BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN : THE RISING

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN : THE RISING

Lonesome Day
Into The Fire
Waitin' On A Sunny Day
Nothing Man
Countin' On A Miracle
Empty Sky
Worlds Apart
Let's Be Friends (Skin To Skin)
Further On (Up The Road)
The Fuse
Mary's Place
You're Missing
The Rising
Paradise
My City Of Ruins

Label : Columbia

Length : 72:50

Released : 2002

Review (AllMusic) : "Yes, life is very confusing, we're just trying to get on with it." -- Art Carney as Harry Coomes in Harry and Tonto. The many voices that come out of the ether on Bruce Springsteen's The Rising all seem to have two things in common: the first is that they are writing from the other side, from the day after September 11, 2001, the day when life began anew, more uncertain than ever before. The other commonality that these voices share is the determination that life, however fraught with tragedy and confusion, is precious and should be lived as such. This is a lot for a rock album by a popular artist to claim, but perhaps it's the only thing there is worth anything. On this reunion with the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen offers 15 meditations -- in grand rock & roll style -- on his own way of making sense of the senseless. The band is in fine form, though with Brendan O'Brien's uncanny production, they play with an urgency and rawness they've seldom shown. This may not have been the ideal occasion for a reunion after 15 years, but it's one they got, and they go for broke. The individual tracks offer various glimpses of loss, confusion, hope, faith, resolve, and a good will that can only be shown by those who have been tested by fire. The music and production is messy, greasy; a lot of the mixes bleed tracks onto one another, giving it a more homemade feel than any previous E Street Band outing. And yes, that's a very good thing. The set opens with "Lonesome Day," a midtempo rocker with country-ish roots. Springsteen's protagonist admits to his or her shortcomings in caring for the now-absent beloved. But despite the grief and emptiness, there is a wisdom that emerges in questioning what remains: "Better ask questions before you shoot/Deceit and betrayal's bitter fruit/It's hard to swallow come time to pay/That taste on your tongue don't easily slip away/Let kingdom come/I'm gonna find my way/ Through this lonesome day." Brendan O'Brien's hurdy-gurdy cuts through the mix like a ghost, offering a view of an innocent past that has been forever canceled because it never was anyway; the instrument, like the glockenspiels that trim Bruce Springsteen's songs, offers not only texture, but a kind of formalist hint that possibilities don't always lie in the future. In contrast, "Into the Fire" seems to be sung from the perspective of a deceased firefighter's remaining partner who, despite her/his unfathomable loss, offers a prayer of affirmation, and the request to embody the same qualities he or she displayed in paying the ultimate price for selflessness. A Dobro and acoustic guitar bring in the ghost of a mountain melody, and Max Weinberg's muted snare and tom-tom rhythm offer the solemnity of the lyric before Roy Bittan and Danny Federici shift the gears and offer a nearly symphonic crescendo on the refrain: "May your strength bring us strength/may your faith give us faith/May your hope give us hope/May your love give us love." The second time through, the last line subtly changes to "May your love bring us love." While the band is in full flower, the keys are muted under sonic ambience and the snaky lone acoustic guitar and Weinberg's thundering processional drumming. Likewise, the revelatory rock & roll on "Worlds Apart," complete with a knife-edged wail of a guitar solo by Springsteen that soars around a Sufi choir is not only a manner of adding exotica to the mix, but another way of saying that all cultures are in this together, and it unwittingly reveals that great rock can be made with virtually any combination of musicians. It's a true scorcher. "Further On (Up the Road)" is a straight-ahead rocker complete with knotty riffs and plenty of rootsed-out, greasy guitar overdrive -- most of the album does, but that's one of O'Brien's strengths as a producer -- that are evocative of Mike Ness and Social Distortion's late efforts. Lest anyone mistakenly perceive this recording as a somber evocation of loss and despair, it should also be stated that this is very much an E Street Band recording. Clarence Clemons is everywhere, and the R&B swing and slip of the days of yore is in the house -- especially on "Waitin' for a Sunny Day," "Countin' on a Miracle," "Mary's Place" (with a full horn section), and the souled-out "Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin)." These tracks echo the past with their loose good-time feel, but "echo" is the key word. Brendan O'Brien's guitar-accented production offers us an E Street Band coming out of the ether and stepping in to fill a void. The songs themselves are, without exception, rooted in loss, but flower with the possibility of moving into what comes next, with a hard-won swagger and busted-up grace. They offer balance and a shifting perspective, as well as a depth that is often deceptive. The last of these is a bona fide love song, without which, in rock & roll anyway, no real social commentary is possible. The title track is one of Mr. Springsteen's greatest songs. It is an anthem, but not in the sense you usually reference in regard to his work. This anthem is an invitation to share everything, to accept everything, to move through everything individually and together. Power-chorded guitars and pianos entwine in the choruses with a choir, and Clemons wails on a part with a stinging solo. Here too, the chantlike chorus is nearly in symphonic contrast to the country-ish verse, but it hardly matters, as everything inside and outside the track gets swept into this "dream of life." The album closes with "Paradise," a haunting and haunted narrative offered from the point of view of a suicide bomber and a studio version of "My City of Ruins." These songs will no doubt confuse some as they stand in seemingly sharp contrast to one another, but in "My City of Ruins," all contradictions cease to matter. With acoustic pianos and subtley shimmering Memphis soul-style guitars that give way to a Hammond B-3 and a gospel choir, Springsteen sings "rise up" without artifice. In this "churchlike" confessional of equanimity, Springsteen reaches out to embrace not only his listeners, but all of the protagonists in the aforementioned songs and their circles of families and friends. The album ends with an acknowledgement of grace and an exhortation to action. With The Rising, Springsteen has found a way to be inclusive and instructive without giving up his particular vision as a songwriter, nor his considerable strength as a rock & roll artist. In fact, if anything, The Rising is one of the very best examples in recent history of how popular art can evoke a time period and all of its confusing and often contradictory notions, feelings, and impulses. There are tales of great suffering in The Rising to be sure, but there is joy, hope, and possibility, too. Above all, there is a celebration and reverence for everyday life. And if we need anything from rock & roll, it's that. It would be unfair to lay on Bruce Springsteen the responsibility of guiding people through the aftermath of a tragedy and getting on with the business of living, but rock & roll as impure, messy, and edifying as this helps.

Review (Wikipedia) : The Rising is the 12th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released in 2002. In addition to being Springsteen's first studio album in seven years, it was also his first with the E Street Band in 18 years. It is centered around Springsteen's reflections on the September 11, 2001 attacks. Upon its release, The Rising was a critical and commercial success, and hailed as the triumphant return for Springsteen. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of over 520,000 copies. With this, Springsteen became the oldest person to achieve a first-week sales of over a half of a million copies in the United States[citation needed]. The album also garnered a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 2003; although nominated for the Album of the Year award as well, it was beaten by Norah Jones' debut album Come Away with Me. Title song "The Rising" was also a Grammy nominee and recipient. For the year 2002, The Rising was one of only two albums to receive Rolling Stone's highest rating ? five stars ? the other being Beck's Sea Change. The magazine also ranked the album #15 on its list of 100 Best Albums of the Decade. While most of the songs were written after September 11, 2001, a few of them pre-date the attacks. It's been rumoured that Springsteen got the inspiration for the album a few days after the 9/11 attacks, when a stranger in a car stopped next to him, wound down his window and said: "We need you now." Springsteen also told this story to journalist Mark Binelli in the August 22 2002 issue of Rolling Stone. "My City of Ruins" was originally performed in, and written about, Asbury Park, New Jersey. After its performance by Springsteen on the post-September 11 America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon, however, the song took on an expanded meaning. "Further On (Up the Road)" was performed live in Madison Square Garden during the summer of 2000 at the end of the Springsteen-E Street Reunion Tour, and was professionally recorded, although it was not included in the HBO, DVD, or CD versions of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live in New York City. "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" was originally written in the early- or mid-1990s and played in at least one soundcheck during the Reunion Tour. Springsteen has commented that "Nothing Man" was originally completed in 1994 but re-recorded for this album. "Mary's Place" is directly inspired by Sam Cooke's "Meet Me at Mary's Place";[3][4] "Let's Be Friends" takes musical form from John Mellencamp's "Cherry Bomb" and Mariah Carey's "Dreamlover"; and the gospel-like "My City of Ruins" is organized around the melody line of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready".[6] Helped by a substantial marketing campaign ? pre-release promotion was the biggest of Springsteen's career ? and the concurrent Rising Tour, The Rising went on to become Springsteen's first #1 album on the U.S. pop albums chart since his 1995 Greatest Hits album and would go on to sell about 2,100,000 copies in the United States, making it Springsteen's best-selling album of new material since 1987's Tunnel of Love. A re-recorded version of the song "The Fuse" with an orchestral backing features in the Spike Lee-directed film 25th Hour. Rolling Stone ranked The Rising #15 on its list of 100 Best Albums of the Decade.