The Best Part of Breaking Up is when You're Making Up

A honest effort can turn my cynical eye into genuine admiration and forgiveness of an artist. Such is the case with Bruce Springsteen's "Wrecking Ball."

Three years ago I broke up with him. I thought he and I were on two different planets and we'd never see each other in orbit again. I wished him well.

I'm not sure exactly what it is about this new record that made me get out the large plate of crow. I think it's hearing the anger in his words, an anger that is not forced, an anger that is not being constructed to blueprints. Springsteen has been on the campaign trail for Kerry and Obama and he does not like what he has seen. It's taken him three years to write about his rage, about the theft of America from the robber barons. He's spitting out the chorus of "We Take Care of our Own" as a lie from the leaders. It's not happening. He's issuing a challenge. Laying his flag down.

The production is a different step for him, he's using drum loops, a full horn section and has been heavily influenced by Irish folk music. He's taken his Seeger sessions work to a different level, added some gospel and it hits the mark more than it fails. It's his best record in years.

There are a few vague moments. "Jack of All Trades" a dirge about a couple trying to make ends meet goes on a bit too long and meanders. And the narrator could not afford to see Springsteen live at this point, not with the prices he's charging to see his shows. Yes, I know it's a great expense, moving all these people across the world, but still...

In the middle of the despair of the stomping and fierce "Death to My Hometown" there are moments of remembrance and joy. In the remade "Land of Hope and Dreams" comes Clarence Clemons' last sax solo. It made me gasp at first listen. There is an orchestra of stringed instruments on this song - mandolins, banjos, all kinds of guitars. Damn, that opening saxophone note put this record into the double plus column.

"Rocky Ground", the second single (if there's such a thing as a single anymore) is the heaviest gospel influenced song on the album that builds into a full on rap by Michelle Moore. I do acknowledge that Springsteen is trying to experiment with new approaches, and not throwing anything to the wall just to see if it will stick.

Wrecking Ball closes with a song of survival, "We Are Alive" is described as a campfire song, with strummed acoustic guitars, hollered lyrics and mariachi horns it describes the losses of fighters for justice while offering more hope for the listener, letting us know that hard times come and hard times go.