Springsteen”s new ”Devils & Dust” full of compassion

Bruce Springsteen

“Devils & Dust” (Columbia) ••••

“I got my finger on the trigger, but I don’t know who to trust/When I look into your eyes, there’s just devils and dust,” Bruce Springsteen sings in the opening line of his latest album. And yes, he’s speaking about a soldier’s anxious vigil in Iraq.

But America’s blue-collar chronicler isn’t continuing down the path of “The Rising,” his rousing, anthem-packed 2002 reflection on the nation’s emotional state after the twin towers terrorist attack.

In this mostly stark, acoustic CD (due in stores Tuesday), he returns to moving portraits of struggling individuals here at home – especially migrant workers in the Southwest, where devils and dust of a different kind can be equally threatening.

This is the Alternative Bruce of 1982’s “Nebraska” and 1995’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad,”albums in which he stepped away from the superhero “Boss” persona and the E Street Band spectacle to examine the gritty, dimly lighted world of characters who have been pushed to society’s extremes.

Where Southern California was the setting of many of the sketches in “Tom Joad,” the locales in “Devils & Dust” stretch from the “rutted hills of Oklahoma” – where a young black man longs for the freedom of the cowboy life after fleeing the mean streets back east – to the banks of the Rio Grande, where a young Mexican’s search for a better life in this country ends in tragedy.

A couple of the songs are slight, and the DualDisc’s half-hour video component is too arty in places for its own good. But the heart of the CD is filled with the compassion and craft that have made Springsteen such an invaluable figure in rock.

Robert Hilburn, Los Angeles Times

Brooke Valentine

“Chain Letter” (Virgin) •• 1/2

This 19-year-old from Houston has gotten lots of attention for her single “Girlfight,” a crunk throwdown with Lil Jon and Outkast’s Big Boi. But Valentine’s sole contributions to that are thin, sibilant vocals – and a mean right cross in the video.

That track is typical in one sense: Throughout this record, she cares more about the beats than the singing. That doesn’t bode well for Valentine’s career, but it makes for a funky debut.

The brassy “Long as You Come Home” is the CD’s best song, but she sounds flat – or, as Randy Jackson would say, “pitchy” – another negative sign.

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer

Fischerspooner

“Odyssey” (Capitol) ••• 1/2

In Fischerspooner’s world, style is substance. The group began as a performance-art project by the New York duo of Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner, and has evolved into a living, breathing commentary on pop-culture production and consumption, with input from Susan Sontag and David Byrne, both of whom contributed lyrics to this second album.

Of course, you don’t have to know any of that to bask in the Day-Glo rays of their synthetic electro-pop. Such songs as “Just Let Go” and “Everything to Gain” ride throbbing bass lines and fluttering, new-wave keyboard melodies as Spooner detachedly talk-sings about … well, nothing in particular.

The album climaxes with a cover of the Boredoms’ “Circle” that drizzles spacey synthesizer cheese all over its churning, mantralike core.

Serious art or guilty pleasure? Who cares!

Amy Phillips, Philadelphia Inquirer

Willie Nelson and others

“Songs for Tsunami Relief” (Texas Roadhouse) ••

This album is taken from a Jan. 9 benefit concert in Austin, Texas, that featured Nelson as the headliner. While most of the seven tunes that feature him are instantly recognizable (“Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Whiskey River,” “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”), the performances are just as instantly forgettable – ragged run-throughs that are marred further by a harsh sound mix.

Far more pleasant are the contributions from some of the other artists who performed, including singer-songwriters Patty Griffin (“Love Be Heard”), Joe Ely (“Boxcars”) and Alejandro Escovedo (“Break This Time”). Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks does a nice job on the tear-jerking ballad “Travelin’ Soldier,” and the intriguing Texas indie-rock band Spoon is also in fine, jagged form on “My Mathematical Mind.”

With proceeds being donated to the tsunami relief and rebuilding efforts of UNICEF and CARE, by all means go and buy this CD – even if the music is wildly uneven at times.

Martin Bandyke, Detroit Free Press