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- Verified Buyer
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Bruce says thay before he made this album, he was driving down the street in this hometown in New Jersey and someone yelled out the window, "We need you."How true. For who else in rock music has the ability to make a record that deals with the tragedy of September 11 without making everyone groan? U2 might have -- they have done well with weighty material in the past and their tribute at the Super Bowl was touching, but they are at least disadvantadged if not disqualified because they are Irish, not American. Their best perspective is an outsider's. Bob Dylan might have 20 or 30 years ago, but while he's still making good music, he's not the voice of the people he once was. That title falls to Springsteen -- and to him alone. And happily, he has risen to the challenge.The sound of this album is the characteristic sound of the E Street Band, and that's an appropriate sound -- it is as American as rock n roll gets. The songs, are big, anthemic selections (Into the Fire, The Rising, Empty Sky) interspersed with slower songs reminiscent of Springsteen's solo albums (Paradise, Nothing Man) it is a full, well-balanced album that is good from beginning to end.I applaud Springsteen for his wisdom as he wrote this album. While he works to deal with the incredible loss, he avoids the anger and desire for revenge that we all felt after Sept. 11, seeiming to know that such things only lead to more destruction -- even of ourselves. There are only a few muted reference to desire for revenge, almost like admitting that feeling is there. He avoids trying to explain what has happened or why, again seeming to know that explanations do not ease the pain. And he calls us out of mourning and into life again -- the main theme of the album is, as the title suggests, rising -- perseverance, getting back up, moving forward. Much as our President advised us after the event, Springsteen's message is to rise up, to keep moving, the show the evil men that have done this that they have not won by continuing to live our lives, and love each other. Like the firefighters who kept working as the world collapsed around them, our best virtue as Americans is our endurance, our ability to keep going and let adversity make us stronger and better. Springsteen voices this with skill and beauty.The album kicks off with words I find in my prayers often:Once I thought I knewEverything I needed toknow about youYour sweet whisper,your tender touchBut I didn't reallyknow that muchIt's a song about getting through, about surviving the bad days, knowing good ones will come. "This too shall pass...a little vengeance and this too shall pass."The second song is a tribute to the firefighters and paramedics who dove into the places everyone else was running away from -I need your kissbut love and duty called you someplace higherup the stairs, into the fireand the chorus is a prayer of sorts:May your strength give us strengthmay your hope give us hopemay your love give us lovemay your faith give us faith.Probably the most daring and interesting song on the album is Worlds Apart, which beautifully and hauntingly incorporates qawwali wailing (think Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn) and speaks of a love that crosses cultural barriers -- literally loving your enemies. My only complaint with Springsteen's writing is here, as he writesSometimes the truth ain't enoughOr it's too much in times like thisLet's throw the truth away, we'll find it in this kiss.The truth, no matter how tough it is, will set us free. But the subject of the song is intense -- loving an enemy goes far beyond tolerating and not striking out against one -- and so Bruce's buckle under the weight of it is understandable. Not commendable but understandable.My favorite song on the album is Paradise, a quiet and somewhat haunting venture into the mind of a victim, facing the last moments of his life in the smoke and disaster. It is beautiful and sad and in my opinion the best tribute that could be offered to those who died.This is a truly great album and I am thankful that Bruce Springsteen was around to make it.
