Bruce Springsteen’s “Letter to You” should have been sent certified by Sony Music’s Columbia label in New York.

In a bitter chart race, “Letter to You” finished 2nd today for the week in its debut. The album sold around 83,000 copies with all but 3,000 CDs and downloads. The remainder was gained from streaming.

But what was number 1? Surely it came from another record company? Alas, no, it was Sony’s Nashville branch. In a deal they made with Nashville’s River House, country artist Luke Combs finished above Bruce with 106,540 copies of his “What You See is What You Get.”

Yes, “What You See is What You Get” is the name of a famous 1973 hit by the Dramatics on Stax Records. But country is famous for lifting titles of pre-existing hits and making them over into a new horse and saddle.

But Ouch! If Sony had just postponed Combs or moved it up a week, Bruce might have been numero uno. But he was undone by his own record company. And it’s the only one he’s ever had. Bruce has been on Columbia Records since 1972. Only Barbra Streisand can say that. I do think that Tony Bennett and Bob Dylan each wandered off and returned. But Bruce has always been there.

“Letter to You” sold in its first week more than Bruce’s last album, “Western Stars,” sold in its first three weeks. There’s nothing like adding the E Street Band that won’t put some pep in your step! Bruce is nevertheless number 1 on the charts this week for this writer. I don’t use combs!

Michael Penn is back. Composer of movie scores, producer, husband of Aimee Mann, Penn hasn’t had an album out in 15 years. But he says on Twitter “During the pandemic I’ve been writing songs again. The first one I recorded is out today.”

“Revival” is a beautiful anthem. Can’t wait to hear the rest of what he’s done.

You may recall Michael’s 1989 hit, “No Myth.” If you don’t know it, this is called a perfect single.

Congrats to Ariana Grande. When she goes low, she goes lower. Her new single, following “Positions,” is called “34 + 35.” What does that equal? It equals crudeness and lack of taste. Really, this is garbage. She’s wasting a good voice on utter crap. And “F**k me til daylight.” It’s not even sexy. (See Millie Jackson for the real thing.) How unfortunate. Is that hard to sell records? Thank you, next.

Want a sexy song by a great singer songwriter? Try this one instead

Any career of 40 plus years takes a long and winding path. Elvis Costello’s is rare because his has followed his first statement: “My Aim is True.” Sometimes the path has wobbled, sprung from high to low and back again, but it never fails to regain its momentum.

This is true of Elvis’s “Hey Clockface,” the eclectic, brooding group of songs to follow up his recent masterwork and Grammy winner, “Look Now.” The latter album was unexpected, a depth charge after a long period of laying low. But Costello is a song machine. He can’t stop composing and finding new ways to approach the writing, the singing, the furthering of that original mission statement.

There are sounds we’ve never heard before on “Hey Clockface” coming from punk rock’s angry young man. That’s because the musicians are not the Attractions or the Imposters, with the exception of multi-talented pianist Steve Nieve. Costello recorded in Helsinki, Paris and New York and mixed by Sebastian Krys in Los Angeles. Recalling the Paris recording session, Costello said in a recent interview, “I sang live on the studio floor, directing from the vocal booth. We cut nine songs in two days. We spoke very little. Almost everything the musicians played was a spontaneous response to the song I was singing. I’d had a dream of recording in Paris like this, one day.”

The album is such a big meal that I’m focused right now on “No Flag,” which seems to mirror the empty reaction to politics now. It’s followed by a gorgeous ballad called “They’re Not Laughing at Me Now.” There are a couple of media send ups in “Newspaper Pane” and “Hetty O’Hara Confidential.” There are several ballads, in fact, and some spoken word which is kind of different. The ballad that closes the album, “Byline,” strikes me as something of an instant classic. I’m listening over and over to “The Last Confession of Vivian Whip” which Costello co-wrote with Steve Nieve and his wife Muriel. Again, beautiful and biting.

I guess the main difference between “Look Now” and “Hey Clockface” is that the former felt like a great summing up, almost a greatest hits of what I can do at my best for Elvis, and latter– at age 65 — is edgier and more experimental. He’s opening up new avenues with “Hey Clockface.”

Don’t miss it. And I’m coming back to it again after a few more listens. Bravo!