Greatest hits and plugging the gaps in release date lulls have brought on a new form of EP release. For Bruce Springsteen and the five-track Blood Brothers piece, it meant tracking how a reunion between The E Street Band and Springsteen had gone down. Where the documentary of the same name may provide much more detail and finesse in understanding the reunion, we can hear it, crystal clear, on this. Five tracks almost a decade on from the last recording between Springsteen and the band he had departed, one of which would serve as a lead single for an album decades later. Blood Brothers may feel like a throwaway release but these five tracks contain an abundance of riches, a history as well-weathered as Born in the USA and a stylish instrumental clawing at the glory days.
Springsteen isolating his vocals for the alternate version of this title track is remarkable. A longing song of past experiences and now, paired with the band once more, the beauty and depth of their instrumental style back in the fold, a new layer is found. Blood Brothers benefit from the break Springsteen had from the band, certainly, and it makes this release all the sweeter. Even two decades on from its initial release, the band is still together and going strong, it feels remarkable. An opening track demanding listeners not to look back, and yet this is where the best material from Springsteen is found. Even he takes a moment to step into his past and rekindles a musical relationship which benefitted him more than it did The E Street Band. Slick guitar work and a steady, rising instrumental with a few licks of classic rock percussion about it is more than enough to sell this five-track collection.
Blood Brothers is classic Springsteen through and through. His rocking comeback springs forward with a few flourishes of shocking positivity. Stunning pieces like Murder Incorporated hit out at consumer greed and corporate rule in all the shimmering powers expected of a Springsteen song railing against the powers that be. Again, getting there without The E Street Band is difficult, especially when they provide such a brilliant structure to this one. They were a band capable of standing out and showing off without feeling overly complex – just slick work the whole way through and paired well with a wonderful array of instruments. A live recording right in the middle of Blood Brothers is a neat break before the inevitably tender sounds of Secret Garden come through.
But these are mostly bonus materials anyway. A nice and new piece of refined work to tie into a Greatest Hits release which would see the band reunite. It is from Blood Brothers, the implication of the title as a bond between bandmates, that the Springsteen and E Street Band collaborations were rekindled. We are all the better for it considering the staggering new form they have taken with their music. Tremendous string work certainly elevates the song, as does the percussion heard softly in the background. These are as heartfelt as they get, a rare care taken for bonus features of what is so often a cobbled-together effort of extra pieces from a period long passed. Not for Springsteen and The E Street Band though, whose reformation can be heard whirring away in the minutes of Blood Brothers.
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