Jack White’s latest is creepy and lovely.
Album of the Week
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
“Wrecking Ball”
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Bruce Springsteen might be one of the wealthiest men in music, but he shows no love of money on today’s release, “Wrecking Ball.”
Musically, it’s a Springsteen sampler skipping from the acoustic folk jams of his 2006 “Seeger Sessions” to arena anthems most associated with the Boss. On this powerhouse CD, Springsteen seems inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, with several derogatory references to “fat cats,” “the banker man” and “robber barons” while praising the working stiff. When he’s not letting us know this land is our land, as on “We Take Care of Our Own,” Springsteen reminds us how love rejuvenates the soul in the very uplifting, yet misnamed, song “This Depression.”
In what is a very personal collection, Springsteen comes to grips with his own grief over the death in June of his pal and bandmate, saxophonist Clarence Clemons, in the final song, “We Are Alive.”
That tune conjures the past by opening with the sound of a needle traveling the grooves of an LP. The hiss ’n’ pop of worn vinyl gives way to a bouncy reel that would feel comfortable in any Irish pub.
On the track, Springsteen’s baritone is its most forceful as he asks in the lyrics that you put your ear to a gravestone and listen to the stories of the dead. This heavy notion is reiterated in a liner-notes tribute to Clemons in which Springsteen asks: “How big was the Big Man? Too big to die. You can put that on his gravestone . . . Clarence didn’t leave the E Street Band when he died, he leaves when we die.”
The power and glory of Clemons’ sax soar on “The Land of Hope and Dreams,” a song featured on his 2001 album “Live in New York City.” Here it’s supercharged by the Big Man’s horn, and lyrics Springsteen snatched from Curtis Mayfield’s pop-gospel classic “People Get Ready.”
The Boss gets risky during “Rocky Ground,” a rock spiritual laced with biblical references — it’s where he tests how rap fits in with his roll. Like a bolt of lightning near the song’s close, vocalist Michelle Moore raps lyrics 62-year-old Springsteen wrote. It’s soft-core consciousness-raising hip-hop where the Boss writes about doing your best in hard times. And it fits the record’s musical eclecticism and for-the-people sentiments.
For a free taste of the complete record, it’s streaming on brucespringsteen.net until midnight tonight.
Download of the Week
JACK WHITE
“Love Interruption”
***
Rock has taught us love stinks and love hurts, but Jack White ups the ante on his single “Love Interruption,” from his upcoming CD, “Blunderbuss,” due April 24. The neo-bluesman is calm as he sings to the simple, slow-burn piano/guitar/sax arrangement. He croons, “I want love to roll me over slowly. Stick a knife inside me and twist it all around.” White broods his way through the piece — he wants love to hurt him, kill his mother and turn his friends into enemies. He gets vocal support from Ghanaian singer Ruby Amanfu, who appeared with him this past weekend to perform the track on “Saturday Night Live.” While it’s still a creepy song, the pair’s angel/devil balance of voices helps establish the tune’s twisted sense of romance.