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Tuesday, July 30, 2002

By Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic

Bruce Springsteen: "The Rising." Columbia.

For a guy who once complained about his TV having 57 channels and nothin' on, Bruce Springsteen sounds as if he was surfing for the latest news with everybody else in the wake of the tragic events of Sept. 11.

	Many of the tracks on "The Rising," the latest from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, were influenced by the events of Sept. 11. (Mike Derer, Associated Press)

On "Into the Fire," a prayer that the courage of those who fell when duty called that day will give us courage, he begins, "The sky was falling and streaked with blood/I heard you calling me/Then you disappeared into the dust." On "Empty Sky," he wakes up to an empty sky, but there's blood on the streets, blood flowin' down and blood of his blood cryin' from the ground.

He's not above wanting "a little revenge" in "Lonesome Day" or an "eye for an eye" in "Empty Sky," but ultimately, Springsteen's world view is captured best in "Worlds Apart" and "Let's Be Friends (Skin to Skin)," in which he turns the other cheek to make nice with the enemy.

And even when the lyrics aren't so obviously ripped from "Headline News," the shadow of those fallen towers colors nearly every song here. Even "Mary's Place," a straight-up party track that had me thinking of "The River," starts with Springsteen holding out an olive branch to other cultures and religions, seven pictures of Buddha back at his crib and a prophet on his tongue.

So, yeah, he started off with all the makings of a Springsteen classic here. But then, he hit the studio. Like Neil Young's latest mess, "The Rising" can't quite rise above its own production. And it takes a heavy hand to keep a set of songs as rich as these from soaring, but alterna-rock producer Brendan O'Brien makes it all seem easy.

Springsteen doesn't need a choir, strings or horns to build a Wall of Sound.

He's got the E Street Band.

And speaking of the E Street Band, the sound is too frequently stuck in the '80s. Not just Springsteen's '80s. "Lonesome Day" is "Lonesome Jubilee" with Springsteen in for Mellencamp. And the drum sound is often as biggie-sized here as it was in the tackier moments of "Born in the U.S.A." Max Weinberg, as he proved again on that reunion tour, is way too spirited a drummer to be saddled with a dated sound.

With more than half the album sounding like the '80s, when O'Brien does attempt to bring the project into, well, the '90s anyway, it all too frequently sounds forced and obvious.

It's not all busted stuff.

"You're Missing" breaks your heart despite some bad production choices. And at least three songs are captured in a way that does them justice. "Countin' on a Miracle" revives the heavier guitar sound of the vintage E Street Band, with Springsteen at his most romantic telling her "I don't believe in magic, but for you I will." "Empty Sky" is understated, underscoring Springsteen's sadness with heartbreaking harmonies and a contemporary beat that tugs against the more organic sound of acoustic guitar and piano.

And "The Rising" really pulls it all together to close on a glorious high with "My City of Ruins," a cut that feels like the Impressions crashing "Basement Tapes," with loads of Hammond B-3 organ and a heartfelt prayer for healing and redemption in the face of tragedy. It's everything you'd hope for in a Springsteen record at a time like this. But in the end, it only makes me wish the other tracks had lived up to the standards set on that one. With a group of songs as strong as these recorded as well as "My City of Ruins," Springsteen could have made another "Darkness on the Edge of Town." But this is more "Unlucky Town."