“Letter to you” is Bruce Springsteen’s
20 album which took five days to make and his second album in only two years
after the rock-country album “Western Stars” came out last year. This album is
about facing mortality and aging which is where he is now in his life’s
journey. Much of his music has been about learning to live with the setbacks
his characters cannot change this is the sound of Springsteen accepting that
for himself. The structure of the album follows
how he has been doing concerts since 1978 with a succession of themes and
conflicts that gradually run from the individual to the collective.
There are three tracks
that were originally written prior to Springsteen's 1973 debut album “Greetings from Asbury Park, N. J.”: "If I Was the Priest"(longest song), “Janey needs a shooter” and “Song for the Orphans”.
He said the reason for using songs from his past was “It just fit on the
record, because the record skips through time. It starts with me thinking about
when I was 14 and 15, and then it moves into the present.” They are not bad
songs as they rock out and tell good stories like the “If I was the Priest” as
it talks about his formative years and finding salvation in rock & roll.
The first and last
songs “One minute you’re here” and “I’ll see you in my dreams” are songs about
mortality and death as this album has mentions to people he has lost over the
year. He has said he still dreams about bandmates Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici of E-Street band and George Theiss the lead singer of his first band. Two
of the best songs that really rock out are “Ghosts” and “Last Man Standing” they
deal with the same themes as he is the last one from his original band and that
his friends are still there in a spirit like a ghost. There are great saxophone
riffs in a good amount of the songs an ode to Clemons as his nephew has been
playing since his uncle passed.
The songs “Power of prayer” and “House of a thousand guitars” are more of the religious tones of
this album. As he talks about the spiritual nature of music and its ability to
connect people together and the other about the healing power of rock &
roll, but of course they rock out. One of the more emotional tracks is
“Rainmaker” as he talks about a conman profiting off the promise of rain to drought-stricken
farmers, but it has been told it has a deeper meaning of the political
exploitation of ignorance to the greedy tactics of the conman.
The song “Burnin’ Train” rocks as like most songs as it’s about a passionate relationship maybe
the one with his wife Patti Scialfa. The song “Letter to you” the album name
too is one of the best songs as it could be about the people he has lost, to
himself or to the people still around with him on this long journey he has had
as one of the world’s greatest songwriters and musicians ever. Overall this is
a fine addition to his long catalog that he has amassed and it rocks out like
“Born to Run” as it should and this is one of his most personal albums ever.
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