Bruce Springsteen Band • Page 72

Definitely one of the few lesser albums of his I'd describe as bad over simply boring.

 

come on. The Wrestler is insanely good

 

It’s solid but it’s also technically not on that album

 

Wait is that true?

 

Was it a bonus track? I don’t recall

 

Bonus track/soundtrack song, so I don’t really consider it as part of that album. “The Last Carnival” is definitely the “proper” closer.

 

Ok well that album is a lot lower on my list if we don’t count that song

 

It’s kind of impossible to rank Bruce albums in my opinion without including live albums and albums like the promise, etc. they are all essential. Hammersmith Odeon on some days is number 1 for me.

 

I agree with what Craig and others have said both today and many other times about how it’s very weird that High Hopes was billed as a regular studio album. Wrecking Ball and Letter to You both obviously including reimaginings of older songs that didn’t get a proper release but that’s basically all High Hopes is besides the title track. Why not just call 18 Tracks a studio album if we’re calling High Hopes one? Speaking of, that would make my top 10 if it counted probably…

I also kind of think Only the Strong Survive and the Seeger Sessions should be in a different category. I like the Seeger Sessions a lot and I think that project was a real boon to late career Bruce’s approach to the live show but it’s not really fair to say Devils & Dust to put those up against each other

 

I agree all the comps and live stuff are essential listening but I just don’t know how I can rank Live 75/85 next to the studio records. Like it’s probably top 3 at worst but it’s got almost all the best songs from 7 albums! Not a fair fight haha.

And because you mentioned it, my only problem with The Promise in particular is that the best version of the title track is the solo piano one he recorded over two decades later for Tracks. That recording would rank very very very highly on my list of favorite songs of his

 

Totally! I also find it difficult to rank his albums because I adore so many of them depending on my mood like if it’s a bleak winter night my fav is Nebraska or tunnel of love but like right now it’s the middle of the summer so it’s wild and innocent or born to run. I agree with Craig that Born in the USA has just climbed my rankings the older I’ve gotten

 

High Hopes definitely made me think the vault was a lot barer than it's turning out to be, lol. Also, I think I'd like that album a lot better if it didn't feature career-worst production for any of his albums. Such a weird, dated, garish '90s adult-contemporary sound to that thing, punctuated by all of Tom Morello's absolute worst impulses as a guitar player.

 

Agree to disagree about Morello's playing on the record--although I wouldn't exactly point someone to HH if I was trying to sell them on Morello as a guitarist either--but totally agree about the production. Sounds like a damn Jewel album after anyone stopped paying attention to Jewel

 

I find Morello's soloing on "The Ghost of Tom Joad" to be insufferable. That song should not have a helicopter guitar.

 

Here’s mine, always helpful to have it in the thread earlier

 

That’s certainly a very defensible take even if I personally don’t agree.

 

What’s your beef with Magic, Matt?

 

he said in that promo vid there's gonna be a tracks iii but it'll be closer to tracks where it's just songs throughout his career and not whole albums

 

Hate the sunny production, “Radio Nowhere” is a nothingburger of a lead single, “Girls In Their Summer Clothes” is like a parody of what a 2000s Bruce song should sound like.

 

None of that is unfair, but as follow-up I'm compelled to ask what about "Long Walk Home," "Devil's Arcade," "I'll Work for Your Love," "You'll Be Comin Down," "Last to Die" etc? The songs I listed are all at least an 8 or 9/10 for me and "Long Walk Home" is probably even better. No accounting for taste but I'm genuinely curious.

 

I do disagree about the production though. That record has a jangle to it that I adore. It's probably brickwalled to hell but hey, 2007!

 

i agree with most of those points except girls in their summer clothes, one of his best 2000s on songs

 

I like that song but the lyrics aren't my favorite certainly. And it's in the bottom half of Magic for me for sure.

 

1. Born to Run
1a. The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle
3. Darkness on the Edge of Town
4. Born in the U.S.A.
5. Wrecking Ball
6. Tunnel of Love
7. The River
8. Magic
9. Nebraska
10. The Rising
11. Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ
12. Letter to You
13. Devils and Dust
14. Western Stars
15. Lucky Town
16. We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
17. Working on a Dream
18. Human Touch
19. The Ghost of Tom Joad
20. High Hopes
21. Only the Strong Survive

If Tracks counted, it'd probably be 3rd or 4th

 

Well, I suppose if you dislike the bright production, that would torpedo that album pretty substantially. I'm firmly in the camp that considers that sound a feature, not a bug, and I think it works especially well on "Girls in Their Summer Clothes," actually, to complicate that song's themes of aging. When that album came out, though, I definitely would have agreed with you. I really loved the darker, more political second half and had less time for the sunny pop songs.

As for "Radio Nowhere," I like that one more than most of his lead singles in this late-career stretch. In the moment, it definitely got me more excited than "Working on a Dream," "We Take Care of Our Own," or "High Hopes" did.

I feel like I kind of abandoned you on the "Wrecking Ball rules" corner. I still really like that album (more than my ranking probably indicates) but I've definitely found myself reaching more for other post-2000 Bruce records over the past 5-10 years.