Just after his 71st spring (still a young kid who is doing quite well), 'Bruce Springsteen' with his 'E-Street Band' (the last album with them 'High Hopes' already dating from 2014), continues to enchant us with always as much happiness, and this last baby 'Letter To You' brings us back to the sources of the first opus of the 'Boss', as if he had this need to return to a time that was certainly much more carefree and to share it with us not in a nostalgic way but by embarking on a magnificent journey through time. And to achieve this result, he will, first of all, tell us about this passing time and the memories of all these years, then, musically, he returns to a more direct writing which inevitably makes us in turn return to the 70s. To this, if we add that the live atmosphere of this recording which was made in four days brings even more spontaneity and that three old compositions emerged from its boxes, it is a wonderful gift for all those who used up their turntable with the albums which become legendary 'Born To Run' from 1975 or 'The River' from 1980 or even 'Born in the U.S.A.' from 1984.
And it is with the ballad 'One Minute You're Here', certainly short but magnificent that Bruce welcomes us as if he was telling us that the essential is often in the simplest things and from the beginning we are already taken by this emotion which will remain throughout the album. Then follow 'Letter To You' and 'Burnin' Train' which will certainly give goosebumps to some people over fifty because we are quite in the style of the 70s/80s, atmosphere that we also find in 'The Power Of Prayer', then 'Janey Needs a Shooter', which is one of the titles written in the 70s, has a melody in the great tradition of American songs and one can't help but think of 'Bob Dylan' (which just released in June 2020 'Rough and Rowdy Ways', an opus like he didn't release for many years with this composition 'Murder Most Foul' retracing all his memories since 1963) and we can quote in the same style 'If I Was A Priest' and 'Song for Orphans' (the two other titles of 70s and it's not a hazard). The suite continues in this palpable emotion with for example this tribute to his missing friends from his first group 'The Castiles' or with a nostalgic 'House of A Thousand Guitars' but he is also engaged against people who take advantage of the despair of others with that strong image of the rainmaker ('Rainmaker') promising farmers to bring them rain but, make no mistake, that is a sharp criticism from politicians, the album ending with a poignant 'I'll See You In My Dreams' on death with this optimism to turn anything tragic into something positive.
In summary, this latest 'Bruce Springsteen' is a gem to be brought up to the same level as his productions of the 70s / 80s and, shows that, like the young septuagenarians, 'Steve Hackett', 'Nick Mason', 'Roger Waters', 'Robert Plant' or 'Eric Bloom' and 'Donald Roeser' of 'Blue Öyster Cult', the flame is still there, not only intact but certainly even more boosted during these troubled times and 'Letter To You' is therefore here to replace all the antidepressants of the earth and this by consuming it without any moderation... | |
