Bruce Springsteen's new album Devils & Dust will be released next Tuesday, April 26, in North America (April 25 in Europe) in the new DualDisc format (CD on one side, DVD on the other).
First of all, Devils & Dust is essentially an acoustic-based release. That announcement had a lot of fans of Springsteen's rock & roll material groaning, thinking it would be similar to 1982's Nebraska or 1995's The Ghost Of Tom Joad (I happen to really enjoy both albums, although many of the tracks on Tom Joad do share a certain sameness in melody which can get a bit boring through the course of the record). Overall, this new album is not boring — only a couple of songs share any similarity with Bruce's previous acoustic work (one of which, "The Hitter," was written and performed a time or two during the Tom Joad tour).
Springsteen has said that many of the songs on the new album were inspired by the American Southwest (as were most on The Ghost Of Tom Joad). Perhaps I'm biased somewhat since I've lived in this part of the country since July 1994 and enjoy the fact that Bruce is interested with the area (his 1996 concert here in Albuquerque holds special meaning for me as I first got to meet and actually talk to him after the show; he also jumped on his Harley Davidson motorcycle and roared down the dark street, thrilling the few gathered fans).
A few tracks on the album are actually muted rockers; I say "muted" because they lack the instrumental powerhouse of the E Street Band but still chug along nicely ("All The Way Home" is a nice example of this; I can't wait to hear Bruce perform it with the full band). When the title track first became available several weeks ago, there was a lot of discussion about how the tune sounded like "Blood Brothers," an E Street Band track from January 1995's Greatest Hits sessions. I don't really see that similarity — I think "Devils & Dust" is a much better song — but the harmonica break does remind me of "This Hard Land" (first recorded in May 1982 and long-considered one of Bruce's finest unreleased tracks, it was re-recorded and released on Greatest Hits). Also, at this time, I think the song includes the best lyrics of the entire album.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
very very nice job Mark, really appreciate the early info - thanks and welcome!
2 - Vern Halen
I imagine there'll be lots of blogcritiquing when the album comes out next week - there's still plenty of diehard Tramps that would rather have Bruce dig deeper into the vaults & release the sdtudio versions of Fire, etc. instead of acoustic material. Me? I'll take whatever I can get.
3 - Mark Saleski
me too.
you can bet i'll be blogcritiquing this.
and don't forget that the vh1 storytellers show is saturday night (and probably replayed 50 or 100 times).
4 - Evan
when i saw Bruce Springsteens new cd deviils and dust it was explict but lucky i dont have it i have Elton John ice on fire