Lost albums are usually lost for a reason. But Bruce Springsteen's will be different

Telegraph

03-04-2025

It's only April, but Christmas would seem to be coming early for Bruce Springsteen fans, with the bard of blue-collar rock announcing the release of seven previously unheard albums. Granted, it isn't the first time Springsteen has opened the vaults – in 2015, he shared a three-hour-plus extended edition of his 1980 opus The River, crammed with out-takes, alternative versions and an hour-long documentary.
But this new project – which he has christened 'Tracks II' – is something else entirely. On June 27, he will share seven 'lost' records made between 1983 and 2018 – each, by the sounds of it, a fully-realised work that, for various reasons, he had chosen not to put out into the world in the moment. If it's a cash-in – and the collected vinyl and CD editions are priced at £265 a-piece – it's one with a difference.
Tracks II will, at the very least, provide a unique insight into Springsteen's creative process. Amongst the works soon to see daylight are a 'hip-hop-influenced album from the early 1990s', a country record titled Somewhere North of Nashville, and a 'pop' project called Twilight Hours. In other words, he isn't chasing the cynical music industry trend of scraping the out-takes barrel so much as inviting his audience to enter a sort of Bruce Springsteen parallel dimension – one where he went pop rather than rock and, with that hip hop LP, embraced the funk-master within. For devotees, it is an opportunity to dive headlong into the extended Bruce-o-verse.
The news has been met with a spectrum of emotions among Springsteen fans. Many are shocked at the recommended retail price – north of 250 quid, or, in layperson's terms, the first 20 minutes of an Oasis concert. Others are disappointed that Tracks II will seemingly skip a much-rumoured electric version of his stripped-down 1982 masterpiece Nebraska. There is also, it should be pointed out, a Tracks part one – a 1998 collection of b-sides, including his demo of Born in the USA.
Whatever their feelings, few fans will be entirely blind-sided by this week's announcement. Springsteen has long hinted at the existence of a vast trove of shelved work. In his 2016 autobiography, Born To Run, he recalls putting together an LP with a hip-hop edge immediately after experimenting with synths and a drum machine to write The Streets of Philadelphia for Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia (for which he won an Oscar).
Springsteen spent a year toiling on the record – only to decide it was the wrong project at the wrong time. Aware that 1987's Tunnel Of Love was regarded by many as too introspective, he wanted to get back to a more anthemic sound. He wrote: 'I had to come to terms with the fact that after my year of work, writing, recording, mixing it was going on the shelf. That's where she sits.'
But now he is dusting it down, and what good news that is for Springsteen lovers. It is also confirmation that, to the end, he remains a maverick. What other artist would devote more than a year of their life to a Broadway show, as he did in 2017, or, just this week, guest on a concept record by The Waterboys about Hollywood loose cannon Dennis Hopper? By announcing Tracks II he's ripping up the rule book one more time and for Bruce aficionados willing to pay the admittedly high asking price, the prospect of an entirely new continuum of Springsteen albums is surely a signal that glory days are here again.