Angriest Album Yet?

January 16, 2012, 2:12 pm

At the end of last year, Bruce Springsteen was reportedly putting the finishing touches on a new album with the E Street Band that is expected in the first quarter of 2012.


And I just spotted this great overview of his New Jersey gig, the first of 2012, that "Light of Day" benefit concert. Read the Rolling Stone overview HERE.

Produced by Ron Aniello (Patti Scialfa, Jars of Clay), the album has since been played for label executives and is described as veering into "unexpected textures -- loops, electronic percussion… an amazing sweep of influences and rhythms, from hip-hop to Irish folk rhythms," according to the Hollywood Reporter. A source also told THR that, "He gets into economic justice quite a bit. It's very rock & 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 movements started, so he's not just setting headlines to music."

While no release date has been established, Springsteen is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at Austin's SXSW on March 15, fueling speculation that the album may coincide with the appearance. The E Street Band also has a summer European tour on the books, but they have said previously that a world tour will extend throughout most of 2012, starting with a two-month U.S. arena leg in March.

In other Springsteen news, The Boss made his annual "surprise" appearance at the 2012 Light of Day benefit concert in Asbury Park on Saturday night. His two-hour set at the Paramount Theater, backed by Joe Gruschecky and the Houserockers, opened with a solo acoustic "Incident on 57th Street" and then blasted through an entire set's worth of rockers, ending after 2 a.m. with an acoustic "Thunder Road." Much of the set consisted of Springsteen and Gruschecky taking turns leading the band through Springsteen classics and songs that Joe and Bruce wrote together in the 1990s. A Rolling Stone report said that special attention was focused on Darkness On The Edge of Town, with the group breaking out "Adam Raised A Cain" and the recently resurrected outtake "Save My Love," while other highlights included the Nebraska songs "Atlantic City" and "Johnny 99."

Read more HERE.

~Inessa