"Wrecking Ball": My personal favorite on the album as of right now, and hopefully this stands as my lasting impression of Ball. This one will give me goosebumps in a live setting, mixed in next to a cut say from The Rising.

It's about the old departed Giants Stadium, but knowing Bruce, it could just as well be about the next 50 years of U.S. history. Make no mistake, this is more than likely the best song on Ball. It's hard to find another one on the disc that matches the lump-in-your-throat of its nearly six minutes. Naturally, this is one of two tracks that Clemons got to lay his hands on before he passed away last year. The magic is prevalent.

"You've Got It": Reaching back to the pop-slink of Born In The U.S.A., with echoes of "Cover Me" throughout. My guess is that this will be the song which sees Bruce straddling a mike stand to the delight of the assembled female audience.

"Rocky Ground": Was this the cut with the hip-hop influence I was supposed to be watching for? Oh brother, there's that gospel chorus, the soul sample, the French horns, and the messianic lyrics about blood on your hands. I guess.

"Land Of Hope And Dreams": A good closer to the main set before heading into the encore, I presume. Aural ground that Ryan Adams treaded on with 2001's Gold, or at worst Coldplay in 2009, is Bruce on auto-pilot in 2012.

"We Are Alive": I would've liked this one more if he kept himself solo on this one and not added the hillbilly guitars and the whistling. Shit, you can't beat Bruce alone with a guitar and a bone to pick. But even still, "We Are Alive" makes me sort of forget the bad songs on Ball, but maybe that's because the Arcade Fire influence, or mirrored influence as it may be, sort of makes my ears all aflutter.

All in all, Ball isn't atrocious or awful, but it does sound like a a bridge to something else that isn't Ball or even the Bruce that we have known for now almost 40 years, which makes up for its share of shortcomings.

I do wish that the headspace of shadowy bonus track "Swallowed Up (In the Belly of the Whale)" would be stretched into a whole album somewhere down the line. Pinocchio it ain't. Gothic Bruce may have legs.

The other bonus cut, "American Land," should have been given to a younger band. Share the wealth, Mr. Springsteen, and lose that Irish accent.