Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball (2012) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 51:47 minutes | 599 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Qobuz | Booklet, Front Cover | © Columbia Records
Recorded: 2010-11 in New Jersey at Stone Hill at Bruce’s House

Wrecking Ball is the seventeenth studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released March 5, 2012, on Columbia Records. It was named best album of 2012 by Rolling Stone and along with the album’s first single, “We Take Care of Our Own”, was nominated for three Grammy Awards.

Heavy lies the crown on Bruce Springsteen’s head. Alone among his generation — or any subsequent generation, actually — he has shouldered the burden of telling the stories of the downtrodden in the new millennium, a class whose numbers increase by the year, a fact that weighs on Springsteen throughout 2012’s Wrecking Ball. Such heavy-hearted rumination is not unusual for the Boss. Ever since The Rising, his 2002 return to action, a record deliberately tailored to address the lingering anger and sorrow from 9/11, Springsteen has eschewed the frivolous in favor of the weighty, escalating his dry, dusty folk and operatic rock in tandem, all in hopes of pushing the plight of the forgotten into public consciousness. Each of his five albums since The Rising have been tailored for the specific political moment — Devils & Dust ruminated over forgotten Americans in the wake of the Iraq war; We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions was an election year rallying call; Magic struggled to find meaning in these hard times; Working on a Dream saw hope in the dawning days of Obama — and it’s no mistake that Wrecking Ball fuses elements of all four into an election year state of the union: Bruce is taking stock of where we are and how we’ve gotten here, urging us to push forward. If that sounds a bit haughty, it also plays that way. Springsteen has systematically removed any element of fun — “Mary’s Place” is the only original in the past decade that could be called a party song — along with all the romance or any element of confessional songwriting. He has adopted the mantle of the troubadour and oral historian, telling tales of the forgotten and punctuating them with rallying calls to action. Wrecking Ball contains more of the latter than any of its predecessors, summoning the masses to rise up against fatcat bankers set to singalongs lifted from Seeger. There’s an unshakable collectivist hootenanny feel on Wrecking Ball, not to mention allusions to gospel including a borrowed refrain from “This Train,” but Springsteen takes pains to have the music feel modern, inviting Tom Morello to do aural paintings with his guitar, threading some trip-hop rhythms into the mix, and finding space for a guest rap on “Rocky Ground.” As admirable as the intent is, the splices between old-fashioned folk protests and dour modernity become too apparent, possibly because there’s so little room to breathe on the album — the last recorded appearance of Clarence Clemons helps lift “Land of Hope and Dreams” above the rest — possibly because the message has been placed before the music. Springsteen is so focused on preaching against creeping inequality in the U.S. that he’s wound up honing his words and not his music, letting the big-footed stomps and melancholy strumming play second fiddle to the stories. Consequently, Wrecking Ball feels cumbersome and top heavy, Springsteen sacrificing impassioned rage in favor of explaining his intentions too clearly. -AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:
1 We Take Care Of Our Own 3:54
2 Easy Money 3:37
3 Shackled And Drawn 3:46
4 Jack Of All Trades 6:00
5 Death To My Hometown 3:29
6 This Depression 4:08
7 Wrecking Ball 5:50
8 You’ve Got It 3:49
9 Rocky Ground 4:41
10 Land Of Hope And Dreams 6:58
11 We Are Alive 5:36

Personnel:
Bruce Springsteen – vocals, guitars, banjo, piano, organ, drums, percussion, loops
Ron Aniello – guitar, bass, keyboards, piano, drums, loops
Max Weinberg – drums (tracks 7, 11 & 13)
Matt Chamberlain – drums (track 3, 5, 8, 10)
Charlie Giordano – accordion, piano, organ, synth, celeste (track 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12 & 13)
Soozie Tyrell – violin (track 2 – 7, 10 & 11)
Clarence Clemons – saxophone (tracks 7 & 10)
Tom Morello – electric guitar (track 4 & 6)
Greg Leisz – banjo, mandocello (track 11) lap steel guitar (track 8)
Marc Muller – pedal steel (track 8)
Steve Van Zandt – mandolin (track 10 & 13)
Horn Section:
Curt Ramm (tracks 3, 4, 7 – 10)
Clark Gayton (tracks 3, 4, 7 – 10)
Stan Harrison (tracks 3, 4, 7 – 10)
Ed Manion (tracks 3, 4, 7 – 10)
Dan Levine (tracks 3, 4, 7 – 10)
Art Baron (tracks 3, 4, 7 – 10)
Curt Ramm – trumpet solo (tracks 4 & 7)
Darrel Leonard – trumpet solo (track 11)
Additional:
Kevin Buell – marching drum (track 5)
Rob Lebret – electric guitar (track 7)
Clif Norrell – tuba (track 3)
Steve Jordan – tambourine (track 2)
Backing Vocals:
Patti Scialfa vocal arrangements
Lisa Lowell – (tracks 1 – 3, 6, 7, 10 & 11)
Soozie Tyrell – (tracks 1 – 3, 6, 7, 10 & 11)
Michelle Moore – (tracks 9 & 10)
Cindy Mizelle – outro vocal (track 3)
Steve Van Zandt – (tracks 7, 10 & 13)
Ron Aniello – (tracks 1 & 12)
Kevin Buell – (track 5)
Group Vocals:
Ross Petersen, Ron Aniello, Clif Norrell, Rob Lebret tracks 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 & 13
Choir:
Victorious Gospel Choir – (tracks 9 & 10) Founder & Director: Lilly “Crawford” Brown
Strings:
New York Chamber Consort – (tracks 1, 2, 4, 7 & 12)
Strings arranged and conducted by Rob Mathes

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