Bruce Springsteen: Ranking His Albums From Worst To Best

8. The Rising

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgvQ7I1RH6M Year Of Release: 2002 Key Tracks: The Rising, Waitin' on a Sunny Day, My City of Ruins Springsteen's first album of fresh material in seven years was inspired, in the main, by one thing: September 11th, 2001. Bruce had been absent from the studio for a while, although he had properly reunited with the E Street Band and embarked upon the very successful Reunion Tour in the interim. Bruce was compelled to step back into the studio when, a few days after the attacks, a stranger drove past him in his car, rolled down his window and told him 'we need you now'. The resultant album is Bruce's best of the 2000s, one which sees him keeping the established E Street sound but also experimenting with new techniques. World Apart, for example, features a distinctly Middle Eastern sound, while My City of Ruins is a grandiose gospel-like entry. The songwriting is typically on-point throughout and explores the feelings of loss, fear and eventual triumph that many American citizens felt during that period. Critics were impressed, too, and audiences also lapped it up: it was Springsteen's best-selling and highest-charting album of new material since 1987's Tunnel of Love. The Boss was back .