The Boss returns with new album inspired by 9/11

It was an exemplary response to the soon-to-be-legendary meeting with a fan who stopped Springsteen after the attacks and told him, ‘‘We need you.’’ We did need him. In the struggle to cobble together the strength to look to the future after Sept. 11, Americans turned to their musical past for comfort — flooding radio stations with requests for Springsteen, the Beatles and Billy Joel — as reminders that all was not lost.

Springsteen did his part with My City of Ruins. And he delivered again Tuesday with the release of The Rising, the perfect tonic for a post 9/11 America awash in uncertainty.

Even before the first note is struck, The Rising is already newsworthy, as the first album of new Springsteen material in seven years and the first new studio album with the E-Street Band since the chart-busting Born in the USA, 18 years ago.

In many ways, The Rising is Springsteen’s return trip to America’s heartland, finding that some things have changed since the Reagan-era tales of My Hometown and Glory Days, but many have not.

Sometimes, Springsteen offers inspiration directly. ‘‘It’s all right, it’s all right, it’s all right, yeah,’’ he and his reunited E-Street Band chant in the charging Lonesome Day, the album’s leadoff track. Springsteen tackles the task of reassuring while still having fun, with raising the level of debate instead of lowering it. Let’s hope so. We need him. (LATWP)