Letter to You is Bruce Springsteen’s first album in six years to feature the E Street Band. Outfitted with these players, the Boss delivers songs that largely touch on mortality — a testament to the fact that he’s still making music at 71 that still sounds fresh and rocks.
As a dyed-in-the-wool, born-and-bred New Jerseyan Springsteen fan, I’ve always felt “Bruuuuce” is at his weakest when he tries to wear his Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison coat. Yeah, I know the guy is from “south” Jersey, but where does the southern accent come from? Because of this, songs like the pretty, yet disposable “One Minute You’re Here” comes off as an inauthentic lament for those who are not with us any longer. The big stadium anthem title track that follows is also rather staid, plucking through bad country music tropes attempted by Springsteen too many times.
Where there’s Bruce Springsteen, and especially Bruce Springsteen with the E Street Band, there is hope. Things do get better as the record progresses, quite brilliantly in fact sometimes, thanks in no small part to long-time E Street Band ivory tickler Roy Bittan. “Janey Needs A Shooter” presents a bookending of organ and piano (played by Charlie Giordano and Bittan respectively), lifting Springsteen’s vocal nearly to what he did on Born To Run’s “Backstreets.” The chorus with Patti Scialfa and Springsteen in the repeated vocal plea, along with the guitar bends is downright gooseflesh inducing.
In what seems like a strange production move, we get a piano opening to “The Power Of Prayer” before it shifts into a solid full band rockin’ tune. On the song that follows, “House Of A Thousand Guitars,” Springsteen sings over another Bittan piano opening. This sets up a fantastic narrative with carnival-sounding organ swirls and drummer Max Weinberg providing some of his best work. The backing vocals float to a sweet surrender and the ending “Nah nah nah’s” mark this as another highlight on the album.
“If I Was the Priest” and “Song For Orphans” sees Springsteen doing his best Bob Dylan. Like “Janey Needs A Shooter,” these were all penned back in 1972, and it’s well known Springsteen had to live down that Dylan comparison at that point of his career. These are full production numbers where the singer lays back in the sweet embrace of the E Street Band with simple, poignant beats, harmonica, and piano over the top of it all.
“I’ll See You In My Dreams,” is a more adequate tribute to old friends than what Springsteen tried earlier on Letter to You. A catchy chorus, the band locked and loaded, simple lines of leads, lots of jamming, and the Boss assuring us that “death is not the end.” Bittan has the last say with a final piano plink after the last lyric.
Recorded in late 2019 with the E Street Band live in Springsteen’s Colts Neck home studio over a mere five days, one could argue the singer and his band (Bittan, Weinberg, Scialfa, bassist Garry Tallent, guitarist Stevie Van Zandt, guitarist Nils Lofgren, saxophonist Jake Clemons and keyboardist Charlie Giordano) need each other to deliver something as diverse and interesting as Letter To You. And we all should be damn, especially during these strange days, about that.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
