Devils & Dust [DualDisc]

Disc 1
1	Devils & Dust 4:58
2	All the Way Home 3:38
3	Reno 4:08
4	Long Time Comin' 4:17
5	Black Cowboys 4:08
6	Maria's Bed 5:35
7	Silver Palomino 3:22
8	Jesus Was an Only Son 2:54
9	Leah 3:31
10	The Hitter 5:53
11	All I'm Thinkin' About 4:22
12	Matamoros Banks 4:00
Disc 2
1	Devils & Dust DVD
2	All the Way Home DVD
3	Reno DVD
4	Long Time Comin' DVD
5	Black Cowboys DVD
6	Maria's Bed DVD
7	Silver Palomino DVD
8	Jesus Was an Only Son DVD
9	Leah DVD
10	The Hitter DVD
11	All I'm Thinkin' About DVD
12	Matamoros Banks DVD
13	Devils & Dust DVD / Version
14	Long Time Comin' DVD / Version
15	Reno DVD / Version
16	All I'm Thinkin' About DVD / Version
17	Matamoros Banks DVD / Version

Barnes & Noble

The latter-day Springsteen, when he really has something to say, says it quietly -- a fact that's confirmed by the stripped-down, purposefully dusty ambience of this much-anticipated follow-up to The Rising. While not as sparse as, say, Nebraska or Tom Joad, Devils & Dust 's underlying simplicity -- in arrangements, lyric stance, and production -- makes it more like those albums than the bulk of Springsteen's full-band outings. That attitude is driven home early on by the country-steeped "All the Way Home," powered by a two-step rhythm and a wailing harmonica and made human by the plainspoken infatuation of the protagonist. The more downbeat "Reno," on which Springsteen is accompanied by a spare slide guitar and a subtle swell of strings, is equally rooted in southern culture, albeit more of the woozy, Kris Kristofferson stripe. Lyrically, the disc's most moving passages strike a similar chord, from the contemplative inner-city allegory "Black Cowboys" -- which pits a hard-edged narrative against a whisper-soft canvas of acoustic guitar and organ -- to the tumbleweed-dry dirge "The Hitter." Those songs, like Bruce's best work, tell the tales of individuals rather than movements, but there's no disputing the populist political waves that lap along the album's edges, cresting on the title track, which paints a clear picture of an ideological enemy without naming a single name. Springsteen employs that less-is-more approach again and again on Devils & Dust, never overstating, never overreaching -- and by doing so, he reaches his highest creative pinnacle in years. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Every decade or so, Bruce Springsteen releases a somber album of narrative songs, character sketches, and folk tunes -- records that play not like rock & roll, but rather as a collection of short stories. Nebraska, released in the fall of 1982 during the rise of Reagan's America, was the first of these, with the brooding The Ghost of Tom Joad following in 1995, in the thick of the Clinton administration but before the heady boom days of the late '90s. At the midpoint of George W. Bush's administration, Springsteen released Devils & Dust, another collection of story songs that would seem on the surface to be a companion to Nebraska and Ghost, but in actuality is quite a different record than either. While the characters that roam through Devils & Dust are similarly heartbroken, desperate, and downtrodden, they're far removed from the criminals and renegades of Nebraska, and the album doesn't have the political immediacy of Ghost's latter-day Woody Guthrie-styled tales -- themes that tied together those two albums. Here, the songs and stories are loosely connected. Several are set in the West, some are despairing, some have signs of hope, a couple are even sweet and light. Springsteen's writing is similarly varied, occasionally hearkening back to the spare, dusty prose of Nebraska, but often it's densely composed, assured, and evocative, written as if the songs were meant to be read aloud, not sung. But the key to Devils & Dust, and why it's his strongest record in a long time, is that the music is as vivid and varied as the words. Unlike the meditative, monochromatic The Ghost of Tom Joad, this has different shades of color, so somber epics like "The Hitter" or the sad, lonely "Reno" are balanced by the lighter "Long Time Comin'," "Maria's Bed," and "All I'm Thinkin' About," while the moodier "Black Cowboys" and "Devils & Dust" are enhanced by subtly cinematic productions. It results in a record that's far removed in feel from the stark, haunting Nebraska, but on a song-for-song level, it's nearly as strong, since its stories linger in the imagination as long as the ones from that 1982 masterpiece (and they stick around longer than those from Ghost, as well). Devils & Dust is also concise and precisely constructed, two things the otherwise excellent 2002 comeback The Rising was not, and that sharp focus helps make this the leanest, artiest, and simply best Springsteen record in many years. [Devils & Dust was released only as a DualDisc, a disc that contains a CD on one side and a DVD on the flip. The DVD contains a 5.1 mix of the album, plus a 30-minute film containing interviews with Springsteen and footage of him performing five songs live in the upstairs of a house; in other words, it's a staged performance, not a concert. The interviews are enjoyable, if not particularly interesting, while the live acoustic performances are not strictly unadorned -- "Reno" has pianos and synthesizers discreetly murmuring in the background, "All I'm Thinkin' About" has synths and backing vocals. It's a fine little film, but not something that merits frequent repeat viewings. The CD side appears to be copy-protected -- it did not read in either a PC with Windows XP or a Mac with OSX, so it cannot easily be ripped as MP3s.] Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone

1/2 Springsteen's most audacious record since the home-demo American Gothic of 1982's Nebraska. David Fricke

Entertainment Weekly

When it comes to combining a literary quality with a colloquial voice, nobody does it better -- still. (A-) Chris Willman