Rising to the task

Picked up the new Springsteen disk yesterday and after only listening to the first eight songs I am already able to say that this is top notch material. If wankers like U2 or Paul McCartney (yes, I know he was a Beatle that doesn't mean he's not a complete embarrassment these days) had put out an album reflecting on September 11th I would have been nauseated. But there's just something so quintessentially American about Bruce Springsteen that makes him the perfect choice for such an undertaking.. It also helps that he doesn't hammer you over the head with the theme but rather subtly touches on loss and grief in a genuine way without pretensions. It's hardly a perfect album and a couple of the songs seem jarringly out of place but overall it works and achieves it's aims. What could be more American than that?