Bruce Springsteen Albums (From Worst to Best)

How much time will have to pass until someone elects Bruce Springsteen the most important figure in the history of New Jersey? The Boss remains one-of-a-kind rock star. His live shows are still legendary. From an acoustic Dylan clone to a planetary legend, The Boss have spawned his career over four decades with a unique magic. See below musiclipse choices of the Bruce Springsteen Albums (From Worst To Best).

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17 – Human Touch (1992)

16 – Lucky Town (1992)

15 – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)

14 – The Ghost Of Tom Joad (1995)

13 – Working On A Dream (2009)

12 – Wrecking Ball (2012)

11 – Devils & Dust (2005)

10 – Magic (2007)

From the squalling guitars in ‘Radio Nowhere’ to the true patriotism in ‘Long Walk Home,’ Magic was about life during a wartime built on lies. A truly wonderful return to form for Springsteen, with a well-crafted rock album.

9 – Tunnel of Love (1987)

After the 1982 challenging ‘Nebraska’ and Springsteen most popular album of his career, ‘Born in U.S.A.’, ‘Tunnel of Love’, as its title suggested, was an album of romantic exploration. Springsteen questioned the trust and honesty on both sides in a romantic relationship, specifically a married relationship – his own short marriage was in risk and it wasn’t surprising when that marriage collapsed the following year. Of course fans had hoped for an album in the row of ‘Born in U.S.A.’, however the album has the successful title track ‘Tunnel of Love’ and ‘Brilliant Disguise’.

8 – The Rising (2002)

‘The Rising’ like i used to say, was a record born of the ashes of the 9/11 attacks, it´s a kind of response. The album opens with the punching ‘Lonesome Day’ and finish with ‘Paradise Day’ where Springsteen sing from the perspective of a suicide bomber. Listen carefully to ‘Empty Sky’,‘My City of Ruins’ or ‘Into the Fire’. ‘Nothing Man’
is a ballad that can ultimately may move you to tears! For the first time since ‘Born in U.S.A’ Springsteen reunited in studio the E Street Band, and the result was this powerful album. Strong stuff.

7 – Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)

‘Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. is the first studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1973 and was a folk-based tunes arranged for an electric band featuring piano and organ….and a great tenor saxophone. Fueled by youthful exuberance and enthusiasm, Bruce Springsteen and his band had no idea what kind of impact they would have on American music.‘Blinded by the Light’ is the song that introduced the world to Bruce Springsteen alongside Spirit in the Night. An honorable mention to the live performance of Lost in the Flood.

6 – The River (1980)

Initially ‘The River’ was to be a simple album entitled The Ties That Blind, but when he have ten songs recorded he decided to proceed to a double album. Sixteen months later on the studio, the first disc was composed with rock songs as ‘Hungry Heart’ and ‘Sherry Darling’. The second disc presents a more dark tone , although Springsteen can speed up sometimes like the moment on ‘I’m a Rocker’ and ‘Cadillac Ranch’. A classic, ‘The River’ chart up to 1st position on the Billboard Charts and to number 2 in U.K.

5 – The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle (1973)

Bruce scored his first triumph with ‘The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle’. This second album contains at least two Springsteen classics in the shape of ‘4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)’ and the strong ‘Rosalita (Come out Tonight)’ where you can listen the importance of Clemons Sax. The album failed the charts that year of 1973, but in the breakthrough year of 1975 with the help from ‘Born to Run’ the world will understand why the album titled summed up everything.

4 – Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978)

After ‘Born To Run’, Springsteen could only record after more than two years, due to a dark legal stories. He returns in the best of his form with this dazzling album, one of his best. The energy is still there, as we feel in the incredible ‘Badlands’ that opens the album. It didn’t have the magnificent production of ‘Born to Run’, but the E Street Band rocks more than ever, much thanks to the arrival of guitarist Steve Van Zandt. Apart from the powerful ‘Adam Raised a Cain’, ‘Promise Land’ and ‘Prove it All Night’, we find also surprising tracks like ‘Candy’s Room’ and the delicate and profound ‘Racing in The Street’.

3- Born In The U.S.A. (1984)

Just as ‘Thriller’ dropped from Billboard’s Top Five, ‘Born in USA’ took its place in the summer of 1984. The music is deceptively commercial from the sexy ‘I’m on Fire’, the warm-hearted ‘Glory Days’ to the Who-Style ‘Born in the USA’. There’s also the lovely ‘Bobby Jean’ and energizing ‘Dancing in The Dark’ as the highlights of this album. ‘Born in USA’ was a commercial success, seven of the twelve songs chart up in the Top 10 in USA, and the album itself remained in the charts for two years! Ronald Reagen would later cited the title track as an example to follow. The album isn’t only numbers, it has heart and soul to spare.

2- Nebraska (1982)

Without the help from his famous E Street Band, Springsteen sat down lonely just with his guitar, harmonica and a tape recorder. He created a series of songs adding only some reverb to them, turning the atmosphere dark and naked. It could sounded like career suicide but eventually inspired the all unplugged movement of the 90’s. As for some of the songs, the title track ‘Nebraska’ tells the true -life story of mass murderer Charlie Starkweather’s , ‘State Trooper’ narrates the tale of a local policeman forced to confront his criminal brother. ‘Atlantic City’, a live favorite of mine, paints the famous gambling town as a corrupt.

1- Born to Run (1975)

After two albums with poor commercial success, Springsteen got the jackpot with ‘Born to Run’, achieving the same recognition from the media (‘the future of rock ‘n’ roll’) and the public. The songs are all excellent, few of them were written on guitar, they were instead written on piano. ‘Born to Run’ took six months to write,  the production is superb and E Street Band was as strong as ever , including  two keyboards (piano and organ) and a saxophone. Everybody was playing the best they could. At a time when the rock fall asleep, this energetic and full of life album had the effect of a oxygen breath.

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