Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Almost a great album, certainly some great songs.
Tiring easily of words like "CD", "album", and "disc", music reviewers often opt for words like "effort" or "offering" when talking about new music. Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" is both an effort and an offering to the everyman hero.Out of 15 tracks on the album, five songs (Into the Fire, Nothing Man, Empty Sky, You're Missing, City of Ruin) directly address 9-11. Not surprisingly, these are the best and most inspired songs on the album. Their lyrics are stark -- often simple phrases repeated over and over again -- and elegiac. Consider, "Into the Fire" : May your strength give us strength / May your faith give us faith / May your hope give us hope / May love bring us love... It's deeply moving and affecting stuff. The rest of the album is a bit of a mix. Three tracks -- "Lonesome Day," "Worlds Apart," and "Waiting on a Sunny Day," songs of love and loss -- fit well musically within the album. Two tracks are absolute stinkers: "The Fuse," a tale of a midday lusty romp finds Bruce pause before growling, "Your bittersweet taste on my tongue," which comes off neither sexy nor humorous. Likewise, the Jimmy Buffett inspired "Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin)" makes no sense on this or any disc. The other five songs are hit and miss with production levels cranked up to Phil Specter-like mushiness. Strangely enough, The Rising concludes with a live performance of "City of Ruin" which has so much rawness and power, it made me wish Bruce and the band had done the whole CD in one take, on the road. Overall, worth owning and the best of any 9-11 inspired pop music out or likely to come.
Rating:  - The Boss is Back...With A Message
The Rising, Bruce Springsteen's first album with the E Street Band since the 1984 landmark album Born in the USA, is a blazing return to form. His vocals are pure, intense, and emotional, sounding better than they have in years. The E streeters have fallen directly back in step with Bruce seeming to have not skipped a beat in their decade and a half away from Mr. Springsteen. It is easy to see the maturity of the band, as they have evolved their sound for a new musical climate without forgetting the elements that defined their sound when they first got together over 25 years ago. The album showcases very solid guitar work, including some incredibly roaring solos and leads from Bruce himself, wailing away on his Telecaster. There are a wide variety of songs represented here, as well as many different musical styles. There are straight up rockers, more laid back ballads, some excellent slide guitars, and even some middle eastern sounds reminiscent of recent work by Sting. Some of my personal favorites are Lonesome Day, Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin), Further on up the Road, and The Rising. The album is filled with songs of loss and redemption, friendships and hardships. This skillful blending of emotions fills the music with added sense of reality that makes it that much more meaningful. This is a real man with real emotions that people can relate to. While watching VH1 recently, a Michael Jackson fan said that there were two types of rock stars: those like Springsteen who are very approachable people that often go out to local clubs and meet with everyday people, and those like Jackson, who seem like untouchable people that lead very guarded lives, on a completely different level than you and me. He said that is "untouchable" status was what drew him to Jackson. Springsteen's approachable nature, t-shirt and jeans appearance, and abilty to relate to the feeling of everyday people are what draw myself and many others to listen to his music. Give this album a try. It is one of the most powerful statements in this post 9/11 world (not to sound to cliched, but I really do think it's a powerful album from a man who realizes that our world has changed). Hope you enjoy listening to this album as much as I do. I already posted this review under for limited edition (the version I own) For those of you who are wondering, the limited edition is a bound cardboard booklet containing about 45 pages of handwritten lyrics and pictures. It's not absolutely essential for everyone, but if you're a Springsteen fan, the handwritten lyrics are a very nice touch.
Rating: - The Boss rises to the occasion, and beyond
Heavily marketed as Bruce Springsteen's first studio album with the E Street Band since 1984's "Born in the USA" and as Bruce's artistic response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, "The Rising" has a lot to live up to. Bruce rises to the occasion and beyond, giving us not merely a brilliant "September 11" CD but one that faces living with losses of all sorts. Even the songs that most directly address the terrorist attacks leave room for additional interpretations. It's too soon to tell how "The Rising" will stand up over time, but its themes should be able to transcend one specific moment in American history.Like most of Bruce's albums, "The Rising" is intended to be heard as a whole, and the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. Though not all songs are standouts, the effect is of turning a jewel over and over in one's hands to reveal different facets, or of weaving a tapestry thread by thread until eventually the pattern emerges. The individual songs are striking in their diversity of voices and styles. For example, the simple lyrics and spare musical arrangement of "You're Missing" suggest both time and space made empty by a missing spouse; the hard-rocking "Worlds Apart" includes Pakistani vocalists in the mix as it tells a tale of doomed, furtive love. The end result isn't flawless; there is more than Bruce's usual degree of repetition of phrases and images, and the CD as a whole would be more powerful if some of the lesser songs were omitted (but what fan wants to have *fewer* Bruce songs?). Don't expect sprawling story-songs or party rockers about girls and cars. Rather than exuding restless energy, the characters in most of the songs on "The Rising" have retreated into a private, intimate space. And this isn't the E Street Band sound of old; synthesizers and strings push the piano and sax (and at times, even the guitars) into the background. But Bruce's voice sounds better than ever, and when all the elements come together, as in the title song, we hear something like the distilled essence of a Bruce Springsteen song: a few phrases evoking a life story, archetypal images, a woman named Mary, and a sing-along chorus that lets you feel the redemptive power of rock and roll.
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