I pulled that bothersome thread

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

30/10/20 : Letter To You - Bruce Springsteen


I've written up three of Bruce's albums, but nothing more recent than Born In The USA which was released a mere 38 years ago now.  Wow.  I like his stuff from that period, but recently he's moved more into the admirable rather than enjoyable category for me - I understand he wants to plough his American folk furrow but it's all a bit too earnest for my liking.  And I'm expecting this to result in a similar reaction.

And it does in places - veering dangerously close to Bob Dylan, but acceptable Bob rather than dreadful Bob so I can forgive him.  But the rest of it is closer to enjoyable Bruce than I was expecting - there's electric guitars and drums and shit!  He sounds like a man who the years are hanging heavy on but he is 72 now so I think we can probably let him off.  So yeah, I liked this and will be making an effort to revisit - cheers Bruce!

We're at #1 with a new entry this week - he managed 11 weeks before disappearing from view (and it feels like it deserved a bit more than that to me).  Other new entries in the top 10 are Gorillaz (#2), Nothing But Thieves (#3 - and I think I did well to remember I'd already heard this one), Blossoms (#5), Faithless (#6), Joe Bonamassa (#7) and Russell Watson (#10) - that's one busy top ten roundabout this week but I think only Blossoms would tempt me further (and Faithless, but it's a best of).

Wikipedia has the expectedly large amount on the album (293 milliPeppers) - and some of it is actually interesting!  It's his twentieth studio album (a fine effort, lad!) and was recorded live in the studio in a mere four days.  My comments about the years hanging on are backed up by the album's themes being aging and mortality and a load of the songs were written after the death of one of his former bandmates.  Additionally, three of the tracks were written before his first album came out - it must have been interested for him to revisit them nearly 50 years later.  The critics and the public loved the album - #1 in loads of places including the US (somewhat unsurprisingly).

"Customers also listened to" a whole load of albums by either Bruce, Mrs Bruce or E-Streeters - there's a load of them out there.  And I think that this is one of the better ones - and I'm really going to make that effort to listen to it again.  Honest!

23/10/20 - Something not aimed at me
06/11/20 - Less bland than I was expecting

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