Bruce Springsteen, ‘Tracks II: The Lost Albums': Album Review

The realization that hits about three-quarters of the way through Bruce Springsteen's mammoth vault-tidying Tracks II: The Lost Albums, seven previously unreleased LPs recorded between 1983 and 2018, is that, more than anything else, its 83 songs reveal his true breadth as a songwriter.

Late-'60s adult contemporary balladeer? Drum loop-inspired troubled romantic? Mariachi bandleader singing about the Southwestern border states? And of course, gritty bar-group rocker trading in the type of stadium-filling songs that made him one of the most popular artists of the 20th century? They're all on display in the sequel to 1998's Tracks, the four-disc box set that collected a bounty of outtakes and castoffs from Springsteen's legend-making years.

Tracks II approaches a similar theme from a different perspective: entire albums abandoned for one reason or another (Twilight Hours was scrapped after 2019's Western Stars was trimmed to a single LP, LA Garage Sessions ’83 eventually evolved into the gargantuan-selling Born in the U.S.A.) over the decades. None of these seven shelved albums sounds like any of the others; over The Lost Albums' 35 years, Springsteen tries on several hats, takes some risks and emerges as a songwriter, as if anyone needs to be reminded, who rarely went down the same path twice.

READ MORE: Bruce Springsteen Albums Ranked

The seven albums — LA Garage Sessions '83 (recorded in 1983), Streets of Philadelphia Sessions (1994), Faithless (2005-06), Somewhere North of Nashville (mostly 1995), Inyo (1997), Twilight Hours (2010-18) and Perfect World (songs spanning the late '90s through the mid-'10s) — pinpoint specific Springsteen eras in their vocals, music and even songwriting approach. The stripped-down rockabilly of LA Garage Sessions '83 is markedly different than the orchestra-escorted Burt Bacharach adult pop of Twilight Hours.

And that's the intention of Tracks II: The Lost Albums, which takes its launching point from Nebraska, the solo acoustic record Springsteen released in 1982 from home demo recordings. Like that masterwork, many recordings here began as solo demos; that's no more evident than on the very first disc, the 18-track LA Garage Sessions ’83 that serves as a bridge between Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A. An early version of the latter's "My Hometown" reveals that the structural core was present from the start; initial takes on "Johnny Bye Bye" and "Shut Out the Light" (both released as '80s B-sides and later included on the first Tracks) present the songs from slightly different viewpoints.

The most interesting lost albums are those that were conceived as complete LPs and were all ready for release before being shelved, such as the meditative Faithless, made for a "spiritual western" that never came out, the country-leaning Somewhere North of Nashville, chiefly recorded at the same time as The Ghost of Tom Joad, and Joad's spiritual ancestor Inyo, written during drives through California and recorded in part with a mariachi band. (The final LP in the box, Perfect World, is an odds-and-ends set compiled for Tracks II: The Lost Albums from various sessions throughout the years.) Other moments stand out, too: the dark, hip-hop-influenced "Blind Spot" from the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions; Twilight Hours' lush, breezy "Follow the Sun"; and the Darkness on the Edge of Town-like thrust of the mid-'90s "I'm Not Sleeping" from the decades-spanning Perfect World grab bag.

As a songwriting showcase for Springsteen, The Lost Albums emphasizes more often than not how his writing is tied to the performance, especially solo, but also when he's working with an array of backing musicians, including members of the E Street Band. (Springsteen wrote or cowrote every song except for a reworked version of Elvis Presley's "Follow That Dream" and Johnny Rivers' "Poor Side of Town.") Film references, both direct and indirect, are woven throughout all seven albums; fittingly, many of these 83 unreleased tracks offer panoramic landscapes on par with the westerns and noirs Springsteen borrows from. Tracks II: The Lost Albums' alternate history of Springsteen releases is more supplemental than replacement. In the end, he made the right decisions about what and when they came out. The scope here, however, never fails to fascinate.