Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
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AnyDecentMusic?	7.7/10
Metacritic	78/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	B+
Robert Christgau	A–
The Guardian
The Independent
NME	8/10
Pitchfork Media	5.9/10
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine
Spin	7/10

Wrecking Ball is the seventeenth studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released March 5, 2012, on Columbia Records. It was named best album of 2012 by Rolling Stone and along with the album's first single, "We Take Care of Our Own", was nominated for three Grammy Awards.

All but four songs were written in 2011. Three of the exceptions were songs previously released in live version, the other released on Wrecking Ball:

The album includes tracks that feature Clarence Clemons, who died in June 2011. Clemons performs the saxophone solos on "Land of Hope and Dreams", and backing saxophone rhythms on the title track.

While the tour in support of the album featured the full current E Street Band lineup, the only E Street Band members to appear on the album are Clemons, Steven Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, and Patti Scialfa; adjunct members Charlie Giordano and Soozie Tyrell are also heavily featured. The album features members of the Sessions Band, including the horn section, and special guest appearances by Tom Morello and Matt Chamberlain.

"It's protest music, damn right about moral abstractions rather than those finely limned characters good little aesthetes get gooey about, and for me a cathartic up. Second half's less of a scour, which the anti-political find a blessed relief and I find a forgivable nod to humanism and Clarence Clemons."

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Wikipedia