Despite universally gushing reviews, I'm not completely sold on "Jerusalem" being one of Steve Earle's best albums. I think that's because it's too familiar. It's very much like his last three albums (omitting the great one he did with Del McCourey). You can almost draw a song-to-song comparison. It's better than 99.9% of records being released these days. However, as a Earle fan, it's a bit disappointing. I think it's probably a grower, though. I like it a lot more than my first couple of listens.

That said, I think it's probably the most "important" album he's ever done. Never one to shy away from his beliefs, Earle is often compared to Springsteen. I think that's an unfair comparison. Steve's been writing rings around The Boss for the last decade. However, both have released very "important" records this year. "The Rising," as mentioned here a few months ago, is vintage Springsteen. It's big, it's moving, it's great. But where Springsteen offers elegies to his fallen brothers Earle offers vitriol and anger with the status quo.

Stanzas like

That every tower ever built tumbles
No matter how strong, no matter how tall
Someday even great walls will crumble
And every idol ever raised falls
And someday even man's best laid plans
Will lie twisted and covered in rust
When we've done all that we can but it slipped through our hands
And it's ashes to ashes and dust to dust

from "Ashes to Ashes" and

Half a million soldiers fly across the water
One in ten are never comin' back again
Fifty thousand sons who never grew to fathers
Don't you ever wonder who they might have been
What if you could've been there on that day in Dallas
What if you could wrestle back the hands of time
Maybe somethin' could've been done in Memphis
We wouldn't be livin' in a dream that's died

from "Conspiracy Theory" as well as the previously posted "John Walker Blues" tackle subjects that other songwriters wouldn't touch or would sound trite addressing. Steve doesn't. He sounds earnest, sincere and truly desperate. Pick it up. You need to hear what he has to say.