Release Date: 2002

Impressions: Another late-career effort by Bruce. This one came out as a direct response to 9/11. I guess someone had to address the subject, so why not the Boss, right? Let’s put it on… “Lonesome Day” offers up solid, if standard meat-and-potatoes rock with affecting but vague references to 9/11. The production by Brendan O’Brien is a little better than most late-career AOR offerings, although he likes to toss in little weird noises and sampled beats at the beginning and ends of songs to let you know he’s earning his paycheck. “Waitin’ On A Sunny Day” is a little more successful, with a nice hook and hard-won busted up optimism coming through the stomping beat. This would have been a nice closing track to end on a positive note. Lots of these songs echo past E. Street songs, but through the filter of the 9/11 attacks. I’m not sure if anyone still listens to this album, as it’s rooted in it’s time and probably overshadowed by the rest of his massive catalog. Ironically, it’s one of the newest albums on this whole list, but one of the most dated. Many of these songs aren’t too subtle. “Empty Sky” seems to hit the nail even more on the head with lyrics like “Empty sky/empty sky/I woke up this morning to an empty sky” and “Worlds Apart” tries a faux-Arabic world beat thing dealing with the difference between US and, I guess, non-Western countries that don’t like us. “The Rising” works okay but ends up being more of an artifact of the post 9/11 mood  than a classic song. Lyrically, I’m willing to give Bruce a pass on grappling with this heavy, impossible material, but unfortunately without the 9/11 angle, The Rising merely a non-terrible late-career effort that fades into the background.