Letter To You
Letter To You
Letter To You is Bruce Springsteen’s new studio album with the E Street Band, and is a rock album fueled by the band’s heart-stopping, house-rocking signature sound. Recorded at his home studio in New Jersey, Letter To You is Springsteen’s 20th studio album, and is his first album including the E Street Band since 2012’s High Hopes and their first performances together since 2016’s The River Tour.
“I love the emotional nature of Letter To You,” says Springsteen. “And I love the sound of the E Street Band playing completely live in the studio, in a way we’ve never done before, and with no overdubs. We made the album in only five days, and it turned out to be one of the greatest recording experiences I’ve ever had.”
Letter to You includes nine recently written Springsteen songs, as well as new recordings of three of his legendary, but previously unreleased, compositions from the 1970s, “Janey Needs a Shooter,” “If I Was the Priest,” and “Song for Orphans.” Springsteen is joined on Letter To You by Roy Bittan, Nils Lofgren, Patti Scialfa, Garry Tallent, Stevie Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Charlie Giordano and Jake Clemons. The album was produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen, mixed by Bob Clearmountain and mastered by Bob Ludwig.
Review
Ellen Cregan
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band go back a long way – they first played together almost five decades ago, in 1972. Springsteen selected the members of this band to back him on his debut record, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J, and since then they’ve recorded and toured for a number of his albums. Letter To You is the first studio album that Springsteen and the E Street Band have played together on since 2014, and the magic between this group of musicians is still going strong.
Incredibly, this is Springsteen’s twentieth studio album. The nine tracks on Letter To You convey the sweeping, dramatic Americana that feature on all of Springsteen and the E Street Band’s most beloved songs. They are not in any way reinventing the wheel here, but why should they? There is a bit of the hi-octane vibe of ‘Born to Run’, some of the effortless jamming of ‘Blinded by the Light’, and a dash of the lighters-in-the-air anthemic potential of ‘The Promised Land’. And while things are slightly toned down in this latest offering (understandably so – most of the band members are in or approaching their seventies) the energy isn’t diluted, it’s refined. A working relationship of forty-eight years is no quiet feat, and Letter To You is a wonderful example of experienced musicians working together like a finely tuned machine but still having a great deal of fun with their craft.
If you are a fan of Springsteen and the E Street Band, wanting to relive the glory days (pun absolutely intended), Letter To You will find a place in your heart and on your turntables.
Ellen Cregan is the marketing coordinator.
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