Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen

Continuing the alphabet of albums, N is for nothin' out there for miles. 

Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen, 1982, :40

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I can't say anything new about this collection of bleak demos that marked a turning point in Springsteen's songwriting themes.  It's hailed as a masterpiece; I have been reading about this album for years but never got around to listening to it through.  Well, today's the day!  It's... a bit of a downer, innit?  I like the story of "Highway Patrolman," but things that are unrelentingly bleak like "Nebraska" and "State Trooper" aren't my favorite thing. Not even in St. Dylan's hands, such as "Ballad of Hollis Brown," are such things I seek out or return to.   So I have a preference for the more rollicking tunes.  Or at least the tunes leavened with a bit of optimism.  "Used Cars" is a perfect blend of melancholy and hope, an apparently autobiographical tale of his father buying his first new car. Favorite tracks: "Open All Night," "Atlantic City," "Johnny 99."

High Hopes, Bruce Springsteen

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2014.

High Hopes, Bruce Springsteen, 2014, :56

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Hailed as a masterpiece by "Rolling Stone," panned as a dud by "Pitchfork" (counterpoint: Pitchfork only raves about albums by women or rap artists), this album of castoffs, covers and re-recordings of old material is perforce a mixed bag.  The Boss fills these odds and ends with Bono-like passion, sincerity, and what would be characterized as righteous anger if you're charitable and melodrama if you're not.  I hadn't ever heard the three covers (including the title track), so can't speak to how Bruce might have elevated or desecrated them.  I mostly found the album overblown and tiresome, even though I admire the rockstar power Springsteen put into it.  Favorite tracks: "Frankie Fell in Love," "This is Your Sword."

Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., Bruce Springsteen

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 1973. 

Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., Bruce Springsteen, 1973, :37

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I've always been a lukewarm Springsteen fan. He has some undeniably brilliant songs, even two or three on each one of a long spate of consistently good albums, but... his down-home, working-man earnestness has typically left me indifferent.  In this, his first album, he comes out swinging, young and brash and voluble.  These songs sound like Lou Reed and Bob Dylan had a baby and he was raised by steelworkers in a small town he couldn't wait to get out of, just as soon as he memorized this rhyming dictionary.  These songs come in a flood of words, of characters and scenes, stories of the street and of disaffected youth.  I mean, come on, "I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra / I was born blue and weathered but I burst just like a supernova." A debut like this pays a lot of debts forward.  Maybe a five-star album?  Favorite tracks: "Blinded By the Light," "Growin' Up," "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City."  I'd heard all three of these in various forms or via covers (I love Bowe's "Saint").  Favorite tracks I hadn't heard: "Spirit in the Night," "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?"