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Post by Kapitan on Jun 23, 2023 15:42:58 GMT
This week was the first time I've ever listened to this album, but I probably haven't really given it enough attention, but when I've played it, it kind of fades into the background by about the fourth of fifth track. Maybe I'll give it a listen today before I assign it a rating. While I'd say the 5th track is the best one on the album (and a unique one on the album), I definitely get the point, and that is why I really don't like the sequencing: especially tracks 6-10 are a lull in the action, so to speak.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 23, 2023 17:23:37 GMT
I thought I'd link to my three favorite songs from the album, thinking that any more casual fans might want to give them a listen. Depending on how much you've checked out Springsteen, they might surprise you.
Sleepy Joe's Cafe, a fun little Tex-Mex feeling dance tune. My favorite on the album.
There Goes My Miracle, an example of Bruce really going for it vocally in an epic production.
Hello Sunshine, a kind of Harry Nilsson ("Everybody's Talkin'") or Glen Campbell feeling rootsy pop song.
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Post by kds on Jun 23, 2023 17:25:26 GMT
I didn't listen in full, but skipped around a little, to try to get a better feel for some of the songs, notably the later ones. The only one that really stands out to me is There Goes My Miracle, which is pretty late in the album.
But, overall, this album does very well for me.
Five
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Post by B.E. on Jun 25, 2023 0:44:22 GMT
I plan to listen once more before eventually commenting, but I really was impressed with this album. I hadn't heard it before. I'm giving it a 7, but I think objectively it deserves an 8. It's too soon, though, for me to rate it that high, as I'm just not familiar enough with the songs yet. I ended up listening to the news coverage of the situation in Russia all day. It's very rare that I do that.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 25, 2023 11:34:31 GMT
Three voters rated Western Stars an average of 6.7 7.0.
Thanks for participating. We will move on later today.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 25, 2023 14:00:58 GMT
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Letter to You (2020)
Just over a year after his Western Stars Bruce Springsteen released another new studio album, Letter to You, recorded with the E Street Band. And while it had been six years since the last E Street Band record, there was only one solo album separating them. In fact, this would be the sixth of eight albums that Springsteen released since 2002 to be considered E Street Band albums (after spending much of the previous 20 years releasing solo music).
Contrary to those recent E Street Band albums, though, Letter to You was recorded not by E Street Band members doing their parts when and if time allowed, but as a band, live, with no demoing and minimal overdubbing.
Springsteen had been suffering an extended period of writer's block. (Recall that both 2019's Western Stars and 2014's High Hopes mostly comprised older material.) Finally, in April 2019, he broke through with a week and a half of "intense" songwriting. He also resurrected three songs he'd written before his debut album, demos for which he found while working on an archival project. That fall, Springsteen arranged for the band to assemble at his home studio to record. But this five-day November 2019 session only took four. The group recorded live in the studio together. By November 15, 2019, the album was recorded.
Letter to You was released to critical acclaim from all the usual suspects. Its popular reception was more mixed: it debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200, but never reached #1, and the album has not yet gone gold in the U.S.
Please listen to, discuss, and rate Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Letter to You, which will be up through Saturday, July 1.
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Post by kds on Jun 26, 2023 12:12:42 GMT
I remember listening to Letter to You back when it was released in late 2020 a couple times, and enjoying it, but for some reason, I just never went back to it.
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Post by kds on Jun 27, 2023 16:01:02 GMT
I just finished up my second listen this week to Letter to You, and I'm getting the same feeling that I did back in 2020, where I like it, but don't love it. It's reminding me a bit of The Rising, but without any real standout tracks.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 28, 2023 14:24:36 GMT
My impression of this album since its release has been that it was nice, but a bit of a letdown from Western Stars. And on my second full listen of the week (plus a few false starts where I got in a track or two), that's still more or less where I fall.
One part of its narrative that seems not to hold up is that of it being primarily a collection of new songs written in a weeklong burst in 2019. All along, we knew that wasn't quite true: three songs ("Janey Needs a Shooter," "If I Was The Priest," and "Song for Orphans") all dated from prior to Springsteen's debut album. But two more songs date back 20-30 years, bringing the overall total to five old songs and seven new. Sure, that's still a majority, but a pretty slim one. ("Burnin' Train" dates back to 1993 and was revived in 1998; "Rainmaker" dates back to 2003.)
I like several of the songs (some older, some newer) a fair amount, but I don't really LOVE any of them.
I do like the sound of the album. And it's really something that this was the first album to be recorded with the E Street Band together since Born in the USA, nearly 40 years prior! Any time Springsteen did an E Street Band album since, it was piecemeal with individual musicians (or small groups of them) working to do their parts in full or relative isolation. Granted, most rock and pop bands record most of their music that way, individually, to maintain as much control over the results as possible. (It's much, much easier to edit or otherwise shape the overall results when each element can be changed without affecting the others.)
But the great sounding band and energy in some of the tracks doesn't make up for relatively middle-of-the-road songs.
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Post by kds on Jun 28, 2023 15:02:19 GMT
My impression of this album since its release has been that it was nice, but a bit of a letdown from Western Stars. And on my second full listen of the week (plus a few false starts where I got in a track or two), that's still more or less where I fall. One part of its narrative that seems not to hold up is that of it being primarily a collection of new songs written in a weeklong burst in 2019. All along, we knew that wasn't quite true: three songs ("Janey Needs a Shooter," "If I Was The Priest," and "Song for Orphans") all dated from prior to Springsteen's debut album. But two more songs date back 20-30 years, bringing the overall total to five old songs and seven new. Sure, that's still a majority, but a pretty slim one. ("Burnin' Train" dates back to 1993 and was revived in 1998; "Rainmaker" dates back to 2003.) I like several of the songs (some older, some newer) a fair amount, but I don't really LOVE any of them. I do like the sound of the album. And it's really something that this was the first album to be recorded with the E Street Band together since Born in the USA, nearly 40 years prior! Any time Springsteen did an E Street Band album since, it was piecemeal with individual musicians (or small groups of them) working to do their parts in full or relative isolation. Granted, most rock and pop bands record most of their music that way, individually, to maintain as much control over the results as possible. (It's much, much easier to edit or otherwise shape the overall results when each element can be changed without affecting the others.) But the great sounding band and energy in some of the tracks doesn't make up for relatively middle-of-the-road songs. This is pretty much exactly how I feel about Letters To You. The only difference is I liked it better than Western Stars.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 28, 2023 16:13:37 GMT
I'm going 7. I did a little track-by-track rating after a couple more listens today (so about 4 total, plus a few partials), and the average was 6.9+. So, 7.
Maybe as much as any Springsteen album, this is consistent. This is one where I feel like the average score really is the average, representative of almost everything. Not one song sunk into the 5s for me, and not one reached 9. The distribution was:
8.0 - 1 - "Burnin' Train" 7.5 - 4 - "Letter To You," "House of a Thousand Guitars," "Ghosts," and "See You In My Dreams" 7.0 - 2 - "One Minute You're Here," "Song For Orphans" 6.5 - 3 - "Last Man Standing," "Rainmaker," "If I Was The Priest" 6.0 - 2 - "Janey Needs a Shooter," "The Power of Prayer"
What's funny is how much more I can enjoy and appreciate each song on its own than when I listen to the whole album. Something about its E Street Bandness actually detracts. Several of the songs almost feel scientifically designed to be stereotypical E Street Band songs.
A few that don't are the three early '70s tunes rerecorded for the album. All three of those feel to me like Springsteen imitating Blonde on Blonde era Bob Dylan, possibly with a dash of the Rolling Thunder Revue arrangements built in (to expand the band size from Dylan's more typical, smaller groups). Those songs are fine, but they have some of the typical complaints I had about Bruce in that era: they're wordy and overlong.
The biggest missed opportunity on the album for me is "House of a Thousand Guitars." The music is unquestionably catchy, a really strong tune and arrangement ... but I just hate those lyrics. It feels like a placeholder that got left in place. It would be up with, or above, "Burnin' Train" with the right rewrite.
All in all, this is a good, strong album. But one that doesn't hold up as a single unit or statement that demands (or even holds) my attention from start to finish. It does not compete with the band's best, but it's a hell of a lot better than many legacy artists of a similar vintage were doing in 2020 (if they were doing anything at all).
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Post by kds on Jun 28, 2023 16:44:16 GMT
Maybe it reminds me of a song that I can't place, but I was thinking See You in My Dreams was a cover. But, it's not. I'm not sure if it sounds vaguely like another song rattling in my brain, or if I just happen to recall it from my 2020 listens.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 28, 2023 16:49:51 GMT
Maybe it reminds me of a song that I can't place, but I was thinking See You in My Dreams was a cover. But, it's not. I'm not sure if it sounds vaguely like another song rattling in my brain, or if I just happen to recall it from my 2020 listens. It definitely has a familiar sound to it. I don't know if it's because of some other song(s) that really resemble it--after all, we've had Bruce writing several songs that REALLY resemble other ones in the past decade of his music--or if it's just that it has a familiar sound overall. That happens sometimes, too, where it is nothing specific, it just feels familiar right away. I wonder if anyone will think of a tune it resembles. B.E.? Any thoughts? Regardless, I like it a lot.
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Post by kds on Jun 28, 2023 17:44:56 GMT
I might be thinking of the old song that was used to conclude the George Harrison Tribute Concert.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 28, 2023 17:58:29 GMT
There is some similarity especially in the rhythm of the shared title phrase across them both.
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