Album reviewIt's understandable to label '90s Bruce Springsteen as a lost era. The Boss disbanded the E Street Band in 1989 and his only long-players during that time—Lucky Town, Human Touch and The Ghost of Tom Joad—marked an "experimental" turn away from arena rock. (Releasing three albums in ten years seemed especially like a slowdown since two came out on the same day in 1992.) Of course, that overlooks his soundtrack work—which earned him an Oscar and multiple Grammys—his steady touring throughout the decade (culminating in the E Street Band's return in 1999), and the fact that he and his wife were raising young children. Still, from 1993-2002, when The Rising debuted, there was precious little Springsteen to pore over.
We now know that this period was "lost" because most of Springsteen's output was buried. Tracks II: The Lost Albums provides a wide-ranging view of his creativity with seven full-length records that explore the many facets of his songwriting and directly inform the second-coming of the (ahem) glory days post-Rising. Replicating what made him one of the biggest stars on the planet wasn't cutting it, so why not explore what makes him Bruce? Because this music wasn't considered good or Springsteen enough to see the light until now, it might be dismissed as an afterthought. But in truth, this is a wealth of incredible material, with each record centered on a part of Springsteen that he seemingly forgot he had while in the midst of superstardom.
LA Garage Sessions '83 is as lo-fi as he gets post-Nebraska (and up until 1995's Tom Joad), including a reworking of "My Hometown," which would appear a year later on Born in the U.S.A. The Streets of Philadelphia Sessions finds Springsteen experimenting with synths and beats during a time when pop music was exploring how electronic sounds could achieve crossover appeal. On Faithless—recorded to accompany a never-released "spiritual Western"—he continues to question the foundations of love and belief, while introducing a strikingly personal timbre not heard before in his career. Somewhere North of Nashville, the most obviously experimental record here and a clear bridge to 2006’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, adds a country echo to his Tunnel of Love persona. Inyo mirrors the soft-spoken storytelling of his acoustic solo records and could easily have followed Joad.
Springsteen's reverence to the pop era that preceded him runs all through Twilight Hours—you can hear the influence of Sinatra and his contemporaries in the big-yet-delicately-explosive choruses. And Perfect World brings him to the greatest conclusion: all of these influences can coexist in his songs. (It's the perfect precursor to The Rising, which coalesces all these lost-era examinations, characters and riffs—and reunites him on record with the E Street Band for the first time in nearly two decades.)
Perhaps it's for the best that this trove of work is being released now. Springsteen's command of the rock world abated somewhat as he fiddled with these recordings behind studio doors. The critical eyes waiting for his fall from superstardom would have eaten these records alive for their lack of "Bossiness," and fans might have rolled their eyes at earnestness.
But as the current Land of Hope and Dreams tour proves night after night, we've never been more ready to listen. ©
Jeff Laughlin/Qobuz 
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