CD of the Day

Bruce Springsteen - The Rising

Bruce Springsteen has been around for ages. I personally thought his first 5 albums defined his career, but he persevered over time and had his most popular CD, Born in the USA, dominate the charts in the mid 80s and gain even more fans. Bruce is now one of my favorite musicians. He wasn’t one of my favorites when I was younger, but as I have matured, I learned to respect what he has done for music much more.

In my opinion, Springsteen excelled the most with his famed backing band, the E-Street Band, including such heralded musicians as Clarence Clemons (sax), Stevie Van Zandt (guitar) from the Sopranos, Roy Bittan (keys), and Max Weinberg (drums) of Conan O’Brien fame. Bruce ditched the band after making Born in the USA to move on as a pure solo artist, but it didn’t quite seem as much fun as he grew older.

September 11th shook the country to its knees and before you knew it, Bruce had reunited with the E-Street Band to take one more crack at making an album to honor those lost in the horrible attacks on America. It was a perfect time to bring the band back together as Bruce released The Rising, the first album he performed with the E-Street Band in 18 years, which focused on pain, suffering, and lifting yourself up from despair.

The outcome: Bruce’s The Rising is a resounding success. The album revives the chemistry that Bruce and the E-Street Band possessed in the past and gives Bruce his strongest set of music since Born in the USA. The album has a nice mix of slow songs, and uplifting tunes to make the album a great listen.

Some of the highlights include the stirring “The Rising”, the catchy “Waitin’ On a Sunny Day”, the groovy “Let’s Be Friends”, the classic E-Street arrangement “Mary’s Place”, the Celtic driven opener “Lonesome Day”, and the chilling closer “My City of Ruins”. The album features 15 songs and just about every song is strong. I would recommend this to anyone who likes Bruce and hasn’t heard this album yet, and to those who just like straight-forward Rock N Roll.

I give this CD a 9 out of 10.