- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Los Angeles TimesThe heart of the CD is filled with the compassion and craft that have made Springsteen such an invaluable figure in rock. [24 Apr 2005]
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An acoustic-based, late-night journey focusing on social and political bummers and characters who've been battered by life.
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Mojo[An] alarming intimacy is the bedrock of Devils & Dust. [Jun 2005, p.92]
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Entertainment WeeklyDevils is a more mature effort than Joad and Nebraska, for being a little less bleak. [29 Apr 2005, p.144]
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For all his overreliance on dramatic drawls, Southwestern locales, and mother love, Springsteen has stories to tell.
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Ultimately, Devils & Dust does not break new ground. In many ways, it is rather conventional -- a mostly acoustic collection that hearkens back to Bruce's origins as a singer-songwriter -- but it is this conventionality, in its acceptance of older American forms of music, where the disc hits its mark.
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Inevitably, critics will place Devils & Dust in a trio with Springsteen's other quiet albums Nebraska and The Ghost Of Tom Joad, but be aware that there’s significantly more production polish on Devils & Dust, as well as a wider palette of moods.
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Devils and Dust is also as immediate and troubling as this morning's paper.
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Brilliant.
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Like all of his records before it, Devils & Dust sounds at once like everything and nothing Bruce Springsteen has ever released.
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Stands somewhere between Nebraska and Joad in terms of impact and quality.... But this album doesn’t merely find the middle ground between those two earlier releases: Its best songs break new ground for Springsteen.
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A record that's far removed in feel from the stark, haunting Nebraska, but on a song-for-song level, it's nearly as strong, since its stories linger in the imagination as long as the ones from that 1982 masterpiece.
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Ultimately, Devils & Dust feels like his attempt to reestablish himself as a working performer; his new material comes without weighty expectations for grand pronouncements, or the burdens of being a living icon. In that way, it's considerably more successful than his last such attempt, the 1995 album The Ghost Of Tom Joad.
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UncutWhile [Tom Joad] was often more like reading a book than listening to a record, this time Springsteen has struck a more natural balance between words and music. [Jun 2005, p.100]
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BlenderThese 12 songs... cleave to the theme of hope-is-all-we-have, while stopping short of an unnecessary, pat moral. [Jun 2005, p.116]
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New Musical Express (NME)Welcome home, The Boss. [30 Apr 2005, p.64]
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Alas, it's not as consistently satisfying as 'Born To Run' or 'Born In The USA', and Springsteen's voice, always gravely at the best of times, has taken on an increasingly wizened air that sometimes renders it frustratingly impenetrable.
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Devils & Dust is remarkably self-contained and perfectly linear: here is the aftermath of The Rising, when the plains go quiet, the windows shut and we pray, pause, and plot our next move.
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It's as if, having played the crowd-pleasing rock card, Springsteen feels the need to validate himself as a "serious" artist, but has mistaken a certain affected intimacy of approach for thoughtfulness and dramatic substance.
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Repeated listens to Devils & Dust reveal some of Springsteen's most pensive, if difficult, work.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 94 out of 105
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Mixed: 6 out of 105
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Negative: 5 out of 105
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Nov 13, 2017
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zenrazzFeb 8, 2007turnoff
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LuisJNov 30, 2006O seu melhor album a solo... Brilhante