Bruce Springsteen hopes his "spiritual" music provides a soundtrack to his fans' "inner life".

The Boss has explained what he means when he describes himself as a "spiritual singer" and how he hopes by sharing moments from his own life he speaks to the "soul" of the listeners.

He said: "To be a spiritual songwriter means that you are primarily addressing the soul of your listeners. I want people to dance. I want people to be entertained. I want people to do their laundry to my music. I want people to vacuum their floors to my music, to diaper their babies to my music. At the same time, I try to insert something that can, in certain moments, address your inner life, you know, by revealing my own inner life."

The 'Born in the U.S.A.' hitmaker has released his first studio album with his longtime backing band the E Street Band in six years, 'Letter to You', today (23.10.20).

The LP boasts nine new tracks and re-records of 'Janey Needs A Shooter', 'If I Was the Priest' and 'Song for Orphans', which date back to the 1970s but were never officially released.

Springsteen admitted he got a "great joy" listening back to his early works and confessed he abandoned the tracks at the time because he was "self-conscious" about his writing.

He added to npr.org: "Well, initially when I was young, I threw all those songs out because I was self-conscious about them. But the old me goes back and I just get a kick out of them; they're funny, they're quirky. They're crazy. I'm shooting from the hip. I'm totally uninhibited. So I got great joy out of digging through the trove of those songs."