See, conversely, I think Darkness is really the first album where the idea of saying more with less becomes a concrete motif for him. I like the first two albums quite a bit (though I've never felt as intimately attached to them as I do his later work, mainly because I don't feel I have much of a tangible understanding of the characters, and the later ones seem all too real to me), but a lot of the writing on them comes off as being decidedly labored and, in spots, a little clunky. Generally speaking, it reads pretty much like what it is: the work of a young songwriter desperately trying to channel the erudition and wit of his idols. I think each album following Greetings feels progressively less strained from a writing perspective, and by Darkness he's fully tapped into his own method of lyricism, which is primarily founded on conveying great existential dilemmas in simple, blue-collar terms.McParadigm wrote:but I value the ability to convey a lot while expressing very little. That's poetry.Lament wrote:His best album was 1982.Gods' Die wrote:'70s Springsteen is the best Springsteen.
That said, I can sympathize with where you're coming from as far as favoring the naivety of the early records. And I absolutely think there are poetic heights on Born to Run that he never reached again, "Thunder Road" being probably the best of the best. But for the most part, I prefer what came after by a pretty wide margin.
