Red Mosquito

"Seeger Sessions" is wonderful -- joyous, uninhibited, fantastic songs -- one of his best late-era records.

I like "Working On a Dream" too, though, so take my opinions in stride.

Since 2000, you can't go too wrong with The Rising, The Seeger Sessions, Magic, and Wrecking Ball (to a lesser degree).

I personally could never get into Devils & Dust. Just not really my thing.

And I hated Working on a Dream, even if I do admire his renewed vigor for releasing albums.

I thought "High Hopes" was just about the worst album he's ever made -- down there with "Human Touch" in my book.

Kevin Davis wrote:I thought "High Hopes" was just about the worst album he's ever made -- down there with "Human Touch" in my book.

Im just a sucker for the Title Track though. So great.

Oh girl that feeling of safety you prize
Well it comes with a hard hard price
You can't shut off the risk and pain
Without losin' the love that remains
We're all riders on this train

Christ, I completely forgot about High Hopes.

I like a couple songs on it but for the most part it's dreadful.

I really dont like Tom Morello's contributions to B's work.

Strat wrote:

Kevin Davis wrote:I thought "High Hopes" was just about the worst album he's ever made -- down there with "Human Touch" in my book.

Im just a sucker for the Title Track though. So great.

Oh girl that feeling of safety you prize
Well it comes with a hard hard price
You can't shut off the risk and pain
Without losin' the love that remains
We're all riders on this train

It was better on the Blood Brothers single.

Strat wrote:I really dont like Tom Morello's contributions to B's work.

Neither do I.

Kevin Davis wrote:

Strat wrote:I really dont like Tom Morello's contributions to B's work.

Neither do I.

He served a purpose for a song here or there, but for him to all of a sudden become the lost member of the E Street Band is taking it waaaaaay too far.

darth_vedder wrote:How is the Seegar Sessions album?

Also, thanks for the recommendations. With the 4 albums I have, and with Born In the USA being my favorite, I'm thinking The River may be more my style. Doesn't really matter, I'll end up with both The River and Nebraska eventually.

If BITU is your favourite try Magic next.

darth_vedder wrote:How is the Seegar Sessions album?

Also, thanks for the recommendations. With the 4 albums I have, and with Born In the USA being my favorite, I'm thinking The River may be more my style. Doesn't really matter, I'll end up with both The River and Nebraska eventually.

Seeger Sessions is brilliant. It's all recorded live and it's got a great sound to it. If you like that, check out Wrecking Ball - there's a lot of Seeger Sessions-sounding songs on there like Shackled and Drawn, Easy Money and We Are Alive.

The River is quite similar to Born In The USA - a lot of upbeat catchy rock songs and some sombre ballads (and it doesn't have the hardcore 80s synths that are all over USA). At two discs, it's a bit long but it's still great.

Nebraska is probably his greatest album, but it might take a few listens (although I think Atlantic City is the catchiest song he ever wrote)

There's a criminal lack of Tunnel of Love in this thread. It's basically Bruce's Blood On The Tracks. He just released one of the shows from the Tunnel tour and it's amazing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pq0DsvG0JQ

The Rising and Magic are worth checking out. In fact I'd go as far to say that Magic is one of, if not the finest Brush protest record of the era. It puts junk like Bu$hleaguer to shame. Unfortunately, Magic is a really badly mastered album - it's a product of the loudness wars. But the songs make up for it.

Working On A Dream is bad. Clearly rushed out to capitalise on his Super Bowl appearance and Obama's election.
Basically, anything from the 1970s and 1980s is gold and the rest is hit and miss, with more hits than misses.

lecherouslittlestump wrote:There's a criminal lack of Tunnel of Love in this thread.

I go through ups and downs with Tunnel of Love. Sometimes it gets as high as #4 for me. There's a case to be made that Bruce's songwriting is at one of it's most ultimate highs on that record. At the same time, I think it suffers a bit for the way it was recorded. As great as a song like Tougher Than the Rest is on that record (and it's easily one of my ten favorite Bruce songs ever), it becomes even greater (to me at least) when stripped of the production choices he made at the time.



Absolutely stunning (and from that same 1990 show I posted earlier, where he opens with that jaw dropping version of Brilliant Disguise).

Another great example, the title track from 2005 on just piano.

The songwriting on that album really is amazing at points.

Thanks again for all the input guys. Over the next year I'll dig a little deeper into the Springsteen catalog and report back in this thread.

Lament wrote:

Another great example, the title track from 2005 on just piano.

The songwriting on that album really is amazing at points.

That was a fantastic tour as was the Seeger Sessions support, Live in Dublin is one of my favorite live albums pretty much ever.

Both Born in the USA and Tunnel of Love will never not sound like the 80s and that's unfortunate.

evenslow wrote:Both Born in the USA and Tunnel of Love will never not sound like the 80s and that's unfortunate.

Born in the USA is solid top to bottom, even with the synths. I totally agree with you though.

Born in the U.S.A. is a perfect-sounding album. Sounding "'80s" is not a bad thing.

LoathedVermin72 wrote:Born in the U.S.A. is a perfect-sounding album. Sounding "'80s" is not a bad thing.

For me it's not a question of my own listening enjoyment. The 80's sound turns off a lot of people right away and this is unfortunate.