The river

Description

"The River" is Bruce Springsteen's richest album, and not just because it is a double album. Over the course of these twenty songs, the Boss is sometimes as lyrical as on "Darkness On The Edge Of Town," but he also allows himself a lightness that recalls the carefree spirit of 1960s New York rhythm and blues ("Out In The Street," "Crush On You," and "Hungry Heart"). Even the romantic ballads like "I Wanna Marry You" and the long epic tracks like "Point Blank" and "Drive All Night" maintain a subtle and airy swing that is not always appropriate in this kind of exercise. Up to the track "The River," which is mainly associated with the stripped-down intro featuring dramatic harmonica and yet quickly bounces on a swaying bass and a hopping piano motif. It takes a group like the E Street Band of 1980 to play such beautiful nuances and manage to give such a strong unity to an album that multiplies states of mind. A decade of concerts, struggles, and then a hard-earned success probably has something to do with it.