Bruce Springsteen has announced the forthcoming release of his latest album with the E Street Band, Letter To You, due out via Columbia Records on October 23rd.
The forthcoming twelve-track release, Springsteen’s 20th career studio album, was recorded at his home studio in New Jersey. Letter To You marks Springsteen’s first time performing with the E Street Band since The River 2016 world tour and his first new studio release with his regular backing band since 2014’s High Hopes. In the time since, Springsteen has released a solo album (2019’s Western Stars) and mounted a historic 236-show run of Springsteen on Broadway at Jujamcyn’s Walter Kerr Theatre from October 2017 to December 2018, which also yielded an accompanying soundtrack album and Netflix special.
Letter to You includes nine recently written Springsteen songs, as well as new recordings of three of his legendary, but previously unreleased, compositions from the 1970s, “Janey Needs a Shooter”, “If I Was the Priest”, and “Song for Orphans”. Springsteen is joined on Letter To You by the E Street Band, featuring Roy Bittan, Nils Lofgren, Patti Scialfa, Garry Tallent, Stevie Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Charlie Giordano, and Jake Clemons. The album was produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen, mixed by Bob Clearmountain and mastered by Bob Ludwig.
“I love the emotional nature of Letter To You,” says Springsteen of the album in a press release, “And I love the sound of the E Street Band playing completely live in the studio, in a way we’ve never done before, and with no overdubs. We made the album in only five days, and it turned out to be one of the greatest recording experiences I’ve ever had.”
Along with the announcement of the album, Bruce Springsteen shared an official music video for the title track, which depicts the band recording the new track in thematic black and white. Watch the “Letter To You” video below and pre-order your copy of the album here.
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – “Letter To You” (Official Video)
[Video: Bruce Springsteen]
In May of 2019, Springsteen sparked widespread fan excitement when he confirmed to Italian newspaper Repubblica (translated from Italian), “We will go on tour [in 2020]. I’ll record with the E Street Band in the autumn and when we are done, we’ll go on tour.’” He also noted that he and the band love Rome, and implied that the tour would find them back in the Italian capital.
While those plans were obviously altered due to the ongoing pandemic, the release of a new album seems to indicate that those touring plans are likely still in the works—for whenever tours are able to safely resume.
Check out the full tracklisting for the new Bruce Springsteen album, Letter To You, below.
