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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN : DEVILS & DUST
- Devils & Dust
- All The Way Home
- Reno
- Long Time Comin'
- Black Cowboys
- Maria's Bed
- Silver Palomino
- Jesus Was An Only Son
- Leah
- The Hitter
- All I'm Thinkin' About
- Matamoros Banks
Bonus (from DVD) : - Devils & Dust
- long time comin'
- reno
- all I'm thinkin' about
- matamoros Banks
Label : Columbia
Length : 79:24
Released : 2005
Review (AllMusic) : Every decade or so, Bruce Springsteen releases a somber album of narrative songs, character sketches, and folk tunes -- records that play not like rock & roll, but rather as a collection of short stories. Nebraska, released in the fall of 1982 during the rise of Reagan's America, was the first of these, with the brooding The Ghost of Tom Joad following in 1995, in the thick of the Clinton administration but before the heady boom days of the late '90s. At the midpoint of George W. Bush's administration, Springsteen released Devils & Dust, another collection of story songs that would seem on the surface to be a companion to Nebraska and Ghost, but in actuality is quite a different record than either. While the characters that roam through Devils & Dust are similarly heartbroken, desperate, and downtrodden, they're far removed from the criminals and renegades of Nebraska, and the album doesn't have the political immediacy of Ghost's latter-day Woody Guthrie-styled tales -- themes that tied together those two albums. Here, the songs and stories are loosely connected. Several are set in the West, some are despairing, some have signs of hope, a couple are even sweet and light. Springsteen's writing is similarly varied, occasionally hearkening back to the spare, dusty prose of Nebraska, but often it's densely composed, assured, and evocative, written as if the songs were meant to be read aloud, not sung. But the key to Devils & Dust, and why it's his strongest record in a long time, is that the music is as vivid and varied as the words. Unlike the meditative, monochromatic The Ghost of Tom Joad, this has different shades of color, so somber epics like "The Hitter" or the sad, lonely "Reno" are balanced by the lighter "Long Time Comin'," "Maria's Bed," and "All I'm Thinkin' About," while the moodier "Black Cowboys" and "Devils & Dust" are enhanced by subtly cinematic productions. It results in a record that's far removed in feel from the stark, haunting Nebraska, but on a song-for-song level, it's nearly as strong, since its stories linger in the imagination as long as the ones from that 1982 masterpiece (and they stick around longer than those from Ghost, as well). Devils & Dust is also concise and precisely constructed, two things the otherwise excellent 2002 comeback The Rising was not, and that sharp focus helps make this the leanest, artiest, and simply best Springsteen record in many years. [Devils & Dust was released only as a DualDisc, a disc that contains a CD on one side and a DVD on the flip. The DVD contains a 5.1 mix of the album, plus a 30-minute film containing interviews with Springsteen and footage of him performing five songs live in the upstairs of a house; in other words, it's a staged performance, not a concert. The interviews are enjoyable, if not particularly interesting, while the live acoustic performances are not strictly unadorned -- "Reno" has pianos and synthesizers discreetly murmuring in the background, "All I'm Thinkin' About" has synths and backing vocals. It's a fine little film, but not something that merits frequent repeat viewings. The CD side appears to be copy-protected -- it did not read in either a PC with Windows XP or a Mac with OSX, so it cannot easily be ripped as MP3s.]
Review (Wikipedia) : Devils & Dust is the 13th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, and his third folk album (after Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad). It was released on April 25, 2005 in Europe and on April 26 in the United States. It debuted at the top of the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart. Springsteen was very open about the fact that many of the songs from Devils & Dust dated back a decade (or more). Springsteen wrote the song "All The Way Home" for Southside Johnny to use in his album Better Days which was released in 1991. The songs "Long Time Comin'" and "The Hitter" were written and performed during Springsteen's solo Ghost of Tom Joad Tour in 1996. "Devils & Dust" is also known to have been written previously, and was featured in soundchecks during The Rising Tour beginning in the summer of 2003 and the following year during the Vote for Change Tour in late 2004. (Springsteen had "Devils & Dust" on his set list for at least one Vote for Change show, but at the last moment decided to perform a 12 string guitar rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner", which he would later release for free through his official website.) The title track is about a soldier in a war, assumed to be an American one who had participated in the 2003 Invasion of Iraq or the subsequent occupation. It could also relate to a Western setting in some way. Most of the songs are about souls in turmoil. Much of the imagery is taken from the American West as Springsteen had previously done in his The Ghost of Tom Joad album, as well as Nebraska. This album also deals with the relationship between mothers and children, which marked a departure for Springsteen, who'd previously written frequently about his relationship with his father, but little about his mother (who is currently alive and, according to Springsteen, "kicking"). The songs "Reno" and "Long Time Comin'" came as a surprise to many listeners. "Reno" describes in graphic detail a sexual encounter with a prostitute, while "Long Time Comin'" has the word "fuck" in the lyrics. Springsteen explained the two songs by revealing that "Reno" was about a man so in love with his lost wife that his desperation could not be vanquished even by a prostitute ("It wasn't the best I ever had / not even close") and that the expletive in "Long Time Comin'" was not negative but, in fact, a positive affirmation ("I ain't gonna fuck it up this time," referring to raising his new child). The closing song, "Matamoros Banks", is told in backwards time and explores the thoughts of a dying immigrant crossing the border from Mexico. It seems to continue a story first told in "Across the Border" in The Ghost of Tom Joad. On March 28, 2005, the title track was featured as an exclusive "first listen" on AOLmusic.com. The next day it was released for purchase on the iTunes music store. The disc was also released in the DualDisc format. This puts the regular album on one side of the disc, and special content, like 5.1 surround sound and videos on the other side of the disc in DVD format. The DVD side of the disk features Springsteen performing and commenting on the writing/creation of "Devils and Dust," "Long Time Comin'," "Reno," "All I'm Thinkin' About" and "Matamoros Banks." Lyrics to the songs accompany the playing of the Surround Sound portion in a karaoke style. In Japan this album was released as separate compact disc and dvd video. The album was also released as a double vinyl record, which omitted the video materials. The marketing was successful. It granted Springsteen his seventh number one?and fourth number one debut?on the Billboard album chart, his second for an album containing only previously unreleased content and his first ever without the E Street Band. After the initial release period, however, sales quieted down; as of February 2006 it had attained gold album but not platinum album status in the United States, where it has sold 650,000 copies as of November 2008.[1] Starbucks had been considered a possible retail outlet for the album, as it had accounted for about a quarter of all sales for the recently successful Ray Charles's Genius Loves Company. Starbucks, however, declined to sell copies of Springsteen's new album, sparking some headlines. Starbucks rejected the album not only because of the song "Reno," but because of stances that Springsteen had taken on corporate politics and Springsteen not granting approval for a cobranded disc and promotional deal that prominently featured the Starbucks name. Springsteen's label, Columbia Records, balked when the idea was floated, citing the blue-collar champion's well-known opposition to merchandising his music. "There were a number of factors involved...[Lyrics] was one of the factors, but not the only reason," Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment, told Reuters. Springsteen's solo Devils & Dust Tour commenced with the release of the album. Springsteen received five Grammy Award nominations for this work, three for the song "Devils & Dust", Song of the Year, Best Rock Song, and Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, and two for the album as a whole, Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Long Form Music Video. His sole award came for Best Solo Rock Vocal, an award he garnered in previous years for "Code of Silence" and "The Rising". During the February 8, 2006 Grammy telecast, Springsteen gave an impassioned live solo performance of "Devils & Dust", adding on "Bring 'em home" at the finish, then immediately turned and left the stage without staying to receive his partial standing ovation. His Grammy appearance was somewhat reminiscent of his performance of "My City of Ruins" during the post-September 11, 2001 America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon.
Review (Amazon) : The last time Bruce Springsteen ventured West for inspiration, the result was the desolate Nebraska and its tales of serial killers and used cars. On his first record in three years, Springsteen navigates barren deserts and Old West war fields for a dozen forlorn songs that co-star the artist and his acoustic guitar. Though he's always had a knack for carving out the hooks and melodies that make each journey memorable, this time around Springsteen relies on the lyrics to carry the tune-desperate tales of tragedy, heartbreak, and lust with a Latino twist, like the boxer coming home ("The Hitter"), a distressing border-crossing incident ("Matamoros Banks"), and the Nevada hooker with good intentions ("Reno," which led to the warning sticker Adult Imagery). With no E Street Band in the mix, the album is decorated with horns and strings and Springsteen?s novel falsetto on two his best efforts: "Maria?s Bed," where the narrator comes home to his woman after 40 nights on the road, and the fast-picking "All I?m Thinkin? About," where he has more than Carolina on his mind. A decade from now this will be an underrated record in the Springsteen chronicles.