The official Bruce Springsteen albums are so comparatively few, and of such high quality, that the rumours of a coming release will always begin to evoke great expectations a long time in advance. And since Colombia has publicly announced Devils & Dust to appear on April 26 2005, we are no longer dealing with just rumours. A lot of devoted fans are by now longing to hear from, what they almost perceive to be an intimate friend - a spiritual companion, with whom many have already shared the experiences of several life phases. This time it might even seem particularly urgent to hear, what Springsteen has to say, because of the controversies arising out of the American election, where he resolutely supported John Kerry. Devils & Dust must be expected to make some kind of comment on this incident, which has costed Springsteen a considerable amount of american fans and dramatically changed his significance as a national symbol. Add to this the always exhilarating prospect of a spectacular world tour following the release of the album. These are some of the reasons for looking forward to April 26.
Alas, some of the great expectations may already seem to have been disappointed. It is no secret that the majority of Springsteen fans love rock-n-roll and would definitely prefer to see Springsteen record and perform with the E Street Band - this 9½-piece monster of a band with four guitarists and two keyboard players among them. So it has been with mixed feelings, mildly speaking, that they have received the news of Devils & Dust being an acoustic album, where Springsteen will only be accompanied by a few session musicians here and there. Some of the songs should even be originally written during his solo tour following the acoustic album The Ghost Of Tom Joad (1995), and it seems rather certain that his tour this time will at least begin without the full E street band. This is all the more disturbing, as a lot of fans were pretty relieved in 1999, when Springsteen was reunited with the E street Band after a decade of solo activities. This time you might wonder whether the change is for good, and whether Springsteen has finally gotten too old to make real, noisy rock.
Well, however this may be, you would need more than an average imagination to figure the possibility of Devils & Dust being a bad album. And it isn't even likely, that it won't turn out to be - in some way or other - a masterpiece, such as almost every previous Springsteen album has been. It might be the case, that Springsteen is searching for a worthy way of being a rock singer at 55 - happily married and the father of teenage kids - and that he will therefore have to give up some of the attitudes of his youth. But even the possibility of Springsteen succeeding in such an effort would be extremely interesting. After all, he's the one rock star with enough sanity and firmness of character to show his audience how to age with dignity. So anyway you look at it, you better look forward to Devils & Dust.
