JUNE SIMMS: Rocker Bruce Springsteen released his seventeenth studio album this week. “Wrecking Ball” is his first record since two thousand nine. It is a very direct and angry message about the current state of America. But it is also a cry for an end to economic injustice.

Barbara Klein has more on “The Boss” and his latest work.

BARBARA KLEIN: Bruce Springsteen spoke last month about “Wrecking Ball.” He said the album was inspired by the American financial crisis in two thousand eight. In his words, a “basic theft had occurred that struck at the heart of what the entire American idea was about.” He said people were losing their homes and life savings, and no one was being held responsible.

Bruce Springsteen’s anger about that led to the album’s first single, “We Take Care of Our Own.”

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Members of the E Street Band play on the album. The group’s saxophone player, Clarence Clemons, died last year. Bruce Springsteen had played with “the big man” since the singer was twenty-two. Springsteen said losing his friend and band mate was like “losing the rain, or the air.” He called their relationship elemental.

Clarence Clemons appears on “Wrecking Ball,” playing sax on “Land of Hope and Dreams.”

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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will not go on without a sax player. In fact, two men will take on Clarence Clemons’ part during the concert series for “Wrecking Ball.” And one of them is a close link: Clemons’ nephew Jake. The first concert, in Atlanta, will be on March eighteenth.