Known for his charismatic onstage persona and marathon three hour-plus performances that exhaust the average concertgoer, Bruce Springsteen has released another live album featuring the most successful band ever to utilize a glockenspiel.

Live in New York City, a two-disc set recorded during the final two performances of the E Street Band’s reunion tour last June, contains a little of everything: new material, obscure album cuts, and new versions of some old hits.

The set opens with the shameless rocker, "My Love Will Not Let You Down," from the critically acclaimed boxed set, Tracks. The controversial "American Skin (41 Shots)," carries subtle reference to the Feb. 1999 police shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed immigrant from West Africa. The song drew a boycott by the New York City Police Association, who protested that the song suggested a case of racial profiling.

In the middle of a rousing rendition of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," Springsteen steps into his pseudo-alter ego for the tour, a self-described "hysterical, raving lunatic" who uses old-time revivalist preacher rhetoric and proclaimed the "ministry of rock and roll." The classic anti-Vietnam War anthem, "Born in the U.S.A.," receives a dramatic reworking into an eerie Delta blues rhythm. Other highlights include the nightly encore, "Land of Hopes and Dreams," which opens with the optimistic lines, "dreams will not be thwarted … faith will be rewarded … bells of freedom will ring…"

Springsteen began touring with the E Street Band in July 1999, their first time touring together in over a decade. In the meantime, he had recorded a couple lackluster albums, won an Academy award for "Streets of Philadelphia," and released a Greatest Hits compilation, as well as the Tracks treasure chest of unreleased material. Some of the band members started new careers including drummer Max Weinberg (Late Night with Conan O’Brien) and guitarist Steve Van Zandt (a.k.a. Silvio Dante of The Sopranos). Wife and back-up singer Patti Scialfa gave birth to the couple’s three children.

The album’s release coincided with a 2-hour concert special (a first for the Boss) that aired on HBO April 7, featuring footage taped over the last two nights of Springsteen’s 10-night stand at Madison Square Garden, which concluded a yearlong world tour. Live in New York City entered this week’s Billboard Top 200 at No. 5.

While the new release is welcome news to most Springsteen fans, a live album almost seems a copout given that almost two decades have passed since he recorded a full-length studio recording with the entire band (1984’s blockbuster, Born in the U.S.A.). Although the group spent some time in the studio in March, Springsteen downplayed any speculation about a new CD. "I'd like to make a studio record with the guys, but I don't want to make any concrete predictions about when that will happen," he said.

But then again, why not another live set? His Live/1975-85 boxed set went 12x platinum and remains the only boxed set ever to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. On this latest tour, Springsteen claims his band played at their best yet. He once said, "Bob [Dylan] freed the mind the way Elvis [Presley] freed the body." Springsteen has managed to do both in his incredible career, both as a performer and songwriter.