Wrecking Ball

Bruce Springsteen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 6, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Columbia
• ASIN: B006ZCWTV0
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (298 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,969 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. We Take Care Of Our Own

2. Easy Money

3. Shackled And Drawn

4. Jack Of All Trades

5. Death To My Hometown

6. This Depression

7. Wrecking Ball

8. You've Got It

9. Rocky Ground

10. Land Of Hope And Dreams

11. We Are Alive

Editorial Reviews

Marking his 17th studio album, 'Wrecking Ball' features 11 new Springsteen recordings and was produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen and executive producer Jon Landau.

Said long-time manager Jon Landau, "Bruce has dug down as deep as he can to come up with this vision of modern life. The lyrics tell a story you can't hear anywhere else and the music is his most innovative of recent years. The writing is some of the best of his career and both veteran fans and those who are new to Bruce will find much to love on 'Wrecking Ball.'"

Landau told Rolling Stone magazine that the record is an ambitious "big-picture piece of work. It's a rock record that combines elements of both Bruce's classic sound and his Seeger Sessions experience, with new textures and styles." Members of the E Street Band play on the album, along with a variety of outside musicians, including Tom Morello. "Bruce and Ron used a wide variety of players to create something that both rocks and is very fresh."

A special edition of 'Wrecking Ball' including two bonus tracks and exclusive artwork and photography is also available.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

137 of 158 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Statement of Anger and Hope March 6, 2012

By Old T.B.

Format:Audio CD

Wrecking Ball is an angry album dealing with hard and desperate times: unemployment, economic discrepancies, and personal displacement are just a few of the underlying themes addressed. It is also an album where many of the musical styles Bruce Springsteen has engaged in come together, along with new elements such as loops and a more pronounced use of female singers.

It opens with We Take Care of Our Own, a song that musically sounds like vintage E Street Band; it is, in its own way, as powerful an opening track as Badlands or Born in the U.S.A. Like that latter song, it could receive a mistaken interpretation by the casual listener drawn in to the catchy chorus. But, where the chorus declares "We take care of our own," the lyrics examine an America where needed help never appears.

Shackled and Drawn and Death to My Hometown both bear strong resemblances to the tracks Springsteen performed during his Seeger Sessions time. With their Irish feel, they sound like songs that Shane MacGowan could sink his crooked teeth into with joy. Easy Money, a song about a man going out with his lover to commit crimes to make some cash, has a ramshackle, country feel that perfectly matches Springsteen's grizzled snarl.

The title track presents Springsteen reminiscing about coming up in the "swamps of Jersey," referencing his classic track Rosalita. It is a defiant song in which Bruce dares all comers to "take your best shot/let me see what you got." It is an exhilarating song; at 62, The Boss is still willing to throw down the gauntlet.

Wrecking Ball, for all its anger, ends on a hopeful note. Land of Hope and Dreams, a song that debuted during the 1999-2000 E Street reunion tour, uses the imagery of the freedom train carrying passengers to a better destination. The final track (on the regular edition release), We Are Alive, with sweeping, loping music that could fit in a 60s western, tells of departed souls rising up in solidarity and strength. One final note: midway through Land of Hope and Dreams, we hear a saxophone solo by the late Clarence Clemons. It's like receiving a call from a long lost friend. For a few moments, it seems as if the Big Man is truly as immortal as implied by Springsteen in his moving eulogy. It is a transcendent moment, one of the high points of a truly fine addition to the Springsteen canon. Recommended listening.

47 of 56 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid 21st Century Bruce March 8, 2012

By Michael Neiss

Format:Audio CD

1975 was a very long time ago. So, with that little slice of obviousness behind us, what exactly is Bruce Springsteen up to on the other side of the looking-glass as I consider the significance of his much anticipated new album Wrecking Ball. Springsteen has never had it easy managing expectations - even before listening for the first time, I am already half-smiling at the consternation and intellectual discomfort of many reviewers as they ponder the delphic riddle that confounds them with every new Springsteen release - whether or not his new music returns New Jersey's favorite son to the working class zen so powerfully forged during his first decade of work.

Respectfully, with nearly forty years now seperating Wrecking Ball from the work that made his reputation, a side-by-side comparison seems unfair and absurdly front-loaded. The music that Springsteen created between 1973 and 1982 is now really for the ages and represents a nearly impossible standard for any artist to live up to.

Unfortunately for Springsteen, once his own PR flaks started cranking out the agitprop touting his imminent release as the time-machine return of the "old Bruce" and "the best" since Born To Run, The River or... (fill in the blanks) it seemed inevitable that Wrecking Ball would, could never overcome the weight of their very wishful but ultimately, weightless hyperbole. To be fair, there's really no objective assessment worth a damn that can be made for music that we have been listening to for mere hours against songs that has been seminal to the rock soundtrack for almost four decades.

All of that aside, my first impressions of Wrecking Ball are strong - Bruce's vocals are solid, he's pissed and still seems to be experimenting - all critical since the most moving and important rock music has never been born from politenesss and complacency.

Are the lyrics as inspired as those that I can recite in my sleep? Who knows. Although they seem a bit basic, lacking the cinematic grandeur of some of his best storylines, they are written in a time when complete thoughts are now compressed into tweets and texts - brain cramps shoehorned into 140 character scribbles that are long on immediacy and short on imagination. Regardless, given Springsteen's current mood their lack of subtlety seems to work. In any case, Springsteen's songwriting is exponentially better on this record than the ridiculousness he mailed-in for Working On A Dream.

Maybe given the time to breath over the next few months the natural, evolving familiarity of the record will work to enhance my already growing appreciation for the gut-level, populist furies that Springsteen has unleashed (who knew that Rumson NJ's .001% occupiers were so damn angry.) At the very least New Jersey's Governor Chris "Wrecking Ball" Christie (so dubbed by his critics at the Newark Star Ledger) is still smiling at the back-handed, naming-rights compliment from his hero.

For better or worse, Wrecking Ball is an exceptional 2012 rock record (and easily his best 21st century release) crafted by an artist who still seems inspired by his music and his message. We should all be so lucky.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Springsteen fans will love it! October 13, 2012

By Margaret Gentry

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I got the album in preparation for going to Springsteen's September 2012 concert in Washington, DC, as part of his 2012 Wrecking Ball Tour. The concert featured most of the Wrecking Ball album songs and, at 62, the Boss is still the Boss. Before a packed house in the 45,000-seat Washington Nationals baseball stadium, he performed non-stop for close to four hours with the crowd-pleasing vigor of a 20-year-old.
"Wrecking Ball" is classic Springsteen -- poignant, moving, biting lyrics telling the story of the millions in our nation who work hard all their lives and never get much of a break. If you sympathize with his views, you'll love the album. If you're among the privileged rich, you probably won't.