Bruce Springsteen's The Rising

[Ilash]

I know I started a thread a few months ago about how overrated Bruce Springsteen is but man, I like this album. I picked it up today because a) it was dirt cheap (with the bonus DVD to boot), b) I heard it was a good album and c) I heard the title track a while back and it really impressed the hell out of me. Now, I haven't really noticed the lyrics yet, which is pretty typical for me seeing as how I am anything but a lyrics guy but musically this album is FINE. Full interesting arrangements (I love all the various keyboard instruments in particular), good production and a bunch of reeeal nice melodies and some heartfelt singing from Bruce and his backup singers. It does go on a bit too long though but it uses its seventy odd minutes pretty well nonetheless. It's also way to early to tell what my favourites are but the three songs that have stuck out the most for me so far have been Lonesome Days, The Rising (of course) and the truly fantastic Mary's Place.

Anyone else here like this album (especially Spike-X, our main Springsteen enthusiast)?

[leonaozaki]

I know this will shock everyone, but I just don't like The Rising very much. I tried. I listened to it a lot. I wanted to like it. I love most of Springsteen's records.

I think it has some great songs that have prevented me from selling it, such as "Lonesome Day," "The Rising," "Worlds Apart," "Up the Road," "Paradise," and "My City of Ruins," but there're still nine other songs on that record and to my ear they simply weren't that good. I personally can't stand "Mary's Place."

Part of the problem is Brendan O'Brien's production, but most of it is that the songs just aren't that great-- very underwritten. And Bruce's "folksy" voice, first deployed to such soporific effect on The Ghost of Tom Joad, drives me insane.

Looking back on things, it was my bad reaction to The Rising that led me to become a Springsteen apostate. I still regard him as a major rocker for the 70's and 80's, and most of the records he made then remain great. But after that? Not so much.

rob

[howyadoin]

Anyone else here like this album (especially Spike-X, our main Springsteen enthusiast)?Big fan here. At first I was lukewarm about it, till I saw him on that tour.

Needless to say, my opinion changed.

[Spike-X]

Anyone else here like this album (especially Spike-X, our main Springsteen enthusiast)?

Yes. Yes, I do. It took me a couple of listens to really get into, as most of the songs are quite different than anything Bruce has done before, but that's not automatically a bad thing.

musically this album is FINE. Full interesting arrangements (I love all the various keyboard instruments in particular), good production and a bunch of reeeal nice melodies and some heartfelt singing from Bruce and his backup singers.

It is fantastic, music, singing, and production-wise. Getting a new producer was the best thing Bruce could have done at this stage of his career. He's really branched out on the last couple of albums, trying new sounds, new ways of singing, that I don't think the tired old team of Landau, Plotkin et al would have been able to deal with as well as Brendan O'Brien does. O'Brien also kicked his arse and got him to record the damn thing in six weeks, rather than the usual year-year and a half that a lot of Springsteen's records have taken to record in the past.

It does go on a bit too long though but it uses its seventy odd minutes pretty well nonetheless.

Yeah, I've made a custom playlist with a few of the weaker songs (Further On Up The Road, Counting On A Miracle) taken out, and the rest of them re-ordered to mirror how they were played on tour.

It's also way to early to tell what my favourites are but the three songs that have stuck out the most for me so far have been Lonesome Days, The Rising (of course) and the truly fantastic Mary's Place.

Mary's Place is great live, although it did tend to drag on a bit (ok, a lot) towards the end of the tour. Other live standouts were You're Missing (which had me literally in tears) followed by Waiting On A Sunny Day (which had me singing along with a big goofy grin on my face - nobody else can play a crowd like that!).

[Hombre]

a) it was dirt cheap (with the bonus DVD to boot)
Anyone else here like this album (especially Spike-X, our main Springsteen enthusiast)?

I wasn't aware there had been a bonus dvd in The Rising, and I bought two versions of that album (three if you count the tape).

My unworthy thoughts? It contains some excellent songs and it's great from start to finish. Among the songs closer to my heart there are Nothing Man, Empty Sky and Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin).

The live version of Empty Sky from the Rising tour is very powerful, with beautiful vocal harmonies from Bruce and Patti.

The album's title track, as it was performed on the D&D tour and can be seen on the Storytellers DVD, takes on a much greater depth and stands as one of the best examples of Springsteen's continued devotion to his craft and strenght of vision.

[Ilash]

I know this will shock everyone, but I just don't like The Rising very much. I tried. I listened to it a lot. I wanted to like it. I love most of Springsteen's records.

I think it has some great songs that have prevented me from selling it, such as "Lonesome Day," "The Rising," "Worlds Apart," "Up the Road," "Paradise," and "My City of Ruins," but there're still nine other songs on that record and to my ear they simply weren't that good. I personally can't stand "Mary's Place."

Part of the problem is Brendan O'Brien's production, but most of it is that the songs just aren't that great-- very underwritten. And Bruce's "folksy" voice, first deployed to such soporific effect on The Ghost of Tom Joad, drives me insane.

Looking back on things, it was my bad reaction to The Rising that led me to become a Springsteen apostate. I still regard him as a major rocker for the 70's and 80's, and most of the records he made then remain great. But after that? Not so much.

rob

Oh, man. You and I, we're just not going to agree on anything are we?

[Ilash]

Just a quick note on the production, which I said was good not great. My main problem with the sound of The Rising, though it's anything but unique to it, is the drums. Ever since the 80s, it seems that a lot of, if not most, rock records have the drums way up in the mix. Seeing as how I strongly believe that the drumming should always be part of the rythm of the song, I can't help but feel that putting them right up front in the mix upsets the balance of these songs. After all, a pounding drum has a nasty habit of being louder and more noticable than any of the other instruments in the song so it often lands up drowning out the instruments playing the actual melody, which are the instruments that really should be the main focus of the songs.

And though this is a definite problem when it comes to the Rising, the place that it really bugs me the most is on the Stones' latest album.

Has anyone else noticed this rather annoying trend and if so, do you agree with it being as much of a problem as I am making it out to be?

[leonaozaki]

Oh, man. You and I, we're just not going to agree on anything are we?

Not true! We agree on the virtues of (most of) the greats of the 60's; we just don't agree on much after that.

But one of my best friends and I don't agree on much of anything, and it doesn't much matter. Here on the Intar-web, all disagreements are sharper.

rob

[howyadoin]

Here on the Intar-web, all disagreements are sharper.That's because you can't sit down and have a beer together afterwards.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Internet beer: it's the wave of the future.

[Ilash]

Not true! We agree on the virtues of (most of) the greats of the 60's; we just don't agree on much after that.

But one of my best friends and I don't agree on much of anything, and it doesn't much matter. Here on the Intar-web, all disagreements are sharper.

rob

Oh yeah, most of my good friends dissagree with me about music and movies and a bunch of other thing as well. It really doesn't matter at all really except that I'm just surrised at how different our tastes can be beyond that perios in music.