Recommendations of the Editorial team
Happy Birthday, Bruce Springsteen! The head of American rock music celebrates its 75th birthday on September 23, 2024. The Rolling Stone editor Arne Willander and Birgit Fuß and Rolling-Stone author Markus Brandstetter heard through all studio albums and brought
You in the right order – starting with Springste’s weaker output to his great masterpieces.
20 “Lucky Town/Human Touch” (1992)
After he passed the E Street Band, Springsteen in Los Angeles went through a phase of depression and psychotherapy. Then two albums appeared at the same time: “Human Touch”, document of melancholy and brooding, and “Lucky Town”, the promise of a new beginning. “Better Days” and “Lucky Town” are adequately hymn and a year later, with “Plugged”, performed with muscular bravado.
Evaluation: **
19 “Only the Strong Survive” (2022)
There are albums that are clearly more substantial fun for the artist when importing than the majority of the audience listening to. Springsteen’s cover song collection “Only the Strong Survive” is one of these cases. Here Springsteen took the pieces of others to the chest for the second time on album length. But what was a great bluegrass festival for musicians and listeners at the “Seeger Sessions”, which is also fun for many years later, is “Only the Strong Survive” something that will sooner or later be forgotten in the boss canon. But there is also positive things about it: Springsteen has a audible pleasure in covers old soul and R&B pieces and is really in good shape. The following applies here: The main thing is that the boss has fun.
Evaluation: ** 1/2
18 “Working on a Dream” (2009)
The final of the trilogy produced by Brendan O’Brien is unfortunately also by far the weakest. Had the great “The Rising” and that in terms of mix (because on a stop and without dynamics, but otherwise pretty good “Magic” many memorable songs, there is no “working on a dream” over long stretches. The film of the same name with Mickey Rourke.
Evaluation: ** 1/2
17 “Western Stars” (2019)
Throughout the years, jumping steen has always stuck a concrete cartography for albums in which he moved. At “Western Stars” it was the sunny California of the 1970s, in which he searched retrospectively for inspiration. “Western Stars” partially follows in the tradition of the Springsteen acoustic albums, but the orchestration has never been more cinematic and lavish than here. The optical design of the cover is symbolic of the sound: everything shines with excessive contrasts, a certain sepiastich is also omnipresent – but unfortunately also quite a lot of sultry kitsch.
Evaluation: ***
16 “Letter to you” (2020)
We write October 23, 2020, the world is in the turmoil of the lockdown and pandemic. Exactly in this difficult time, just a year after the opulent and unfortunately not really unforgettable “Western Stars”, Springsteen with “Letter to You” finally releases an e street band album. This is no longer devoted to the American dream and the endless street, but aging, death and impermanence, but has enough sense of meaning for the e-street community and one or the other perseverance in order to be remembered as a glimmer of hope in dark times.
Evaluation: ***
15 “High Hopes” (2014)
“High Hopes” is a collection of outtakes, newly recorded material and cover versions. What does not necessarily read on paper like a coherent studio album is still more coherent than many other outputs of the Springsteen scaffold phase and is at least a solid album on which rage-agat-the-machine guitarist and e-street band-substitute Tom Morello can also be heard. In general, Morello had a large part in the album. It was said to have been who suggested that “Just Like Fire would” by The Saints and “Dream Baby Dream” from Suicide-two songs that you would not actually locate in the Springsteen cosmos. The guitarist is also due to the fact that Springsteen, which appeared on the Blood Brothers EP in 1995 on the Blood Brothers EP.
Evaluation: ***
14 “Devils & Dust” (2005)
A kind of American Gothic, a man alone in the studio with his instrument. He doesn’t play the songs with the E Street Band. And otherwise not.
ValueG: ***
13 “Wrecking Ball” (2012)
Springsteen is angry on “Wrecking Ball” – and that is musically excellent. The streets from the past have no longer existed, the old places of the hometown, where large stories were written and even larger promises have long been paved into parking spaces and shopping centers and was used for anachronism. This time, according to the tenor of the album, it will not help to just roll up the sleeves. This time the demolition bulb is needed. The pounding, often folklassy protest ethos, sometimes on the border with kitsch, but always inspires and catchy. Pieces such as “Death to My Homeetown”, “Wrecking Ball” and “We Take Care of our own” are one of the most memorable, which Springsteen has published since “The Rising” or “Magic”.
Evaluation: *** 1/2
12 “Magic” (2007)
Referred to by Landau as a “high-energy rock”, “Magic” really has a few strong songs to offer, but some things were somewhat expected. Although “i’ll work for your love” Springsteen’s career actually summarizes perfectly.
Evaluation: *** 1/2
11 “The Rising” (2002)
Of course, Springsteen’s encouragement music was needed after 9/11-and he was not disappointed: seven years after the oppressive “The Ghost of Tom Joad” he called up more humanity with touching hymns, with touching moments of mourning.
Evaluation: *** 1/2