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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Tracks II: The Lost Albums (Sony)
Verdict: Monumental and magnificent
There are box sets, deluxe editions… and Bruce Springsteen anthologies.
Never a man to do things by half, The Boss this week releases seven previously unheard albums of songs recorded between 1983 and 2018.
He once told us that everybody has a hungry heart, but even the most ravenous fan might baulk at the overwhelming Tracks II: The Lost Albums.
There are 83 songs in total, with only nine of them having been out in any form before. Six of the seven LPs are also complete pieces of work, each with its own sound and themes.
Available as a 9-LP vinyl box (£280), 7-CD set (£230) Tracks II isn’t cheap (though it is available to stream). It’s also, surely, the least TikTok-friendly release ever. But for those keen to investigate, it’s a treasure trove.
Springsteen – whose biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White and Stephen Graham, is out later this year – revisited these songs in lockdown.
He’s delved into the vaults before, notably on 1998’s 4-disc Tracks, a rag-bag of unused material and out-takes. But the sheer quality and variety on display here puts Tracks II in a different league to that prequel.
For those who fancy a new Springsteen album for every day of the week, here’s my album-by-album guide to The Boss’s magnificent seven.
Never a man to do things by half, The Boss this week releases seven previously unheard albums of songs recorded between 1983 and 2018 (pictured June 21)
He once told us that everybody has a hungry heart, but even the most ravenous fan might baulk at the overwhelming Tracks II: The Lost Albums with 83 songs in total
L.A. GARAGE SESSIONS ‘83 (1983)
Billed as the missing link between 1982’s stripped-down, wholly-solo Nebraska and 1984’s Born In The USA (Springsteen’s heartland rock classic), L.A. Garage Sessions kicks off the Bruce-athon.
An 18-song album of lo-fi folk and 1950s-tinged rock and roll, it was made with just a guitar and a drum machine.
Little Girl Like You is an affectionate Buddy Holly homage. Follow That Dream rewrites an old Elvis song as a declaration of faith.
Amid out-takes from Born In The USA, there’s also some warm-hearted pop that recalls 1980’s The River.
STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA SESSIONS (1993-94)
When Springsteen released Streets Of Philadelphia as the haunting theme tune to Jonathan Demme’s 1993 film about the AIDS crisis, it reached No.2 and gave him his biggest ever UK single. It’s no great surprise that he made an entire album in the same vein, although quite why he decided not to release it until now is baffling.
Built on drum loops and synths instead of guitars, it’s dominated by dark, brooding love songs that slowly build in intensity. One highlight is Maybe I Don’t Know You, a tale of a suspicious lover that explores similar themes to 1987’s Brilliant Disguise.
He’s delved into the vaults before, notably on 1998’s 4-disc Tracks. But the sheer quality and variety on display here puts Tracks II in a different league to that prequel
SOMEWHERE NORTH OF NASHVILLE (1995)
The Boss goes country, and it’s a hot-stepping hoot! Recorded at the same time as 1995’s acoustic The Ghost Of Tom Joad – and originally due out at the same time – this is a hugely enjoyable collection of honky-tonk hoedowns and bar-room ballads, with pedal steel player Marty Rifkin and E Street Band violinist Soozie Tyrell part of Bruce’s wrecking crew.
Springsteen covers Johnny Rivers’ 1960s weepie Poor Side Of Town, and belts out Repo Man and Detail Man, two feel-good rockers that are essentially the same song with different lyrics. Yee-haw!
INYO (1996-97)
Taking time out from The E Street Band to raise a young family with his wife Patti Scialfa, Bruce kept a lower-than-usual profile in the late 1990s. But he was still beavering away at home, making records and keeping them to himself. Inyo, rooted in tales of the Mexican diaspora in California and Texas, is another previously hidden gem.
Sung in a weathered drawl, the songs are enhanced by brushed drums and mariachi horns. Adelita is a tragic love story set amid the Mexican War Of Independence, and Ciudad Juarez a tale of the cross-border drugs trade. Inyo could be the Hispanic Nebraska.
PERFECT WORLD (1990s-2010s)
Embracing a wider timeframe, Perfect World is the only one of these albums not intended as a stand-alone work.
Instead, its songs are linked by their arena-ready nature, and the presence of many of Springsteen’s E Street Band regulars, including drummer Max Weinberg, pianist Roy Bittan and bassist Garry Tallent.
I’m Not Sleeping is a boisterous rocker, and If I Could Only Be Your Lover uses smalltown decay as a metaphor for lost love. Bruce’s wife Patti and Steven Van Zandt add backing vocals on You Lifted Me Up.
Available as a 9-LP vinyl box (£280), 7-CD set (£230) Tracks II isn’t cheap (though it is available to stream). But for those keen to investigate, it’s a treasure trove
FAITHLESS (2005-06)
Written as the soundtrack for a ‘spiritual Western’ film that was never made, Faithless is another absorbing deviation. Springsteen has touched on gospel before – My City Of Ruins and Land Of Hope And Dreams were sung with gospel fervour on his recent UK tour – but he’s never explored sacred music quite like he does on All God’s Children and God Sent You.
His meditative score is enlivened by heavenly choirs and three short instrumentals that evoke the arid deserts of the American dust bowl. His sons Evan and Sam sing backing vocals on Where You Going, Where You From.
TWILIGHT HOURS (2010-2018)
If Faithless is an unexpected detour, Twilight Hours is even more surprising. Originally seen as a sister album to 2010’s Western Stars (a record inspired by 1960s Californian pop), it’s a sophisticated homage to the spirit of Bruce’s fellow New Jersey legend Frank Sinatra.
The Boss isn’t a natural crooner, but these songs of doomed romance are all heartfelt and exquisitely crafted.
Sunday Love is a Broadway-meets-Bacharach ballad set on the morning commute (‘paper and coffee on the train’), while film composer Jon Brion adds guitar and vibraphone on the classy Two Of Us.
Tracks II is out Friday June 27. A 20-song edition, Lost And Found: Selections From The Lost Albums, is available as a double vinyl LP and single CD.
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