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"Bruce Springsteen has described Wrecking Ball as his most &amp;quot;direct&amp;quot; album ever. The rocker compared his 17th studio album to his 1982 release Nebraska, which dealt with the struggles faced by blue-collar workers.  &amp;quot;This is as direct a record as I ever made. That&amp;#039;s with the possible exception of Nebraska, which this record has a lot in common with,&amp;quot; he told Rolling Stone. Springsteen also revealed that he first envisioned Wrecking Ball as a stripped-down acoustic album, but the songs began to take on a new form when he hired producer Ron Aniello. &amp;quot;The record basically started out as folk music - just me and a guitar singing these songs. Then Ron brought a large library of sound that allowed me to explore - like maybe a hip-hop drum loop or country-blues stomp loop,&amp;quot; he said.  &amp;quot;The actual drums came later. There was no preconceived set of instruments that needed to be used, I could go anywhere, do anything, use anything. It was very wide open.&amp;quot; E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt recently praised Wrecking Ball as one of his favorite Springsteen albums. Springsteen and the E Street Band kick off their North American tour on March 18 at the Philips Arena in Atlanta. Wrecking Ball is released on March 5 in the UK and March 6 in the US. &amp;gt; Bruce Springsteen exhibit to open in Philadelphia &amp;gt; Steven Van Zandt: &amp;#039;Bruce Springsteen tour is my priority this year&amp;#039; Watch Bruce Springsteen&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;We Take Care of Our Own&amp;#039; music video below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a367040/bruce-springsteen-wrecking-ball-is-my-most-direct-album/>