New from the Boss: Seven albums lost in Springsteen's desk drawer

Yahoo

5 hours ago

During his 50-year music career, Bruce Springsteen brought out 21 studio albums, both with and without his E Street Band. But he actually recorded a few more in that time, and now the man whom his fans call "Boss" is issuing seven albums in one go.
The box set "Tracks II: The Lost Albums" contains 83 songs which Springsteen recorded between 1983 and 2018, the vast majority of which will be entirely new to Springsteen fans.
"The Lost Albums' were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released," Springsteen said on the release of the box set. "I've played this music to myself and often close friends for years now."
With boxsets and other album releases of this kind there is always a suspicion that an artist is trying to make money from leftovers, so to speak – records which at the time for some reason did not become albums and were put on the shelf. So the question is: How good are "The Lost Tracks"?
Eighteen songs between 'Nebraska' and 'Born In The U.S.A.'
The new release kicks of with the "LA Garage Sessions 83" which took place between the albums "Nebraska" and "Born In The U.S.A." Springsteen told the music entertainment industry magazine Rolling Stone .
"At the time I wasn't sure where I was going with 'Born in the U.S.A.' I had half the record, but I didn't have the other half. And so it was just a record that happened in between those two records."
"My Hometown" which we hear as a less polished version here, at the time ended up on Springsteen's most commercially successful album. The rest of the songs did not. But a genuine jewel is the hard-driving "One Love" which recalls Fleetwood Mac. There are other great tunes like "Sugarland" and "County Fair."
With the exception of the Oscar-winning title song for the film "Philadelphia," the 1990s - which Rolling Stone called "his infamous wilderness years" - were a period when Springsteen was less successful but also controversial for his fans. Without his E Street Band, which he broke up with in 1989, the "Boss" seemed to have lost his way.
"I often read about myself in the 90s as some lost period or something," the 75-year-old told Rolling Stone. "Not really. Really, I was working the whole time." The boxset, he said, is proof.
Five of the seven albums were from that period. On the album "Streets Of Philadelphia Sessions" are ten melancholic pop songs with drum loops and synthesizers.
"The combination of the synthesizers and the loops made for a sort of dark, dreamy sound," Springsteen said. "And there's quite a bit of that on the record." Asked why such great tracks such as "Waiting On The End Of The World" were not released at the time, he answers: "I didn't think the timing was right."
A film soundtrack, a country album, and mariachi vibes
With "Faithless," the artist composed what was a soundtrack for a Western film – which however was never produced. It is an atmospheric mixture of country, folk and rock, along with two atmospheric instrumental pieces.
The foot-stomping "All God's Children" with its gospel influences and crude singing style is reminiscent of Tom Waits. Springsteen said it was his wife Patti Scialfa who pushed him to release the album.
"Somewhere North Of Nashville" is a moody country album with pedal-steel guitar sounds. And it's fascinating to see how easily Springsteen adopted the country music style and made it his own. It was initially planned as a double-album with the comparatively sombre "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" but it just didn't work out. Some listening tips here: "Repo Man" and "Blue Highway."
"Inyo" on the other hand is a portrait of the California desert badlands of border towns, dusty roads and dried-out aqueducts, with songs containing such titles as "Adelita," "The Lost Charro," and "The Aztec Dance." Alongside Springsteen's voice and acoustic guitar are elements of Mexican mariachi music of trumpets and violins.
Those who like the album "Western Stars" will be happy to hear that the "Twilight Hours" recorded in the same period is a further work of the same style. But whereas the songs on "Western Stars" were almost completely covers, all the "Twilight Hours" tracks are Springsteen's own compositions. If you did not know better, they sound like classics of the 1950s and 1960s by such artists as Andy Williams and Glen Campbell.
Then there's "Perfect World' which is a lost treasure that is not a cohesive work but rather a collection of individual rock songs. "That was the one record that I didn't conceive of as a record," he said. "I wanted just a little fun, noise and rock & roll to finish the package." A genuine highlight in this is the fabulous "Cutting Knife."
An overpowering work pulled from the desk drawer
Can this man ever really write a bad song? Doubts about this are justified. Without question, many artists would be thrilled if they had written only one or two of these songs or at least recorded them. Springsteen could permit himself to simply set them aside. So it's all the more great news that he has changed his mind.
"Tracks II: The Lost Albums" is an overwhelming work, an exciting musical discovery tour covering till now scarcely known Springsteen territory, a work which once again underscores his musical genius and integrity.