Near the end of last year, Bruce Springsteen invited the E Street Band to his New Jersey home studio. The group recorded an entire album in just five days—a breeze compared to the laborious, years-long sessions that defined their work together in the ’70s and ’80s. In an alternate timeline, they might have spent 2020 carrying that energy to stages around the world. After all, where Springsteen’s solo music is a place for his morally ambiguous, character-driven stories, the E Street Band is his conduit toward transcendence, community, and emotional uplift.

All of these things are in short supply in the present moment, and so “Letter to You,” the lead single and title track from his 20th studio album, hits differently than Springsteen might have imagined. Shot in black-and-white, the music video showcases his bandmates settling into their trademark sounds: a steady rhythm from Max Weinberg, dreamy lead guitar from Stevie Van Zandt, and dramatic piano flourishes from Roy Bittan. As Springsteen, who turns 71 this month, sings in the past tense about the spark of creation, they accompany him with a sense of intuitive warmth and familiarity.

With a mood that leans toward wistful reflection over spiritual triumph, “Letter to You” follows the retrospective thread of Springsteen’s 2016 memoir Born to Run and his one-man show Springsteen on Broadway. The verses gesture toward the doubt, fear, and hard lessons that went into his best writing, but the chorus leans on the “you” of the title as his present-day revelation. “You’ve provided me with purpose,” Springsteen confessed to audiences near the end of his Broadway show. “I hope I’ve done that for you and I’ve been a good traveling companion.” Surrounded by people who have been along for the journey, “Letter to You” is another heartfelt tribute to those ties that bind.