Track Listing
1. Badlands
2. Adam Raised A Cain
3. Something In The Night
4. Candy's Room
5. Racing In The Street
6. Promised Land
7. Factory
8. Streets Of Fire
9. Prove It All Night
10. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
Review
Well I don't understand myself, but I have been fucking loving Bruce Springsteen. It really shouldn't be my kind of thing but it is. But then I start seeing parallels to the type of things I like, Adam Raised A Cain sounds like Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, for example, trust me it does. But I don't really need parallels to anything else to say that Springsteen makes some pretty amazing music.
His previous album on the list, Born To Run, was a huge epic thing, later spoofed by Meat Loaf on Bat Out Of Hell, but it was a quality album. Here Springsteen tones it down a notch and goes to a darker place inside himself, the songs are still beautiful and imbued with an inner strength that is hard to beat, but they are not blindingly flashy like in Born To Run, this is definitely a more intimate affair.
Bruce keeps exploring his lyrical universe of the industrial working class and its desire for escapism, be that escapist by the means of cars or passion, and again cars and girls are pretty much what this is all about, but unlike in Born To Run it all goes to shit here, but no one ever managed to make so many great songs with such lyrical depth about just two, not particularly deep, things. He must really love them.
Track Highlights
1. Candy's Room
2. Badlands
3. Darkness on the Edge of Town
4. Adam Raised a Cain
Final Grade
10/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Darkness on the Edge of Town. Sales were not as high as Born to Run, but the album still did better than was expected. The extroverted optimism which was a hallmark of Born to Run was absent with a vengeance from Darkness on the Edge of Town. With its haunting themes of regret, failure and dashed hopes, many Springsteen aficionados consider this to be his finest album.
In terms of the original LP's sequencing, Springsteen continued his "four corners" approach from Born to Run, as the songs beginning each side ("Badlands" and "The Promised Land") were martial rallying cries to overcome circumstances, while the songs ending each side ("Racing in the Street", "Darkness on the Edge of Town") were sad dirges of circumstances overcoming all hope.
Candy's Room:
2 comments:
I know what you mean. I'm the guy who posted on your Born to Run review. The more of his stuff I hear, the more compelled I am to dive further into his discography. I'll probably grab this and his new album later this week.
Born in the USA must just be some godawful fluke. Is it on the list?
Born In the USA is indeed on the list! Looking forward to the lovely mid-80's.
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