I cannot in good conscience review this album without calling him out for the gross immorality of the song "Paradise." It is a sad, gentle acoustic ballad detailing the last thoughts of a suicide bomber. A sympathetic look at these petty life-hating monsters, ascribing them decent human character is a DISGRACE. Perhaps he will follow it up with a nice song about the internal angst of a guard at Auschwitz as he herds some Jews into the oven. Placing this amongst the songs about the heroic firefighters is to piss on their memory by the equivalence.

You could find no more direct example of the wickedness of liberal multiculturalism and moral equivalence. Worse, the song is such a passionless, hookless rote expression of the proper PC posture that you most likely won't remember it five minutes later. The pure blandness of the song keeps it from generating even the heat of outrage.

Yeah, the record sold pretty good for a week or two- but but there were no actual hit songs. The record just made no impression on pop radio despite the fearsome corporate marketing, and it's already dropping like a stone. At some future point, this album will be rightfully regarded as a black mark on Springsteen's career, a crass and exploitative cash in by a has been latching on to a national tragedy.

When Springsteen appears on tv saying this is one of his best albums, it is understandable. Hey, he's got a record to sell, and he has to psych himself up for a big tour. Anyone not on his payroll who says such things, however, is a damned fool.

For more on Bruce see here, here, here, here, and here. Okay, two more.