For those missing the electricity of live music, the seasoned connectivity Letter to You delivers something very close.
Springsteen remains the gold standard in rock and roll, a singer-songwriter who never gives less than everything. Letter To You is another first-class missive from the Boss, signed, sealed and delivered with love.
The fact that this is an excellent album even by Springsteen’s own high standards is reason for celebration.
With its skilful weave of widescreen balladry and heartland rock, the record works as a reflective autumn-years version of The River, and its roots in the past are sunk even further.
Springsteen’s songwriting here ranks among his best ever, yet Letter to You is also a continual reminder of how good his band is.
This shared warmth carries Letter to You through the moments where the younger Bruce is perhaps a bit too precious and the older Springsteen is a bit too clear, turning a record that's a meditation on mortality into a celebration of what it means to be alive in the moment.
If Letter to You was the swan song, if there were no more Springsteen albums after this one, this would be a mighty fine way to go out.
There is honesty, rawness and a sense of spirituality at the heart of Letter To You.
Letters To You is a typical Springsteen album in the sense that it contains the same call-to-arms rock tracks that any listener would come to expect on an album from The Boss but this collection carries a greater weight.
Despite remaining stuck in the mid-tempo gear, Letter To You stands as a latter career highpoint for The Boss and demonstrates the value of his collaboration with The E Street Band.
Ultimately, what redeems Letter To You from notions of idealised nostalgia is the rigour of its performances, particularly those of Springsteen himself, who for the second successive album is in the singing form of his life.
Letter To You provides both a moving thematic adjunct to Springsteen On Broadway and a timely and welcome burst of the sheer euphoria that only the E Street Band can inject.
The results are filled with the verve, energy and urgency that his more recent output has been sorely lacking, and although it doesn’t hit the heights of his creative zenith ... there is still plenty of life left in the old dog just yet.
Letter to You doesn’t try to fight fire with fire so much as give us all of the water we need to help us extinguish the blaze raging rampant and orange outside our windows.
It's too early to tell if Letter to You will stand as a landmark Springsteen release, but Springsteen knows exactly what he wants to say and who can help him say it.
The new album doesn’t lack in personal, elegiac, or sentimental storytelling—in that regard, Letter to You embraces some of Springsteen’s most intimately idiosyncratic lyrics.
Looking back is a central feature of Springsteen’s very good twentieth studio album, Letter to You. The moral of the story is to never doubt The Boss, I guess.
Most of the early albums, as well as latter-day efforts like Magic, Western Stars, and The Rising (2002) build a sense of searching and finding, or some sense of narrative or sonic propulsion. With these doldrums in the center of Letter To You, it’s difficult to feel a great sense of purpose from one track to the next.
It’s a strange mix of songs, which could possibly have worked better across two albums, as they veer between polished stadium numbers and melancholy reflections.
There's a sense in which this is more of the same – not because Springsteen and his friends can’t be bothered, but because they have always celebrated something of the heart and soul that's made America great.
Letter to You is not an album to snare new listeners, compounded by the fact that it contains a lot of good songs but no spectacular breakout hit.
Shoutout to the critics for sucking off people like Bruce and Bob Dylan at every turn, no matter what they put out.
I’m not saying this is bad, I’m just saying.
Um bom álbum, composições ótimas, boa produção e mesmo estando mais velho, Bruce ainda está com uma voz ótima, muito charmosa.
Destaque para "Letter To You", "Burnin' Train" e "I'll See You In My Dreams".
* One Minute You're Here (8/10)
* Letter To You (9/10)
* Burnin' Train (8.5/10)
* Janey Needs A Shooter (8/10)
* Last Man Standing (8/10)
* The Power Of Prayer (7.5/10)
* House Of A Thousand Guitars ... read more
Feels odd having Bruce as a new act in 2020 but it just works for me, even more with a bit of research adding to the sentiment of the album. Somehow the album feels familiar and gives me a warmth. A very Grandfatherly approach to making an album, nothing genre defining here but everything done very well! Reflective in its nature but also made up of huge choruses that make its a great memoir to his deceased peers. The perfect time to release this album that autumnal to winter feeling in the air. ... read more
Great album, no bad songs, only a couple I didn't really like. (Burnin train and rainmaker)
My faves are:
House of a thousand guitars
I'll see you in my dreams
Ghosts
Letter to you
1 | One Minute You're Here 2:57 | 81 |
2 | Letter To You 4:55 | 92 |
3 | Burnin' Train 4:03 | 88 |
4 | Janey Needs A Shooter 6:49 | 80 |
5 | Last Man Standing 4:05 | 85 |
6 | The Power of Prayer 3:36 | 86 |
7 | House Of A Thousand Guitars 4:30 | 77 |
8 | Rainmaker 4:56 | 74 |
9 | If I Was The Priest 6:50 | 88 |
10 | Ghosts 5:54 | 83 |
11 | Song For Orphans 6:13 | 85 |
12 | I'll See You In My Dreams 3:29 | 87 |
#6 | / | Associated Press |
#8 | / | Louder |
#10 | / | The Philadelphia Inquirer: Dan DeLuca |
#12 | / | Hot Press |
#12 | / | Rolling Stone |
#20 | / | Uncut |
#22 | / | Gothamist |
#22 | / | The Independent |
#33 | / | Consequence of Sound |
#33 | / | God Is In The TV |