Bruce Springsteen album reviews, including Working On a Dream

Boss Fan just heard a preview of the whole album
An absolute masterpiece
Completely different from everything he has done before

10/10 [published 1/15/2009 9:37:21 PM]

tim, Glasgow got a promo of this CD, as expected, most of the sound like leftovers from Magic but that ain't no bad thing. The boss has managed to release another fine effort

8/10 [published 1/15/2009 10:16:02 PM]

Spanish Jonny This is quite poor by bruce's standards, many of the songs are boring and repedetitive, "Outlaw Pete" and "Queen of the supermarket" are silly rubbish, Bruce needs to take some time to write a decent album and not churn out crap, only decent songs are The Wrestler, Tommorrow never knows, and Good Eye. I've all his Albums and this is the most dissapointing.

4/10 [published 1/17/2009 2:26:55 AM]

JeffLynneRules What a disappointing follow-up to Magic. There were a few songs on here that actually made me shudder in disgust because they were just so damn stupid. There really isn't anything spectacular on here at all. A few of the songs would be decent if you didn't listen to the lyrics, but man this is pretty bad. There are a couple tracks that are OK (This Life & Life Itself)but they're certainly not up to Bruce's normal standards. I have every one of Bruce's albums, but after hearing this one it may have to remain absent from my collection.

3/10 [published 1/17/2009 4:35:28 PM]

juratom This is the weakest album, he has ever made.No great melodies, no sax and no rock. Not for real fans. First time I'm disappointed with his work.
Better try next time.

3/10 [published 1/19/2009 10:53:07 AM]

MrG Unfortunately, I have to agree with the naysayers on this one. What was Bruce thinking? Banal lyrics, generic melodies, and ham-fisted production combined to send this one down to below even "Human Touch."

2/10 [published 1/20/2009 10:46:38 PM]

Mikey Mike The poor ratings are a joke. 'boring and repedetitive', 'Banal lyrics, generic melodies' - what the hell have you guys been listening too? The Boss done yet another album filled with great melodies and the lyrics are some of the finest that he has ever penned. Listen again folks, this a great album

10/10 [published 1/23/2009 12:55:56 PM]

Gibbo Some absolute fools reviewing the album here. To say there's no good melodies and no rock (juratom) is total nonsense. Try listening to the songs properly (and more than once) and you'll find it's without doubt one of the most melodic albums he's ever made.

As for no rock, try listening to the EPIC 'Outlaw Pete' and 'What love can do'. These will be awesome live, especially the former.

This is an excellent album and TRUE BOSS FANS around the world will love it.

9/10 [published 1/24/2009 9:14:03 PM]

Rob This far outshines Magic. My Lucky Day and Last Carnival are worth the price of admission. Another fine Bruce record, can't wait fot the tour.

8/10 [published 1/27/2009 12:42:13 AM]

THE SHIEK A GREAT ROCK ALBLUM!

9/10 [published 1/27/2009 8:11:29 PM]

Joad This is a very strong album both musically and lyrically as well as political. If E Street Band sounded a little heavy on their feet on 2002's The Rising, they seem to have picked up speed by now. It's a kick-ass rock record with a lot of guitars as well as strings. The lyrics is target shooting at president Bush and his fatal decission to go to war against Iraq - "Who'll be the last to for for a misstake?" and â€œThe faithful march up over the hill in some fools parade
Shoutinâ€™ victory for the righteous but there ainâ€™t much here but graves". It's a great classic rock album.

9/10 [published 9/25/2007 8:26:00 PM]

MARCELLO Best Bruce record since the early '80s.
It's almost unreal good for a musician approaching 60.

Rock on

9/10 [published 9/28/2007 9:32:00 PM]

vinod.capricon Heard 4 tracks .. jolly good show ...........is finally comming to town....... the giant awakens......finally

10/10 [published 10/1/2007 1:21:00 PM]

Jape Instant Classic, best Bruce-record since "The River"

10/10 [published 10/2/2007 12:52:00 PM]

rabbi rizle
A wonderful record. One of his greatest albums.

Great songs, thoughtful & poetic lyrics. The best rock & roll band in the world on storming form. A fantastic achievement this far down the line.

10/10 [published 10/3/2007 5:52:00 PM]

Sal Snellvon Over 30 years into his career, and this wonderful album continues to prove why the Boss is still the best.

10/10 [published 10/5/2007 6:56:00 PM]

Mahesh Magic rocks.the BOSS is back in town.

9/10 [published 10/13/2007 2:17:00 PM]

George Magic is top-drawer, classic Springsteen, and the best rock record I've heard since Radiohead's The Bends. It has instant appeal but then grows and grows with further listening as it starts to reveal its considerable musical and lyrical depth. I can't keep the songs out of my head! Without doubt his most "commercial" record since BitUSA, deserves to be smash.

10/10 [published 10/30/2007 2:53:00 PM]

Sunking I don`t have the "We shall overcome" record so I don`t know the studio versions of most of the songs, but this Live record from 3 gigs in November in Dublin is a very good record. Bruce is playing with a Big Band including such instruments as a violin, a banjo, piano, sax and many more so you are right if you think that the kind of styles is widespread e.g. Folk, Jazz, and Blues. Most of the songs are intended to give you a jolly good fun time and man do they suceed...but there are also a few softer tunes which aren`t worse. In contrary "If I Should Fall Behind" and "When The Saints Go Marching In" are definitive highlights, the latter last but not least because of the good background singers. So almost everything you could wish from a good live record is here, including the audience chanting. The only critic I would like to admit is that you are definitely in the wrong place if you are searching for your standard Rock music. Maybe one Song with an Electric guitar would have made this record a clear 10. As it is, "Jacob`s Ladder" gets the closest to Rock but that`s the only one. But don`t waste time, you can`t go wrong with this record, everybody in Dublin is in top form those days, including Bruce.

9/10 [published 10/5/2007 2:25:00 PM]

Turningleaf I was able to obtain a promotional copy of this record. I am a longtime Springsteen fan; something about his music has always fit perfectly with the momentum of my life. This, by far, is one of the best decisions that he has made in regards to recording. This is not Nebraska, Ghost of Tom Joad or Devils & Dust. In fact, it really does not relate to anything that he has done previously. Sure, there are similarities to other songs, but, as a whole, the record is closer to a "rock n' roll" Dust Bowl Ballads or Nashville Skyline. The standout tracks for me are: Jesse James, Shenandoah, My Oklahoma Home, We Shall Overcome and Froggie Went a Courtin. I don't feel any Springsteen fan will be disappointed with this record. Hell, my mother loves it. I can't think of any better recommendation than that.

8/10 [published 4/16/2006 8:07:00 AM]

terry2ns an exuberant, rollicking delight and who knew his voice was so perfect for these classic campfire songs. Backed by a poop-punting band of harmonicas, banjos, fiddles, and backwoods percussion. I love it.

9/10 [published 4/19/2006 3:26:00 AM]

Mat Snow Pete Seeger turns 87 in a week, and it's the revivalist and populariser of America's folk heritage rather than the folkie songwriter that Bruce Springsteen celebrates in his 21st and most family-friendly album. Here are 13 time-hallowed songs sung by Americans from the original frontier pioneers to the civil rights marchers of Kennedy's New Frontier, but no versions of If I Had a Hammer, Turn Turn Turn or Where Have All the Flowers Gone; Springsteen didn't get where he is today without spotting potential banana-skins.

In addition, on the flipside of this Sony DualDisc, there are the bonus tracks Buffalo Gals and How Can I Keep From Singing, plus a half-hour DVD of recording sessions shot live and unrehearsed in the Boss's farmhouse.
The band numbers 13 - none of them among his regulars, bar his wife, backing vocalist Patti Scialfa - and it is as arranger and bandleader that the Boss shines. Unlike many of his recent recordings, this is an addictively exuberant album. What lifts it above the common run of folk revival albums is a coup of inspired arrangement in using the Miami Horns brass section, reminding us that round the corner from the Greenwich Village coffee house of Seeger's heyday you would find Charlie Mingus's parallel world of sanctified protest jazz.

Drawing as much from the spiritual tradition as Appalachian mountain music, We Shall Overcome (the title track of which Springsteen first cut for a 1997 Seeger tribute album) sounds like a classic of roots Americana to rank with anything by Dylan and the Band, Dr John or Leon Russell, while the match of Springsteen's huskiness and the hootenanny plangency of fiddle, banjo and accordion recalls the ancestral Irish folk-rock of such as Van Morrison and the Pogues.

Rebel-rousing though never pugnacious, the Boss is at his best on such fabled knees-ups as Jesse James, John Henry and Jacob's Ladder. And though he's over-lugubrious on such down-tempo numbers as the Irish anti-war ballad Mrs McGrath and the hymn-derived civil rights anthem Eyes On the Prize, the song Shenandoah is the album's jewel, a misty long-shot of the Promised Land that drew the wagon-trains west, and an unashamed heartstring-tugger to rival Danny Boy.

8/10 [published 4/21/2006 9:12:00 AM]

andy stroulger i was worried that i may not like this album and i have been a fan for over twenty years.but on my first listen those worries were blown away. it seems bruce cannot put a foot wrong. devils and dust took a few listens to get into but this was instant. everytime i hear the opening cords of dan tucker a broad smile spreads across my face and it is one of those albums that just makes you feel good and tap your feet and smile. i hope it is the succes it deserves to be and i cant wait to may 8 at the hammersmith apollo.

9/10 [published 4/25/2006 1:56:00 PM]

mike erm..am i missing something here? I've been a Springsteen fan for over 20 years and have sadly witnessed a decline in form from Bruce since the Joad album.
The Rising was just OK, Devils and Dust below par and now this effort. I feel the creative juices are just not with the fella anymore - on DD he needed to put some older songs on there which had me wonderering and now this...
It just has me stratching my head and leaves me totally cold. He says that he needs to introduce this to a new audience as it may get forgotten. Eh? Some of these songs have been going on for hundreds of years so i'm sure they can survive without Bruce but hey 'thanks'.
It is really too much to ask for anything daring AND original or is that just too much too ask nowadays?

1/10 [published 4/25/2006 3:19:00 PM]

Steve Yes Mike - you are missing something.
- Bruce has an E-street album already writen & for various reasons won't be released yet. It will probably be out next year. Vocally bruce is as good as ever and hasn't gone downhill. This is a fantastic Album that has recieved great reviews in most places by springsteen fans and non springsteen fans alike. Just buy it!... turn it up loud... and enjoy. Anyone who fails to tap their feet or get the urge to sing along to Bruce's great interpretation of these old tunes must be tone deaf!

9/10 [published 4/26/2006 11:06:00 PM]

Bill 3 This album reminds us why a great artist is a great artist-the ability to infuse the mundane with magic that give it new life and meaning. Tapping into the deepest of the folk and spiritual roots that have always provided a basis for the "Springsteen" sound, here the music in its truest forms are brought back to the present-through lyrical and musical forms seemingly shelved to obscurity. An artist unafraid to take chances, this album launches into a new dimension of opportunity for growth. Hooray! Understanding where you are based on where you came from reveals the depths of self knowledge so lacking in most popular music today.
BUY THIS ALBUM!

10/10 [published 4/27/2006 5:24:00 AM]

Dave Just got this album tonight. First few seconds has you feeling good and tapping your feet. That continues all the way to the end. Then just put it on again. Its a great feel good album.

8/10 [published 4/28/2006 6:29:00 AM]

DS Had (for the first time ever with a new Bruce album coming out) low expectations...
BUT: This is magic!
To put this out in such a way - is truly cool.
The music is wonderful and energetic.

1/10 [published 4/29/2006 1:32:00 PM]

Oz My first Springsteen concert was in '78 (Darkness Tour) and it changed my life. I've admired his courage over the years to step outside the box and disregard his own "image" (Nebraska, Tunnel of Love, Ghost of Tom Joad, etc.). His vocal style has changed much over the years (listen to his magnificent voice on the Darkness album) and at times, recently, has sounded to me to be a bit too twangy and affected. But you have to respect someone who does exactly what he wants to.

6/10 [published 4/29/2006 9:45:00 PM]

Maddy Costa It's hard to know how one should listen to a live recording of Bruce Springsteen. Songs like Thunder Road and especially Born to Run are obviously driving songs, but you can't play these versions in a car unless you're not the kind to be embarrassed when a canned audience rapturously greets your ability to break at a red light. And this recording of the Boss in November 1975, soon after the release of Born to Run, the album that catapulted him to fame, is too exhausting to play while pottering about the house: pumped with guitar solos, glittering with brass, it's the sound of a young band flexing its musical muscles and revelling in its own power.

Detroit Medley finds them rattling through a string of rock'n'roll hits as though their own place within American musical history depended on it. Backstreets is strident and declamatory, and there's so much energy surging through Rosalita (Come Out Tonight), the band barely seem to be in control of the song. But there are quieter, calmer moments, too, not least in a ravishing rendition of Thunder Road.
The jagged, youthful earnestness of Springsteen's voice, as he importunes the object of his affections to run away with him, is somehow irresistible. And the moment when he sings "roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair", backed by the simplest of romantic piano chords, is unexpectedly drenched in spine-tingling magic.

6/10 [published 2/24/2006 9:23:00 AM]

Evenste A simple regurgitation of live Springsteen. A true fan will love this CD but for just a fan, been there done that.

4/10 [published 8/8/2006 11:43:00 PM]

hp This album is superb, I have to confess I am a fan; but its stuff like which is the reason why i'm a a fan. The guitar solo's in It's Hard to be a Saint in the City are like a shoot out in a back alley, Thunder road is as powerful as ever and really feels like a new song.

10/10 [published 8/7/2007 4:47:00 PM]

Dylan - NYC 13 albums down the line could the boss may have made he’s finest effort yet. Gone has the energy so trying to produce the likes of ‘Born To Run’ can end up with mediocre efforts like ‘The Rising’. When it come to writing songs that burn slow and hang heavy Springsteen matures like a fine wine, ‘Nebraska’ and ‘Tom Joad’ were the tasters and now ‘Devils and Dust’ is the vintage. ‘The Hitter’ and ‘Lone Time Comin’ are he’s finest efforts in years and one can only assume that Oasis heard ‘All The Way Home’ before writing their new single Lyla.

9/10 [published 4/20/2005 12:00:00 AM]

Scouse Tommy Dreary without a cause, empty, uninspiring and repetitive, give it up Bruce

2/10 [published 4/26/2005 12:00:00 AM]

Adam Jahnke Any artist, whether itâ€™s a musician, filmmaker, writer or painter, will be pigeonholed by fans and critics alike at some point in their career. Itâ€™s human nature. We like things to be neat and organized and as straightforward as possible. By this token, Bruce Springsteen is luckier than most artists. Popular opinion now accepts that there are essentially two sides to Bruce. Thereâ€™s E Street Bruce, the man behind classic songs and albums like Born To Run and Born In The U.S.A. Everybody loves E Street Bruce and when he came roaring back in 2002 with The Rising, he was welcomed like a local hero returning home after a great victory.

On the other side of the coin is Folk Bruce, the somber artist responsible for often downbeat albums such as Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad. (Since weâ€™re talking here about popular opinion, we will charitably ignore the Bruce responsible for Human Touch and Lucky Town since those albums were never popular.) Itâ€™s Folk Bruce whoâ€™s front and center on Devils & Dust, as if you couldnâ€™t tell from the title and the weathered, sepia-toned cover. This division is very handy for shorthand discussions of Springsteenâ€™s work. On the surface, all three albums seem fairly similar. The songs are (mostly) stripped-down and acoustic and the songwriting focuses on Springsteenâ€™s strengths as a storyteller. Most of the stories being told are open-ended and very few of them point towards a happy ending.

But Devils & Dust is a different album from either of those earlier releases. Albums donâ€™t come much more stark and bare-bones than Nebraska and the more-polished Devils & Dust lacks the often frightening urgency of that watershed album. Lyrically, however, Springsteenâ€™s writing just gets better and better. His best songs have always painted pictures as vivid as those in any short story. That talent is on ample display here with lines that play out in your mindâ€™s eye in slow motion, allowing you to linger on the details of the back alley, bare knuckle boxing in â€œThe Hitterâ€ or the cheap motel room in â€œ Renoâ€.

As in The Ghost of Tom Joad, Springsteen puts himself in the place of would-be immigrants (â€œMatamoros Banksâ€) and urban kids looking for a way out (â€œBlack Cowboysâ€). The title track lands us in the boots of a soldier in the deserts of Iraq, no real surprise considering the themes of The Rising and Springsteenâ€™s now-explicit political stance in the last election. But even though I admire the songwriting in every track here, there are a couple songs that I think would be better served if they were performed by someone else. Itâ€™s a shame Johnny Cash isnâ€™t still around to cover â€œSilver Palominoâ€ and â€œJesus Was An Only Sonâ€. I canâ€™t help but think his voice would bring those tracks up to a different level.

Iâ€™ll admit that Devils & Dust did not grab me at first listen. Part of this is simply due to the fact that this isnâ€™t that type of album. You have to sit and listen and give yourself the time and space to focus on the songs. But another part of it was my frustration with the wonderful new DualDisc technology. This was my first exposure to DualDisc (at least under this nameâ€¦didnâ€™t the Blair Witch 2 DVD try to stick a CD on the flip side of the DVD a few years back?). A little insert explains that â€œthe CD audio side plays on all but a limited number of CD and DVD modelsâ€. Well, apparently I bought every one of those limited number because I couldnâ€™t get the CD side to play on any machine in my possession. After I resigned myself to the fact that I could only play the DVD side, everything worked fine and sounded terrific. The video portion includes a half-hour mini-movie with Bruce talking about the album and performing solo acoustic versions of five of the songs. This is all fine and if folks want to start releasing albums on DVD, I think thatâ€™s an interesting way to go. I just donâ€™t understand what benefit there is in gluing a CD onto the flip side that doesnâ€™t work in every single CD player on Mother Earth. Call me old-fashioned.

Springsteen fans argue constantly over which album is his best. Even so, I think most will agree that Devils & Dust isnâ€™t it. It is, however, a rich, rewarding album from an artist who has grown comfortable and confident in his skills as a storyteller. Folk Bruce may never be the crowdpleaser that E Street Bruce is. But one couldnâ€™t exist without the other and those of us who are longtime fans of both sides will find much to admire on Devils & Dust.

8/10 [published 6/1/2005 12:00:00 AM]

Nigel Williamson Once a decade, Bruce Springsteen feels the urge to make a stripped-down roots album. In the 1980s it was Nebraska. In the 1990s, The Ghost of Tom Joad. Now comes the third. Laden with folk and country influences, many of the songs on Devils and Dust date from the late 1990s, but were delayed when he felt compelled to respond to September 11 with The Rising; thus they sing of mothers and fathers, sons and lovers and a world in which apocalypse takes a back seat to the Everyman themes of faith, trust, dreams, hopes and fears.

Lyrically, the songs are all character-based and strongly narrative. It is too early to say whether Devils and Dust possesses the mythic potency that characterises Springsteenâ€™s greatest albums, but there is a warmth and humanity here that bodes well.

8/10 [published 8/12/2005 12:11:00 PM]

Buonita An EXCELLENT selection of Brucie's songs and some new ones which suprised me! So much energy and feeling as been put into these songs.

10/10 [published 5/4/2007 11:16:00 AM]

Sofia Portugal: Think this album show a very mature "Boss" who forgot about his teen ways of rocking the world. A little bit boring, I might say. Anyways, quality is outstanding when concerning to the instrumental part.

7/10 [published 8/7/2004 12:15:00 PM]

David Latham Birmingham ENGLAND: Exceptional album, with the e-street band sounding better than ever. The quality of sound is better than the previous albums and the mixture of types of music and new instruments for the boss is great, partly due to the new production set up. There is a wide range of songs through the album and his lyrics are as good as ever, especially within the songs that describe the feelings and aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Overall a fantastic album which has convinced many of my non-boss fans to get into his music. Mature, provocative and intelligent, one of his best

10/10 [published 8/7/2004 12:16:00 PM]

Oz Only Springsteen (and maybe Dylan) could have pulled this off with such gravitas and dignity so fresh from 9/11. The first time I heard "Into the Fire" I cried tears of sadness/anger. Then the first time I heard "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" and "You're Missing" tears for us all because we'll never really be the same. In the end that's really the common thread through all of Springsteen's characters - loss of innocence and coming face to face with the cold, harsh reality of life.

9/10 [published 4/30/2006 10:19:00 PM]

Jeff One of the greatest American rock albums ever. Just put it in the C.D. player, roll the windows down, and let the freedom roll on! Thanks Bruce for a brilliant album.

10/10 [published 1/30/2007 3:48:00 PM]

all music Coming three years and one extended court battle after Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town was highly anticipated. Some attributed the album's embattled tone to Springsteen's legal troubles, but it carried on from Born to Run, in which Springsteen had first begun to view his colorful cast of characters as "losers." On Darkness, he began to see them as the working class: his characters, some of whom he inhabited and sang for in the first person, had little and were in danger of losing even that. Their only hope for redemption lay in working harder, and their only escape lay in driving. Springsteen presented these hard truths in hard-rock settings, the tracks paced by powerful drumming and searing guitar solos. Though not as heavily produced as Born to Run, Darkness was given a full-bodied sound; Springsteen's stories were becoming less heroic, but his musical style remained grand â€” the sound, and the conviction in his singing, added weight to songs like "Racing in the Street" and the title track, transforming the pathetic into the tragic. But despite the rock & roll fervor, Darkness was no easy listen, and it served notice that Springsteen was already willing to risk his popularity for his principles.

9/10 [published 7/29/2004 2:08:00 PM]

nude as the news Through the years, Bruce Springsteen has gone through many stages of physical development. Thereâ€™s his early-career greaser phase, when he sported a plain white tee, a nasty leather jacket and a splotchy beard -â€“ a look preserved perfectly on both the covers of 1973â€™sThe Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffleand 1975â€™sBorn To Run. Thereâ€™s the beefed-up faux Sly Stallone-era Bruce, displayed primarily during the â€œstadium years,â€ 1984-85 (sadly the cover ofBorn In The USAprovides the reader only a shot of his beefed-up ass, for example). Then there are the later career looks: the cowboy pimp style ofTunnel Of Love, the L.A. disc-jockey wardrobe of theLucky Town/Human Touchcovers and the stocky pony boy look featured in the liner notes ofThe Ghost Of Tom Joad.But to me, the man standing on the cover ofDarkness On The Edge Of Townis therealBruce Springsteen. This is the real McCoy, the real Slim Shady, the gen-u-wine product, whatever. I mean, just look at this guy! Heâ€™s wearing the same white v-neck tee of his greaser period. The same crusty leather jacket from theBorn To Runcover, with the same messy long hair, but without the splotchy beard. Heâ€™s standing in front of a yellowed door with plaque-colored Venetian blinds, looking like he woke up five minutes ago on your basement couch and is getting ready to head out on a midnight run to 7-11. Heâ€™s tired, maybe a bit angry, and you canâ€™t be sure if heâ€™s coming back.This is vintage Bruce.This month marks the 25th anniversary ofDarkness On The Edge Of Town, an album that displays Springsteen at a pivotal moment in his life, having just survived the most tumultuous years of his then-short career.Born To Run, his most recent album at this point, put him on the cover of â€œTimeâ€ and â€œNewsweek,â€ but a subsequent court battle with his once trusted friend and manager, Mike Appel, legally prevented him from entering a recording studio during his creative peak. By all accounts the trial was an impassioned one, with Bruce fighting -- at some points, literally screaming -- for the rights to his own music. In Eric Altermanâ€™s 1999 biography of the Boss, â€œIt Ainâ€™t No Sin To Be Alive,â€ there is this excerpt from a Springsteen affidavit in the case:My interest is in my career, which up until now holds the promise of my being able to significantly contribute to, and possibly influence, a generation of music. No amount of money could compensate me if I were able to lose this opportunity.The case was settled on May 28, 1977, and a year later, Bruce delivered this album. If there were those who rode the backlash to theBorn To Runpopularity/hysteria -- critics who called him a Bob Dylan knock-off and peers who saw him as an over-hyped cheese ball who likes to write about Magic Rats -- then this album and its legendary tour quickly silenced them. Not surprisingly, this is Bruce at his most angry; he spends the albumâ€™s first five minutes â€œspitting in the faceâ€ of everything heâ€™s been through. But he harnesses this anger and its energy and goes on to present his rock manifesto, a collection of songs that essentially sum up the Springsteen we know and love today. The hard-working Bruce, the hard-rockingBruce. The blue-collar fighter and the vulnerable, sensitive believer, all wrapped into one recently shaven tramp.â€œSometimes I feel so weak,â€ he sings on "The Promised Land.â€ â€œI just want to explode. Explode and tear this whole town apart. Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart.â€And explode, he does. From opening drum roll of â€œBadlandsâ€ to the final chorus of the albumâ€™s closer, â€œDarkness On The Edge Of Town,â€ Bruce is audibly erupting. Heâ€™s talking about love and dreams and fears and the price you gotta pay. Heâ€™s howling about the pain, the sins, and the inherited flame. And, of course, heâ€™s preaching about the work, the work, and the working life. As itâ€™s been pointed out many times before, this is a big turning point for Bruce as a songwriter. The singer himself says, â€œBy the end ofDarkness, Iâ€™d found my adult voice.â€ By this, he means, he stopped writing about those damned Rats and started writing about everyday people, sorting through real life dilemmas. The results are stunning.Despite its stripped down instrumentation,Darkness On The Edge Of Townhas an epic feel that ties it to the songwriterâ€™s previous work, includingBorn To Run. Like its predecessor,Darknessis essentially a collection of short vignettes that sum up to one great vision of desperation. But its raw, lo-fi production is completely different than his earlier material. Bruce has already shown he knows a great deal about pacing and basic storytelling keys. Here heâ€™s able to strip off all the fat ofBorn To Runand use simple words and more efficient playing to better convey his original and very personal artistic concepts.The first half ofDarknessis almost a perfect album all unto its own; it makes one pine for the days of vinyl, when recordings were divided into two digestible halves. Springsteen first knocks the audience over with â€œBadlandsâ€ and â€œAdam Raised A Cain,â€ and then suddenly brings things down a thousand notches on â€œSomething in the Night,â€ a song with one of the best openings in the songwriterâ€™s career. Itâ€™s an epic tune, in the same Broadway showtune vein of â€œJunglelandâ€ or â€œIncident On 57th Street,â€ but sans the imitation wall-of-sound grandiosity, and its spare, plodding drums prove the old maxim about less being more.The songâ€™s moaning, dream-like ending is followed by the rock-and-roll hand grenade that is â€œCandyâ€™s Room.â€ All the repressed energy of â€œSomething In The Nightâ€ is cut loose here in the form of Max Weinbergâ€™s pounding drum fills and Springsteenâ€™s screeching guitar solos. The song might have made a perfect closer to the side, if not for the existence of â€œRacing In The Street,â€ arguably the singerâ€™s finest song. Its delicate piano opening draws the listener into the melancholy world of the songâ€™s protagonist, a guy who likes to race cars after work to avoid â€œdying little by little, piece by piece.â€ The chorus turns a Martha and the Vandelles hit on its head, while the verses shift the listenerâ€™s attention slowly to the characterâ€™s girlfriend, a woman who â€œstares off into the night with the eyes of one who hates for just being born.â€ In the songâ€™s ghostly final verse, the singer plans his ride to the sea, where he and the girl can wash the sins from their hands. The music fades back down to the delicate piano lines and then re-builds itself, gradually growing into a beautiful crescendo -- a sort of credit-rolling finale that gives the albumâ€™s first half near-perfect closure.Of course, the second half of the record ainâ€™t so bad either. â€œStreets Of Fireâ€ features some of Bruceâ€™s most gritty, soulful singing and guitar playing. â€œProve It All Nightâ€ offers listeners a touch of lighthearted braggadocio, a well-needed break from the albumâ€™s heavier material. â€œFactoryâ€ is a bit of a dud, and delivers the working life message with heavy-handed imagery. But the sideâ€™s opening and closing songs -- â€œThe Promised Landâ€ and â€œDarkness On The Edge of Town,â€ respectively -- more than compensate.In the first of the two, Springsteen offers some of his most emotional lyrics:Thereâ€™s a dark cloud rising from the dessert floorI packed my bags and Iâ€™m headed straight into the storm.Gonna be a twister to blow everything downThat ainâ€™t got the faith to stand its groundBlow away the dreams that tear you apartBlow away the dreams that break your heartBlow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted.Does anyone write lyrics like this anymore? Springsteen puts so much on the line in â€œThe Promised Land,â€ both figuratively and literally. He exposes his fear, his anger, his pride, and his most treasured beliefs. That last line is particularly devestating, so clearly connected to the songwriter's recent struggles.â€œDarknessâ€ is much the same. In his collection of lyrics, â€œSongs,â€ Springsteen writes, â€œâ€™Darkness On The Edge Of Townâ€™ dealt with the idea that the setting for personal transformation is often found at the end of your rope.â€ If there is a Bruce belief system, the title track of this record might very well serve as its blueprint. It seems to be the song that resonates most easily with the rest of the songwriterâ€™s later material; he never fails to re-purpose it in his live performances. Like many of his songs, â€œDarknessâ€ turns the everyman into a hero. In many ways, it turns the audience into the hero. It asserts that hard-fought happiness is the greatest success story, a notion that Springsteenâ€™s work is completely steeped in.With the release of this record, Bruce and the band embarked on his most celebrated tour, where they brought the intensity and magic of this record to life for audiences across the nation. These legendary shows typically ran up to and above four hours long, often broadcast via radio to surrounding areas, and established Springsteen and the E Street Band as a rock and roll institution. At one particularly famous concert in L.A., the singer told a story about growing up with his parents, who chastized him for playing â€œthat damn guitar,â€ and pushed him to be a lawyer or an author.â€œBut what they didnâ€™t understand is that I wanted everything,â€ he says just before someone in the crowd yells, â€œYou got it!â€With the creation of â€œDarkness On The Edge Of Townâ€ -- both the painful court battle leading up to its actual creation and the recording process itself -- Bruce Springsteen got it all. He found his voice and in doing so, produced the most vital recording of his career. This album took him to the next level of artistic achievement, elevated him above one-hit wonder status, and for better or worse, established a new type of rock and roll.