Bruce Springsteen has released the title of his new album and the first single, “We Take Care Of Our Own.” The track from the forthcoming Wrecking Ball, is more of a lament than an angry protest. But it asks a profound question.
No release date has been set and some speculate that Springsteen may release it around the time of the South-by-Southwest music conference in March. TheImproper has confirmed that the album will drop on March 6.
After the near collapse of the financial system through Wall Street greed and an eight-year war in Iraq, The Boss wants to know what’s happened to the nation’s soul. “Wherever the flag is flown/we take care of our own” he sings. But now he adds “the road to good intention has gone dry as a bone.”
Word that Springsteen is working on a new album that takes on many of the issues that have been at the heart of the nation’s Great Recession has electrified his fans. The were charged by a report in The Hollywood Reporter that the album is “the angriest album he’s ever made.”
Bruce taps a full panoply of sound, not only from his own rock ‘n roll past, but also from outside sources from hip-hop to electronica and even Irish folk rhythms. Ron Aniello ( Patti Scialfa, Jars of Clay) produced.
The album is a “big-picture piece of work…that combines elements of both Bruce’s classic sound and his ‘Seeger Sessions’ experience with new textures and styles,” manager Jon Landau told Rolling Stone.
Musically, “We Take Care of Our Own” doesn’t depart from Springsteen’s previous style. But he makes the lyrics worth listening to. He draws on folk music and his Seeger sessions for these lines.
Where are the eyes, the eyes with the will to see
Where are the hearts that run over with mercy
Where’s the love that has not forsaken me
Where’s the work that will set my hands, my soul free
Where’s the spirit that will reign, reign over me
Where’s the promise from sea to shining sea
“He gets into economic justice quite a bit,” someone who’s heard the music told The Reporter. “It’s very rock’n’roll. He feels it’s the angriest album he’s ever made.
“Bear in mind, though, that [Springsteen] wrote and recorded the majority of the album before the Occupy [Wall Street] movements started, so he’s not just setting headlines to music.”
The album will also include a tribute to long-time E Street Band member, Clarence Clemons, who died last year.