Bruce Springsteen - Letter to You review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

The Guardian 0

(Columbia Records)
Reunited with the E Street Band, songs about downbound trains and glory days show a scaled-down ambition – but are they also political, emotional and sometimes hugely enjoyable

Bruce Springsteen’s 20th studio album reconvenes his most celebrated backing musicians, the E Street Band: ignoring 2014’s stopgap collection of covers, outtakes and reworked old material High Hopes, it’s their first album proper since 2012’s Wrecking Ball. It’s been trailed for some time, not least during the promotional campaign for Springsteen’s last album, Western Stars: presumably talk of its forthcoming appearance was to mollify Boss fans who thought Western Stars’ easy-listening country was insufficiently Springsteen-esque.

Related: Bruce Springsteen: where to start in his back catalogue