NEW SINGLE: Letter To You

[gsquare]

10 hours ago, BobbyJames said:

Track-listing going around has also been confirmed by Apple Music

I've loved If I Was The Priest ever since I heard it on one of those old bootlegs I bought in the early 80's.  Very much interested to see what this sounds like with the band playing it (hoping that will be the case).

[burgessliam22]

I think a slowed down, acoustic version of this on piano or guitar would be fantastic 

[stillilllife]

5 hours ago, Born To Walk said:

I think a sax outro would have been nice on this as it fades very quickly. Or, perhaps a solo after the guitar and organ break in the middle.

However in view of Jake being mention in the press release, and Ron Aniello  saying there is sax on the album, I'm relaxed about its omission from this track.

Which version did you listen to? There's a longer version on Spotify than the promo video one. No sax though.

[Born To Walk]

1 minute ago, stillilllife said:

Which version did you listen to? There's a longer version on Spotify than the promo video one. No sax though.

I hadn't heard the longer version at the time. The fade on the promo video is brutal, I was pleased to find out that that wasn't the full thing.

[slane85]

4 hours ago, Bullett said:

Can anybody hear elements of 'Land Of Hope And Dreams' when Bruce's vocals come in...?
Been going around in my head for over 5 hours  Love it.

 

Yes. And Moonlight Motel

[Daisey Jeep]

So let's just recap

So we are hearing KOD, my lucky day, LOHAD, loose change, save my love, moonlight motel - ive bound to have missed a couple

You'd think Bruce Springsteen had written this or something 

[misty rain]

6 hours ago, JustDan said:

WS is as close to schmaltzy as it can get. 

Nope.

6 hours ago, bobfan1976 said:

... some of the criticism of Western Stars is baffling, ‘schmaltzy’ Did people listen to the whole record or just There Goes My Miracle? I 

Exactly.

1 hour ago, Junglelander said:

 

I hear other songs Like LOHAD, LT, and something from WS, but that one sticks out at the forefront to me. 

Definitely Lucky Town; also the loose thread is a lyrical call back.

[JustDan]

2 minutes ago, misty rain said:

Nope.

Yup

[timeisillusion]

30 minutes ago, Daisey Jeep said:

So let's just recap

So we are hearing KOD, my lucky day, LOHAD, loose change, save my love, moonlight motel - ive bound to have missed a couple

You'd think Bruce Springsteen had written this or something 

I'm getting 'The little things my baby does' during the bridge

[Mazdaq]

4 hours ago, rockaway88 said:

I like it on first listen. It gives me Lucky Day vibes from WOAD. I interpret the letter in the song to be a symbol for his career, which he sent to his listeners.

I agree. The lyrics make sense in that respect. Actually made me quite emotional watching the video with this in mind. 

He definitely seems to be very aware of his own mortality and his legacy. 

[Rudy Golden]

House of aThousand Guitars is not a cover of the Willie Nile song.

[MacBruce]

2 minutes ago, Rudy Golden said:

I wonder if House of a Thousand Guitars is a cover of the Willie Nile song.  They have done many Light of Day's together.

All songs on the album are original Springsteen compositions according to the press release.

[Daisey Jeep]

6 minutes ago, timeisillusion said:

I'm getting 'The little things my baby does' during the bridge

Ill have to have another listen

[Daisey Jeep]

6 minutes ago, Mazdaq said:

I agree. The lyrics make sense in that respect. Actually made me quite emotional watching the video with this in mind. 

He definitely seems to be very aware of his own mortality and his legacy. 

Still plenty of life in us all yet 

 

[misty rain]

18 minutes ago, JustDan said:

Yup

No. *This* is schmaltz (Why, Jim...why?!):

 

[SydneyGirl]

I happened to be on Twitter when the clip was tweeted and was watching it within seconds of it being posted but have to admit I spent my first listening not really listening but drinking in the sight of them all together having fun.

[Early North Jersey]

18 minutes ago, Rudy Golden said:

House of aThousand Guitars is not a cover of the Willie Nile song.

Was kind of hoping he was contributing to Willie's pension.

[G-Man]

Western Stars is a brilliant late-career record.  Enough said.

 

Letter to You is a grower.  After listening to it multiple times, it started to ring around in my head.  Lyrically weak in parts, but Springsteen’s vocals are excellent, the band sounds great, and the production is top-notch.  I think it’s a letter to us, his fans, and part of his lifelong “conversation” he’s had with us.  
 

It’s a good primer to pique interest for the rest of the record.

[CrushOnOutlawPete]

Haven't read anyone else's thoughts yet, but after a first couple listens, here's how I'm feeling.

 

- Seeing (and hearing) the band working together like this even in 2020 is inspiring. Like I know I'm not the only one on this board who has wondered - with all the '70s stuff at the end of the last tour, Clarence and Danny gone, Max 10 years out from heart surgery, etc. - about the future of the band, but as of now everything still seems promising!

- Very satisfying to hear the E Street Band together again in general (the organ at the 2-minute mark!!)

- The execution of the falsetto took me by surprise; usually he goes into it for an entire line or set of lines, he doesn't usually build into it on just the end of a line? So it's really well-executed here and blends in with the other vocals in a way I wasn't expecting.

- Hot take? But this has biiiiig Lucky Town energy to me -- not identical since like... it's the E Street Band and sounds like the E Street Band, lol, and the vocals are very much modern Bruce and sound like it, and the production sounds very post-Western Stars. But, I don't know, something about the melodies, some of the guitars and drumming, and the introspective-yet-upbeat nature of the song make me feel like it's a cross between Lucky Town Bruce and '10s Bruce -- and I'm very down with that crossover to kick of the sixth decade(!) of his career. The vocals here also feel like the best pure rock Bruce vocals since Wrecking Ball.

- Lyrically I'm assuming the "you" is us, the listener, making this kind of feel like a catch-all reflection on his entire work -- which, if this song is approaching the end of his career, is very affecting... which I also thought about "Dream Baby Dream" as a closing track two albums ago alol so maybe I gotta stop viewing all the new releases in that light! But at any rate it feels very meta in a way I like; it'll be interesting to see to what extent the other songs are also autobiographical in a way that comprises that "letter". I think this definitely makes more sense of the revival of random 70s outtakes (thematically even if not musically); if this song's kind of an acknowledgment of his body of work itself, then bringing back some of the very earliest songs feels like it's bringing the whole thing full circle in a way that could be very impactful.

If I'm right in that read, and the album as a whole focuses on that, it could become one of my favorites, and I'm tentatively LOVING the song in that light; the unity between Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. at the beginning in '73 + Letter to You now, in '20, was noted in the other thread before this song even dropped. It feels even more striking and relevant now that we have the lyrics.

 

If this is album is to be basically a letter to us about the letters he's been writing us for the past 50 years, count me the fuck in.

[sleepyjoe]

3 minutes ago, CrushOnOutlawPete said:

Hot take? But this has biiiiig Lucky Town energy to me

Not a hot take at all. I immediately thought this was like if WOAD was recorded in early 90s with E Street. Brilliant.

[larf]

1 hour ago, JustDan said:

Yup

Nope

[CrushOnOutlawPete]

12 hours ago, Growin' Up said:

Hybrid of a Lucky Town type song and a Western Stars track

Catching up on the thread now -- I'm thrilled that I'm far from the only one who thought this. Lucky Town is good, but held back by some things in my opinion; hearing something similar but in a more polished, E Street Band format is exciting.

11 hours ago, Born To Walk said:

If I was going to be ultra critical I'd say that I'd have liked a sax solo. Jake is listed in the press blurb so hopefully there's some nice sax elsewhere on the album.

Maybe this isn't the place for me to do so, but I'll still use this as a chance to real quickly plug Jake's 2017 solo album, Fear & Love, for anyone here who's missing him here. Good stuff. It's not an ESB album, it's not meant to sound close to one (lots of songs don't even have sax) - but still - for some Jake Clemons saxophone in your life right now, check out "Just Stay"; for some other high points off the album, check out "Sick, Broke & Broken" (a very fun rocker, and my favorite Jake original), the outstanding "All Undone" (SBB tends to be my favorite, but "All Undone" is likely an even better song - and has some great sax action too!), and maybe the opening track "Hold Tight". Jake's got a strong, charming personality that shows through a lot of the varied, very solid Fear & Love songs, and if the guy can kill it on some of the most iconic rock songs of all time to crowds of tens of thousands to such a degree that, when one of the greatest popular artists in human history drops a single to kick off the 6th decade of his work, some of his most diehard fans are left asking "Where's Jake?"... then he deserves a little more attention in the fanbase, in my opinion, and I hope he has a long and fruitful solo career ahead of him. I've just gotten into F&L relatively recently, so I haven't checked out the follow-up yet, but I'll have to do so soon.

 

So, if anyone here is looking for more Jake sax and haven't heard "Just Stay", "All Undone", and "Sick, Broke & Broken" yet (no sax on the latter really - but a very fun, frustrated, and politically timely rock song, to be sure) -- go check 'em out and show him some love!

 

11 hours ago, Daisey Jeep said:

That's what im thinking but it feels more inclusive

This train...

 

11 hours ago, Promise61 said:

There's a picture of the Castiles on his desk in the video. Odd.

Interesting! Do you recall where? I'd love to see that; that certainly reaffirms this song having a "bringing it all full circle" sentiment to it.

 

10 hours ago, Captain Chaos said:

First singles always tend to be more middle of the road affairs. I’d say that this is a little less interesting than Hello Sunshine (which itself was hardly radical) as an opener, but it’s saved by the beauty of the band sound the production.

I'm inclined to agree, in general even if not entirely. Definitely agree that the best songs usually aren't the lead single, but am still enjoying this one. "Hello Sunshine" may be more creative musically, and I did get a similar Bruce-by-the-books feeling to others from this song... for about a minute or so -- but the self-referential lyrics quickly won me over.

 

6 hours ago, Promise61 said:

High Hopes? Cohesion?

Hey, the comment said "usually"!

 

2 hours ago, Daisey Jeep said:

So let's just recap

So we are hearing KOD, my lucky day, LOHAD, loose change, save my love, moonlight motel - ive bound to have missed a couple

You'd think Bruce Springsteen had written this or something 

Hahaha you read my mind. Once I saw "Loose Change" I was like.... I mean, I'm glad people are drawing connections - but wow, we're hearing things all over the map.

 

Which suggests to me that this song is, ultimately -- more than the by-the-numbers recreation of any one particular past song, or even era -- inspired by those earlier works, yet imbuing them with its own very fresh energy and a distinct, new approach that, even if it hearkens back to various eras, doesn't do so too thoroughly to any one era, and is thus something at once new and familiar... which seems like a great direction for this album from what we can discern of its themes so far.

 

I enjoyed Western Stars just fine, no complaints from me for the most part, but I'll say this song already has me more excited for this one.

[CrushOnOutlawPete]

15 minutes ago, larf said:

Nope

WWWABBIT SEASON!

[WestsideJack]

First of all, I don't compare one tune "Letter To You" to the album Western Stars. It will be something complete different, which will be hardly to compare.

After several listenings I have to say Letter To You is a grower on me. The song gets better with every listening.

So I am curious for all the other tunes. A very good first track.

[CmonMrTrouble]

3 hours ago, THUE said:

This is fandom at its finest. You dont have to like it or love it or hate it. No rules to music. It hits you or it doesnt. No need to be angry if you like it and  someone doesnt. The only I know about music is I'M always right about the things I like. 

Nope, you're wrong