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Bruce SpringsteenDevils + Dust SonyBMG As with most Springsteen albums, the critics are divided on this one. There are those who want Bruce's full pump production 'Born In The USA' with the E Street band all over again, those who pine for the lo-fi acoustic 'Nebraska' and those who love both sides of the seemingly musical bi-polar Boss. I'll admit to being of the latter persuasion, but hopefully no less critical of things that don't work (no, I really don't want to discuss 'Lucky Town' thank you). 'Devils + Dust' is by no means the sombre outing that was 'The Ballad Of Tom Joad' and while still primarily acoustic, it chugs along at a fair pace much of the time. Fact fans would know that 'Born In The USA' was actually written at the same time as 'Nebraska', and was meant to be released as a companion acoustic album. Story has it that the record company decided that the second record would sound better as rock songs, and the rest is history. Why is this relevant? Because it doesn't take much to hear the big rock numbers in these simple arrangements. While the instrumentation doesn't go far beyond drums, bass and acoustic guitar (with obligatory harmonica), you can sense the explosion poised just outside the room. Like the storyteller he has always been, Bruce assumes a character for each of these songs and this brings out a few changes of accent (western twang to kinda TexMex) and a remarkably developed falsetto. In the accompanying DVD he points out that each of these songs is about a soul in danger, from the frightened soldier in Iraq in the title tune to the disconsolate lover looking for escape with a hooker in Reno and the last thoughts of the illegal immigrant dying on the banks of the Rio Grande in Matamoros Banks. The Hitter is a circuit boxer on hard times telling his mother about the dives he took and the money he made; Black Cowboys is the ghetto kid gettin' out. All The Way Home may well be the closest to a rock song, albeit with a swinging country twang, but All I'm Thinking About Is You is that big rude rock number that the E Street Band would have picked up, blown apart and put back together in hook-heavy fashion. You can almost hear Clarence's fat horn punctuating the pounding percussion... but here it's sung in falsetto as a country swing, and that's just what he wanted to do. Live with it. The accompanying DVD features five of these songs with explanations of where he was coming from in writing and performing them. Filmed simply in an old farmhouse, this is just Bruce, an acoustic guitar and the songs. And if you really need to rock, rest assured: this album lets you do it on the inside.  |
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