Bruce Springsteen - Letter to you Review

Bruce Springsteen is back at the age of 71 with his twentieth studio album - Letter to you - and on this special occasion he is accompanied by the E Street Band and Roy Bittan, Nils Lofgren, Patti Scialfa, Garry Tallent, Stevie Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Charlie Giordano and Jake Clemons. It all sounds beautiful and the production is practically perfect.

Some songs of this album, like Janey Needs A Shooter, If I Was The Priest and Song For Orphans, were written in the very first phase of his career and left in the drawer for a very long time. It is remarkable to note how Bruce's vocal abilities are always intact and his voice still sounds like that of a few decades ago, listen to how he sings in If I was the priest, above all.

The opener is really beautiful, the extremely melancholy One Minute You're Here which is the perfect opener of a very Springsteenian record, with the following tracks Letter to you (video clip at the bottom of the page) and Burnin 'train which have 100% boss's trademark.

Another song that I really like is Ghost, which certainly won't be very original but it contains the verve of the boss and his band and I'm sure it will work great on stage.

The lyrics, which have always been one of the strengths of his career, are always very intense and represent the thoughts of a man by now mature and arrived at the final stage of his life, with the beautiful experiences that each path leaves behind and with the awareness that, unfortunately, everything is volatile. Perfect in this sense is the closing of the album with I'll See You in My Dreams, which, as easily understood, is a thought to those who are no longer with us.

Every review written by me can never end without the phrase "a few songs less would perhaps have made it more enjoyable to listen to in its entirety" or "some song perhaps would work better cut by a couple of minutes", but by now you know it. But who am I to change a sacred monster like Bruce Springsteen? The record lasts 58 minutes and has 12 tracks, for the record.

Given the age and career of this sacred monster, I can only bow and absolutely promote Letter to you, in my view his best record in many years now, with a great production and beautiful songs. Long live the boss.

Rating: 73/100
Top tracks: One Minute You're Here, Letter to you, Ghost.

Tracklist

1. One Minute You're Here

2. Letter to You
3. Burnin' Train
4. Janey Needs a Shooter
5. Last Man Standing
6. The Power of Prayer
7. House of a Thousand Guitars
8. Rainmaker
9. If I Was the Priest
10. Ghosts
11. Song for Orphans
12. I'll See You in My Dreams