In any time of crisis, "The Boss" is there to stand up for the everyman. As he did on his response to 9/11, The Rising, Bruce Springsteen is a megaphone in the ear of the one percent on Wall Street in Wrecking Ball. Bruce and The E Street Band march the streets belting out their own songs of protest. He’s never sounded this hurt, this angry, but more importantly, he has never sounded so passionately in his four decade long, legendary career.

Enraged at the fact that the just country he loves so much is fading farther and farther from his sight, he paints a vivid picture of what’s wrong with today and how he feels America should be in Wrecking Ball, which is arguably the best album he has written in years.

Now, Bruce can write huge arena-packing anthems like he takes breaths, just listen to “We Take Care of Our Own”, Bruce’s plead for unity and prosperity, but the title track, “Wrecking Ball,” takes his massive sound to an even grander scale. The Boss revisits the sound from his incredibly successful album Born in The U.S.A. Brass sections intertwined with clean cut guitars and the signature massive Springsteen/E Street sound eventually climaxing with backing vocalists singing “Whooa! Oh! Oh!” in a victory chant.

On the other side there are some songs that are devastatingly sad and harsh. “This Depression” and “Death to My Hometown” give an eerie vision of what happened to America. “No bombs fell from the sky, no blood soaked the ground, no powder flash blinded the eye, no deafening thunder sounded, but just as sure as the hand of god they brought death to my hometown,” sings Bruce painfully wishing for times of peace.

But fear not! As Bruce has taught us for years, there is always hope. In “We are Alive” Springsteen gives a voice to those who are beaten, battered, and scarred. An acoustic hymn, accompanied by a mariachi flavored hook, Bruce sings “We are alive. Oh, and though we lie alone here in the dark, our souls will rise to carry the fire and light the spark to fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart,” transcending his hopeful vision into prayer for those down but never out.

Rock and roll started with the blues, slave music, music of pain and suffering. Springsteen sings a blues for today’s hardships, for today’s oppressed. He captured modern day’s issues and shoved them into everyone’s ears. Wrecking Ball is the kind of album that needed to be written for this country, and who better to write it than the voice of America who has addressed this countries issues for 40 years. Just like he did in the 80s with Born in The U.S.A. Bruce illustrates the anguish of the common man through his music.