Wrecking Ball is the seventeenth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on March 6, 2012, on Columbia Records.

While the tour in support of the album featured the full current E Street Band lineup, the only E Street Band members to appear on the album are Clemons, Steven Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, and Patti Scialfa; adjunct members Charlie Giordano and Soozie Tyrell are also heavily featured.

The album features members of the Sessions Band, including the horn section, and special guest appearances by Tom Morello and Matt Chamberlain.

[15] Andy Gill of The Independent wrote of the album's musical style, "[I]t's couched in a mix of the classic Boss rock bombast and the muscular hootenanny folk-rock of his Seeger Sessions album, with touches of noble gospel, poignant jazz trumpet and feisty Irish rebel music colouring the songs according to their mood.

Club's Steven Hyden called it "a mainstream rock record" and noted that, musically, the album features "booming drums, squealing guitar solos, violins, banjos, trumpets, pianos, pots, pans, and every available hard surface at Bruce's home studio.

"[17] Music writer Robert Christgau interpreted its first six tracks as "heavy irony shading over into murderous rage, with refurbished arena-rock to slam it home".

"[12] Steve Leftridge of PopMatters found the characters in the songs "less elusive about whom to blame for their troubles, cutting out the middle figures like foremen and hiring men and taking on the real culprits unambiguously".

"[20] The opening track, "We Take Care of Our Own", recalls "Born in the U.S.A." in terms of its themes that reflect Springsteen's frustration with the lack of accountability he sees in government.

The song features heavy Irish folk influences (including a prominent tin whistle riff), as well as samples of Sacred Harp singing.

[26] The album's closing track, "We Are Alive," is a "campfire song"[citation needed] for ghosts of the oppressed, martyred strikers, protesters, and immigrant workers.

[39] Steve Leftridge of PopMatters called it "cohesively designed" and wrote that it "finds Springsteen still firing on all cylinders—writing with poetic urgency, drawing on traditions old and new, singing and playing with prime strength and energy, and delivering a new set of killer melodies with fresh sonic wallop.

"[18] The Guardian's Alexis Petridis wrote that the album "paints almost entirely in broad brushstrokes, but its bombast rarely seems hollow: it exists [...] in service of an anger that feels righteous, affecting and genuine.

"[16] However, Slant Magazine's Jesse Cataldo accused Springsteen of being "borderline jingoistic" and called his perspective "rose-colored", writing that he "seems more concerned with overtures toward harmony than actual dissent, a newfound wishy-washiness that leaves him sounding entirely defanged".

[37] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic found the album "cumbersome and top heavy" and stated, "Springsteen sacrific[es] impassioned rage in favor of explaining his intentions too clearly.

"[33] Although he commended the album's themes, Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot criticized its music as "sterile" and commented that Springsteen "lost his nerve as a coproducer, going for stadium bombast instead of the unadorned grit these stories of hard times demand".

[2] In his list for The Barnes & Noble Review, Christgau named it the tenth best album of 2012[49] after calling it "his best since Tunnel of Love if not Born in the U.S.A."[50] Wrecking Ball was released as a two-LP set, a single CD, and a digital download.