Bruce Springsteen
Album: Wrecking Ball
Label: Columbia
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.brucespringsteen.net

The Boss has rarely sounded as downright angry as he does on this set of dogged hymns that articulate his middle-aged worries about the health of America's soul. There are times when his ire is offset by the kind of heroic chord changes and soaring choruses that have left his songs open to misinterpretation throughout his career - Easy Money berates the kind of vile profiteering that drove the western world headlong into recession yet comes across as a hand on heart anthem.

It's more effective when the message gets more direct as on Jack Of All Trades in which he pours scorn on the greedy bankers; and on the following Death Of My Hometown he paints a deliberately down home picture of the consequences of the fat cats' actions.

But even though harsh economic realities have got Bruce's goose, he is still a way short of articulating any kind of solution and it's at such a moment we are reminded just how big a hole Joe Strummer left when he headed out west. As good as this album is in places, I can't help feeling Joe would have tried to use the anger to shine a light forward rather than simply highlight the slightly uneasy spectacle of a multi-millionaire rock star bemoaning hard times on Main Street.

And as much as Wrecking Ball reaches for the rootsy subtleties that have graced Springsteen's recent albums, his righteous anger seems to have kept him from the sublime flourishes that characterised the Seeger Sessions set - most dramatically, Rocky Ground stumbles on the sharp rocks of a ham fisted stab at gospel.

It's easy to carp and Springsteen goes further than most of his kind in commenting on the nature of the hand that feeds him - for that he is to be applauded and admired. Indeed, he achieves an almost unexpected salvation right at the end when he turns hoary campfire busker for the churchified We Are Alive.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk