Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball

"JON PARELES: 'Wrecking Ball' is Springsteen’s latest manifesto in support of the workingman, and his direct blast at fat cats and banksters who derailed the economy. It’s sincere, ambitious and angry, which can lead to mixed outcomes. It also — which may be a surprise on an album billed as a broadside — holds some of Springsteen’s most elaborate studio concoctions since 'Born to Run.' The album has been growing on me with each play; it starts out heavy-handed, but by the end it moves from duty to pleasure. Springsteen definitely picked the right title song. 'Wrecking Ball,' written from the first-person point of view of the old Giants Stadium, turns a conceit into a homily into a hoot. ... On 'Wrecking Ball' he’s trying to stake out a God-and-country liberalism, a gospel of hard, sweaty work and earned income, while venting direct fury at vulture capitalists. He also comes out pro-immigrant, openly romantic (Kenny Chesney could have a hit with 'You’ve Got It') and reverent to the point of direct Bible allusions. Where agitprop folkies would be doing this rhetorical heavy lifting over a righteously austere acoustic guitar, Springsteen only starts there. The music lifts this album out of its hard-times gloom, and charges off all over the place: roots Americana, electric guitars, synthesizers, orchestra" (Jon Pareles and Jon Caramanica, "Springsteen," New York Times, 3/4/12).

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