Reviews
Poor Bruce. If anyone else released an album as well-crafted and slickly produced as this, they would be praised to the heavens. But everything Springsteen does is measured against the success of his classic albums, Born To Run and The River. His recent releases, Working on a Dream and Wrecking Ball, lived up to expectations and suggested that Springsteen was maintaining his quality control at an age when most are content to kick back.
High Hopes has puzzled many. It is an album of Springsteen out-takes and covers, many of his own tracks. The most controversial is ‘American Skin’ (41 Shots), which Springsteen wrote after the killing of the unarmed immigrant, Amadou Diallo, by New York police in 1999. It has long been a staple of his live set. Springsteen did this track better justice on his Live in New York City album, in 2000, and why he reprises it here is a mystery.
