When the London Calling DVD was announced a couple of months ago, it was met with a collective sigh from many fans. It wasn’t the release we wanted. We wanted the Darkness box. It wasn’t the show we wanted. We wanted one of the Italian shows or one of the Madison Square Garden shows. By many accounts, the Hyde Park show had stood in the shadow of the exertion of Glastonbury the previous night. Bruce was tired, his voice was shot, he was going through the motions.

While the first two statements may bear some merit – Bruce does seem to struggle with his voice during particularly the few slow songs - I have personally yet to see a Bruce show where he is going through the motions, and the Hyde Park show was definitely no exception. He is present in the moment and working as hard as he can to reach even the back row of the humongous crowd. And if Bruce is tired, it only adds to the goofiness with him demanding an elevator instead of the unusually high stairs leading back to the stage from the pit.

Speaking of the stage, if one must criticize the choice of show for an official release, you could point at the fact that the stage being used wasn’t Bruce’s own, but one that was supplied by the Hard Rock Festival. If the last two tours have been characterized by something – apart from sign requests – it would be the extremely close interaction with the crowd. It seemed like Bruce would spend half the show in physical contact with the audience, leaning on their stretched-out hands, high-fiving, letting them play his guitar. Heck, during the late part of the tour he would actually be crowd-surfing. Most of this was made possible by Bruce’s normal stage design that had a ramp leading straight from the center of the stage into the pit. And while we certainly do get some crowd interaction during the Hyde Park show, there is nowhere near as much of it as during just about any other show of the tour. And that’s a shame, because one of the things that truly sets Bruce apart from just about any other performer of his status is how much he allows the crowd to be part of the show. Even insists on it. That part is not documented as well as it could have been if a different show had been chosen.

Even with lack of crowd interaction, the crowd still plays an important part on this DVD by its mere size. When the camera pans over the ocean of people gathered in the park, your jaw drops several inches, and you start to understand why releasing a daylight show wasn’t the worst idea Bruce’s team ever had. The crowd may not be as super energetic as on Live in Barcelona, but you don’t really miss that.

Perhaps the most uplifting thing about this release is the sound. Connect your DVD player to your stereo and turn up the volume and you’ll know what I mean. This continues the positive trend of the last few live releases, starting with the Hammersmith show and continuing with Live in Dublin. The sound is simply stunning. Powerful, yet crystal clear. Maintaining the live feel while at the same time revealing details you never heard when you were there. Bob Clearmountain deserves a lot of credit for that.

Comparing with, for instance, Live in New York City, Live in Hyde Park also wins when it comes to the editing. Live in Hyde Park is a much more pleasant watch. The balance between closeups, stage shots and panning over the audience seems better. We don’t get too many of those really, really close closeups that Live in New York City was a victim of. At the same time, the DVD has time to give each band member a fair amount of exposure. Even Garry Tallent often fills up the whole screen, and you actually pay more attention to him, and most of the other band members, on this DVD than you ever would being there in person, when your eyes are fixed on Bruce 99% of the time.

No doubt this focus on the band is very deliberate. In return, one can wonder if it was also deliberate to show Patti Scialfa standing in the wings of the stage looking at the show instead of taking part in it. It sure baffled this viewer. It’s one thing that she can’t perform when she’s home taking care of the kids, but why would she not be on stage when she was actually in London? This is not to start any unfounded rumors of Bruce and Patti´s relationship (Patti looks like she’s enjoying watching her husband quite a bit), but it’s just another example of what can make a DVD more than just a bad souvenir of a live show. You pick up tons of details that you otherwise never would, and it will probably require several more viewings to get it all.

Watching Live in Hyde Park in one sitting and with the sound turned up may not be quite like being at the show in person, but it’s really not a bad substitute. As the sun slowly sets on the gigantic crowd and Bruce cranks up the intensity another nudge, you start to get the same feeling you do at a real-life show. It seems like the show just blew by in five minutes, but at the same time it’s like anything that happened before the show belongs in another lifetime. The power of Bruce and the E Street Band still manages to fill your soul, even through your TV screen. And despite its flaws – such as whether they should have chosen this show to begin with – that’s actually the highest praise a concert DVD can get.

So forget about your reservations. True or not, they are just not important in the big picture. The big picture being that this is as fine a representation of a post-reunion Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band show as your TV screen is likely to offer. That is not a bad thing.

The long-awaited DVD/bluray release London Calling: Live in Hyde Park has now been released in most of the world. Reception so far has been overwhelmingly positive with even many skeptics being swayed by the picture and sound quality. Fears that the show was sub-par, with a tired and out-of-voice Bruce, also seem to have been quenched. Bruce is as energetic and powerful as he always is, and he puts on a performance that may not have been the greatest of the tour, but is more than release-worthy.

An official Greasy Lake review will follow within the next few days.

Finally an official announcement was made. And no, it's not the Darkness box (dammit), but it's something that should make most fans pretty excited anyway. On June 22 a live DVD of Bruce's show in Hyde Park in 2009 will be released on DVD and Blu-ray. Parts of the show was televised in the UK, but now we'll get the chance to watch the whole thing. Or almost the whole thing. It looks like "Rosalita" has been omitted unless there's an error in the official press release.

Still, there are plenty of songs to compensate, including the first official DVD version of "Racing in the Street", those amazing versions of "Seeds" and "Johnny 99" that were highlights of the Working on a Dream Tour, not to mention the two bonus tracks: "The River" from Glastonbury (the one where his whole body is steaming) and "Wrecking Ball" from Giants Stadium.

Despite of these highlights, fans will also have plenty to complain about. "Bobby Jean" as part of the request section is a clear indication that the setlist of this show was pretty standard. And almost half the songs have been released on DVD before in more or less the same arrangements. That of course doesn't say anything about the quality of the show. Who knows? Some say it was sub-par and that Bruce seemed tired. Others that it was epic. Come June 22 we'll all be able to judge for ourselves.

Looks like Bruce will once again contribute to Record Store Day by putting out a rare piece of vinyl. The official list of Record Store Day releases includes a 10" version of "Wrecking Ball" / "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen, and since a 10" disc won't fit in a CD player, this has to be a vinyl record. Most likely, the songs in question will be live versions, and while "The Ghost of Tom Joad" may be the same version released on the Magic Tour Sampler featuring Tom Morello, "Wrecking  Ball" will see its first release in a physical format. A year ago, in 2009, Bruce also pulled a surprise out of his sleeve for Record Store Day when he released "What Love Can Do" / "A Night With the Jersey Devil" as a single. Record Store Day is on April 17, but the "Wrecking Ball" single is scheduled for April 14 and can be bought at mostly independent record stores.

While we're at new releases, a mysterious 2 DVD set by Bruce Springsteen has also popped up on release schedules for April 12. The title given is Bruce Springsteen The Boss, which smells of crappy unofficial documentary with no original Bruce music included, but who knows, it could in theory be code for the much rumored Hyde Park live DVD from the Working on a Dream Tour.

Apparently Bruce and part of the E Street Band were assembled at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park last weekend running through all the songs from the Darkness album. The band spent most of last Sunday afternoon there, playing several versions of each song. While nothing is certain or confirmed, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that there could be a connection to the Darkness boxset project, which, according to the latest information, should be released sometime in the spring. What exactly last Sunday's recordings - provided the action was being recorded - will be used for is anyone's guess. It could be part of a documentary, or it could be for an extra disc of Darkness live versions. Time will tell. Or not.

There's been a lot of speculation this time around about whether the Working on a Dream Tour would be the last E Street Band tour. Well, now we have the official word from Bruce himself: the band plans to continue for "many, many years". The statement is put forward by Bruce in an interview in Billboard conducted before the Nashville show. Of course, Bruce doesn't go into details about whether indivial members are up for it, and if you belong to the group of fans who thought the band was already more or less over with when Danny Federici passed away, this, of course, doesn't change anything. But for the rest of us, there is reason to believe that we haven't experienced the thrill of the legendary E Street Band for the last time. Read the Billboard interview yourself if you don't believe me.

In other news, Jon Landau has recently confirmed that a Darkness box is still planned for release and also hinted that there may be some sort of DVD release culled from the Working on a Dream Tour coming out in the new year. All we can do is wait and hope.

In a rare interview with Billboard, Jon Landau just made what must be the closest thing to an official confirmation of the much talked about Darkness anniversary set. The set has been rumored for a couple of years, but has disappeared from the radar screens in the last six months. Until today that is. Jon Landau specifically confirmed that the set is "near completion" and that it will be finished and released when they have "six weeks to finish it", This is indeed great news, but with Bruce's work schedule, those six weeks may still be a little into the future.

Jon Landau also commented on the Wal-Mart Greatest Hits. He refutes the criticism it has received by saying that Bruce albums have already been sold in Wal-Mart for years and adds that Bruce has not endorsed the release, but rather left it to Sony and Wal-Mart to market it.

Read the whole article here.

It had to happen. The entire Working on a Dream album has now leaked and has spread like a California hill fire among the hardcore fan community. Reactions to it are very mixed, to put it mildly. Probably even more so than usual. Only "Outlaw Pete" and "The Wrestler" are somewhat universally praised. The rest have divided the fans in two fractions: those who think it's the worst garbage since Human Touch and those who praise the new direction (and it really is a new direction) as the best thing since [insert title of your favorite album]. I'll withhold the official Greasy Lake opinion until it's been officially released, but I can say that I "ain't hatin' it".

So, how did I get hold of it? a lot of you may ask. Well, all I know is that it was in my inbox when I turned on my computer this morning. I honestly don't know how to find it online. It was on YouTube earlier, but has probably been removed from there already. Even if I did know how to get it, I simply could not share that information on a public website. To be honest, I would personally prefer if these leaks didn't happen. It takes something away from the official release day and everything leading up to it. But when it's sitting there staring at you in your inbox, it takes more will-power than I can muster to resist sneak-peeking. I'm sure most of you can relate.

Yesterday Amazon.co.uk published 30-second samples of all the songs on the new album, but as of right now they seem to have disappeared again. Possibly because within hours the samples had spread to places like YouTube and and Megaupload. Or because they weren't supposed be published in the first place.

But the cat is out of the bag and thousands of fans got to listen to the snippets. They were able to hear that the description that was recently posted on this page wasn't too far from the truth. A mix of classic E Street Band and some interesting experimenting. To these ears it sounded like it may be slightly less melodic and bombastic than Magic, but still nothing like the rather tuneless and understated Devils & Dust (I know, I know, "Long Time Comin'" is a splendid tune). However, drawing any major conclusions based on very short samples would be a mistake. Especially since the best of Bruce's music has always been the songs that didn't open up until after several listens. Heck, if I'd started out by only hearing 30-second clips of the Darkness album, I'm not sure I would have become the fan I am today. So whether you thought the Working on a Dream clips sounded promising or the opposite, just forget about them when you pop the CD in the player for the first time on January 27 (or push the Play button on your iPod).It'll be a much better experience for it.

The below picture that is allegedly showing the cover art for the Working on a Dream album has appeared on the official Bruce site, brucespringsteen.net. It doesn't say specifically that it's the cover art, but under normal circumstances you would assume so. But really, could this really be it? It has prompted a collective "you have got to be kidding me!" on various message boards, andI must admit that even though I  can find something positive in almost anything Bruce does, and  even though Bruce hasn't had a truly great and memorable (to casual music fans) album cover since Born in the USA, this will take the price as the ugliest thing to come out of Thrill Hill in... like... forever. Apart from the typeface, it's pretty much a disaster. Is it a children's album? Is it a Christmas album? It's certainly doesn't signal "new monster album by legendary rock 'n' roll boss Bruce fooking Springsteen" like it should. There are at least 10 bootleg cover artists out there who could have done a much better job. So hopefully this is not the real thing, and if it is, hopefully it doesn't say anything about the actual music

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