Bruce Springsteen releases new single, announces album

Bruce Springsteen fans had “High Hopes” Monday morning when The Boss not only released a new song, but announced plans for an upcoming album.

Featuring a mix of unreleased tracks and some familiar ones, too, “High Hopes” finds Springsteen in various musical settings, teaming with members of the E Street band, guitarist Tom Morello and other musicians. Recorded in Springsteen's home state of New Jersey, along with Los Angeles, Atlanta, Australia and New York City, “High Hopes” features Morello performing on “American Skin (41 Shots)” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” Morello has played onstage with Springsteen through the years, joining the band on tour in Australia back in March. Springsteen has called the Rage Against the Machine rocker “my muse, pushing the rest of this project to another level."

Late E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons and organ/accordion player Danny Federici, who died in 2008, also appear on the album, which Springsteen says features “some of our best unreleased material from the past decade.” Also included is the Suicide cover of "Dream Baby Dream," which has become a tour staple. 

The 64-year-old rocker wrote the liner notes for the album, noting, "This is music I always felt needed to be released.  From the gangsters of 'Harry’s Place,' the ill-prepared roomies on 'Frankie Fell In Love' (shades of Steve and I bumming together in our Asbury Park apartment) the travelers in the wasteland of 'Hunter Of Invisible Game,' to the soldier and his visiting friend in 'The Wall,' I felt they all deserved a home and a hearing."

Springsteen somehow managed to find time to pull this all together as he and the E Street Band have been on tour for a good part of this year, performing shows all over the world. 

"High Hopes" tracklisting:

1. "High Hopes" (Tim Scott McConnell) – featuring Tom Morello

2. "Harry’s Place" – featuring Tom Morello

3. "American Skin (41 Shots)" – featuring Tom Morello

4. "Just Like Fire Would"(Chris J. Bailey) – featuring Tom Morello

5. "Down in the Hole"

6. "Heaven’s Wall" -- featuring Tom Morello

7. "Frankie Fell In Love"

8. "This Is Your Sword"

9. "Hunter Of Invisible Game" – featuring Tom Morello

10. "The Ghost of Tom Joad" – duet with Tom Morello

11. "The Wall"

12. "Dream Baby Dream" (Martin Rev and Alan Vega) – featuring Tom Morello