When Bruce Springsteen calls his E Street Band, there's usually shit on the marble. Take
The Rising (2002) on the attacks and consequences of 9/11, or
Wrecking Ball (2012) on the causes of the financial crisis. Against that background, it is actually logical that The Boss will release the next E Street Band album a few weeks before the American elections. Because who would Rainmaker be talking about
… ('says white's black and black's white, says night's day and day's night')? But strikingly enough, the 71-year-old American uses the rest of his 20th album to look back on his own life. Literally, by means of three songs that have been on the shelf since 1972: Janey Needs A Shooter, If I Was The Priest and the very Dylanesque Song For Orphans. Or in the deceptively quiet opener One Minute You're Here, full of 'trains' and a 'red river running along the edge of town'. But the most beautiful example is Last Man Standing, in which Springsteen remembers the band members who lost him. The old-fashioned rocking Letter To You is also an ode to the E Street band. (RME)more
