Hailed as a triumphant return to form for Springsteen, the album won two Grammy Awards and marked the start of a successful collaboration with producer Brendan O'Brien.

The Rising came seven years after The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995), the longest interlude between studio albums for the artist, and was his first in almost two decades with the E Street Band, with whom he had recently completed a highly successful reunion tour.

The title track tells the story of a firefighter going up the World Trade Center as survivors flee, and evokes the image of peoples' spirits rising up like angels with a "dream of life".

[11] In Rolling Stone, Kurt Loder lauded it as a triumphant and cohesive album that possesses a "bold thematic concentration and penetrating emotional focus".

[19] Thom Jurek of AllMusic called it "one of the very best examples... of how popular art can evoke a time period and all of its confusing and often contradictory notions, feelings and impulses.

"[12] David Browne, writing in Entertainment Weekly, felt that Springsteen's message had a renewed relevance, while his occasionally overburdened lyrics were saved by lively and vivid music.

[22] Uncut magazine called The Rising "a brave and beautiful album of humanity, hurt and hope from the songwriter best qualified to speak to and for his country ... A towering achievement.

"[21] In a mixed review for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis found the music to be awkwardly old-fashioned, with the best songs featuring strong melodies, as he judged the lyrics to be simplistic and unambiguous.

"[23] Robert Christgau cited "Paradise", "Nothing Man", "The Rising", and "My City of Ruins" as "choice cuts",[24] but concluded that the album "isn't worth your time or money".

On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Dan DeLuca of the Philadelphia Inquirer said: "The songs make contextual sense in the aftermath of 9/11, but the specific details that give them power are allusive.