I think this sounds exactly like the E Street Band, but I like in the bridge he seems to have taken some of the elements from Western Stars and merged them into E Street. His singing is excellent. A little hammy but isn’t Bruce always? It reminds me a bit of Land of Hopes and Dreams.

Janey Needs a Shooter... color me intrigued.

This is pretty great. It sounds like classic E-Street, rather than the muddled compressed version we got with the Brendan O'Brien records. I was worried we were going to get drum loops and strings and all that other crap that clogged up Wrecking Ball and High Hopes, but luckily that's not the case.

Bruce sounds great. Excited to hear that this was recorded live with little overdubs. When was the last time that happened with an ESB record? Born In The USA?

“I love the emotional nature of Letter To You,” says Bruce. “And I love the sound of the E Street Band playing completely live in the studio, in a way we’ve never done before, and with no overdubs. We made the album in only five days, and it turned out to be one of the greatest recording experiences I’ve ever had.”

Letter to You includes nine recently written Springsteen songs, as well as new recordings of three of his legendary, but previously unreleased, compositions from the 1970s. Produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen, Letter To You is Bruce’s first time performing with the E Street Band since The River 2016 tour.

Tracklist
One Minute You’re Here
Letter To You
Burnin’ Train
Janey Needs A Shooter
Last Man Standing
The Power Of Prayer
House Of A Thousand Guitars
Rainmaker
If I Was The Priest
Ghosts
Song For Orphans
I’ll See You In My Dreams

this is genuinely exciting to hear.

Definitely has some Western Stars vibes.

He's developed this really beautiful vibrato that is quite prominent that he seems to have picked up for mucho f western stars.

Otherwise it sounds like classic bruce and e street. That melody sure is sweet.

I'm more intrigued by the live recordings of this album as I am to this particular song. It's fine?

same

Do you feel like the recording gives off the "live in studio" vibe he describes? I don't really feel like it does -- sounds like any raw in-the-moment energy is kind of lost in the big-sounding production, which to me sounds pretty on par with his other recent full-band efforts. I don't know, I don't dislike the song but it feels a little on the nondescript side -- the melody is nice, and I like the prominence of the piano in the mix, but I hope it isn't one of the stronger tracks on the album.

man you guys are a bunch of curmudgeons.

you spelled Pearl Jam fans wrong

Hey, I feel like I've been pretty positive in my music commentary lately!

Sorry, I love Bruce and will enthusiastically check out anything he releases but I don't think this is rave-worthy.

hehehe. I kid!

Bruce is going to release bruce songs and hearing him with the E Street Band right now was everything I needed today. That melody has grown on me and his voice just sounds fantastic.

It needs a big sax solo though.

Yeah, Clarence was a big loss -- will this be the first proper E Street album without him?

Looks like he played on two tracks on High Hopes but i guess a lot of that stuff was older material yea?

Western stars-ish.. like it a lot

This is fine. Nothing more. Reminds me of My Lucky Day mixed with Western Stars. Actually My Lucky Day gave me the same feeling when it was released.

I want more grit.

Today, I listened to Devils & Dust. I have listened to this album from time to time just to get something different from Bruce and always walked away feeling meh. Today, it finally hit me. I really enjoyed it and I just must have been in the right frame of mind to accept it. So this will probably be kicking around my rotation until the new album comes out (yesterday was the live version of Western Stars - so amazing).