what are your favorite Springsteen albums?

My choices:

Darkness at the Edge of Town

Live box set (I really need to get this on something other than cassette)

ok, better stop or I'll just list them all.

nebraska. hands down.

Nebraska, The River and Tunnel of Love.

quote:

Originally posted by Hemorrhoids:
Tunnel of Love.

That's an interesting and unusual choice, H. I think ToL doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves, but you may be one of the only people I've ever encountered who would place it in a personal top three.

Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town tend to run neck and neck for me. Song for song, BtR is the clearly superior album. "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland" are respectively two of my favorite opening and closing tracks in music. "Backstreets," though, just goes on wayyyy too long for my taste and it's only grown more grating over the years for me. It's okay, though, I have the same problem with "Hey Jude."

Nebraska is a bold and beautiful album, but I miss The E Street Band. Mind you, I don't want to hear them on the album, I just can't call a Springsteen album my favorite without The E Street Band.

It is such a shame that the first two albums including Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. were so horribly, horribly produced because I think his debut is one of his best. For all his gifts with words, I love (and kind of miss) the brash, beat-like style of his early lyrics.

Born in the U.S.A. shares similar production problems, but the strength of the songwriting start of finish more than makes up for it.

The River and The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle are both great boast some of his best individual tracks, but on the whole I find myself reaching for them less than the albums I've already listed.

The Rising will move up on my list over time I am sure, but for now I've just had so much less time with it than his back catalog. For the same reason I won't even rank Devils & Dust.

Tunnel of Love is an album I likee a lot a the time, but don't return to it all that often these days. I'm going to spend quite a bit of time with it this week, though, on the strength of H.'s endorsement.

I love the songs from The Ghost of Tom Joad live, but I just never pull it off the shelf. I don't know why.

I'm also not going to touch any of the live albums. They're a seperate list altogether for me.

Which leaves Human Touch and Lucky Town. Oh, man, Bruce. What were you thinking?

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Cmon LT, how would you rank the live albums?

I got a dvd of his barcelona concert from the Rising tour a while ago, and it is surprisingly good. Forget his songwriting and his playing, I don't know how a 50+ year old guy can run around on that stage all night long every night. I would have been sucking wind after about 15 minutes of what he does, and he never even seems to slow down. I guess that is why he is one of the great live acts of rock and roll

Also LT, I agree that as good as Nebraska is, you've gotta have the E Street Band to really bring out the best in Bruce.

Out of the ones I've heard, Nebraska.

When I heard his first three albums, I basically said 'I like his songwriting, but he sounds a bit too overproduced. He'd sound great if he stripped down his sound.'

The response I got was basically 'Listen to Nebraska now.'

And, it's great.

quote:

Originally posted by keylimetrev:
I don't know how a 50+ year old guy can run around on that stage all night long every night. I would have been sucking wind after about 15 minutes of what he does, and he never even seems to slow down. I guess that is why he is one of the great live acts of rock and roll

I've not missed a tour since Born in the U.S.A. including The Rising and even in the rare instances where the albums have been a disappointment his performance never has. I thought he might slow down a bit for The Rising, but no.

This is actually why I was reluctant to rate the live albums. They just can't entirely do him justice. The closest, though, would have to be the box, Live 1975-1985, which is a given since it's culled from the best of a decade's worth of performances. Live in New York City is good, but is too brief a taste. Of the lot, I would say MTV Plugged trails the others if only because the studio setting didn't seem to energize Springsteen and the band as much as a regular concert crowd.

Not to get too far afield of the subject, but back in the 80s there was a live recording of the non-album track "Be True" recorded in Philadelphia and released as a b-side. That is one of my favorite Springsteen live performances ever recorded.

But then the non-album tracks are a whole other topic, right?

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Tunnel of Love, Darkness on the Edge of Town. I'm not sure why people have not really heard of ToL or favor it, but it's one of the boss' best... the songs are so incredibly well written and heartfelt.. and unlike Born in the USA, the production is not too glossy/slick.

I agree. Without a doubt, Tunnel of Love is Springsteen's most underrated album. Brilliant Disguise is one of pop music's greatest admission of love.

For a long time, it was "The River" followed by "Darkness on the Edge of Town". But in the last few years, I've really come to love "The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle" with "Greetings from Asbury Park" growing on me as well. The "Born To Run" 30th anniversary box set has sent back to the first couple albums again. I didn't miss those early albums the first time around, but I didn't give them many spins until the last few years.

Springsteen is my second favorite songwriter of all-time (Radiohead being my fav). I would have to say that Born in the USA is my favorite. That album has been in heavy rotation since I first bought the record at the tender age of 4 (with a little help from my parents, of course). Tunnel of Love is my second favorite, followed closely by Nebraska. I too recently (today) bought the 30th anniversary addition Born to Run album to try and re-discover it again. I thought it was captured on CD well the first time, but I couldn't pass on the documentary and concert footage. When are they going to do the same for Born in the USA???

Figured I would drag this topic back up because I'm really, really having a good time with Springsteen's new album. Granted it has only been with me for a short while, but I'm pretty much ready to say it is my favorite album of his since 2000, and I really like the Rising and Devils & Dust. Anyway, what does everyone think of the album?

Yeah, I like his Seeger album. I got it for my brother, who is a Bruce fan, after he broke his arm and was kinda housebound, and I find it really cool. I like The Boss without being passionate about him. I really enjoy The Ghost Of Tom Joad for a certain mood...

With the exceptions of Human Touch (good title track though) and Lucky Town (irredeemable) I can't think of any Springsteen albums that haven't been wonderful. My absolute favourites would have to be Born To Run and Nebraska as they are just utterly flawless collections but as I say, I can't dislike any barring the mentioned two.

His most underrated album is definitely Ghost Of Tom Joad which is a great, dark folk record with a real punk spirit to it while still remaining deeply rooted in Americana. The title track especially is a genuine masterwork, even amongst his oeuvre. Also, The River gets very little credit, partly due to the overplaying of 'Hungry Heart', but is a pretty great double album effort, relatively consistent stuff.