspective” and that as the years go by, there is an acute realization that “there is only a limited time left.”
Nonetheless, as he states at the outset, “After all this time, I still feel that burning need to communicate,” which of late has meant long-form screen presentations of his music, with the Netflix presentation of “Springsteen on Broadway,” Low-key “Western Stars,” and now this celebration with his longtime collaborators. They still work with director Thom Zimny.
Recorded in glorious black and white, “Letter to You” shows the shorthand these musicians developed as they worked together, rehearsing and performing songs from Springsteen’s latest album, the 20th produced in his remarkable career. The interaction reflects a process perfected over decades in the pursuit of a shared mission.
New footage of the entire band at work — recording its first album together in six years – is aptly complemented by snippets of Springsteen’s musical childhood, bringing home how much ground has been covered and time has passed since ” Greetings From Asbury Park. , NJ ” and “Born to Run.”
Springsteen is known as a poet at heart, accentuating his music during live marathon performances with deeply personal tales of his life and experiences. Suppose age has provided perspective, as he claims. In that case, these interludes are nonetheless obsessive and spiritual, as he discusses the people he has lost (Clarence Clemons, RIP), the band’s ‘collective soul’ and belief in the simple ideals that they provide the recipe for “a good life and a humane society.”
Springsteen isn’t the only music star to find additional opportunities for expression through movies via content-hungry streaming services – testifies Beyoncé, who was incredibly creative on that point – but her willingness to continue stretching and experimenting. It seems particularly admirable when, At age 71, he has few creative mountains to climb.
With love and nostalgia, “Letter to You” forges a link between past and present. Perhaps most of all, however, the documentary confirms that when it comes to passion for communicating through music, Bruce Springsteen and his companions are still on fire after all these years.
