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| Absolutepunk |
 Bruce Springsteen's 1982 release Nebraska is probably the release that Columbia Records was looking for when they signed a young and unproven Springsteen in the early 1970s. Although the record came about a decade later and it was Springsteen's sixth studio album, Columbia probably isn't too disappointed with how the whole Springsteen experiment played out.The story behind Nebraska is not one that is known very well outside of the Springsteen faithful. Basically, The Boss recorded demos of an album that he meant to record with the E Street Band on a 4-track at home. When he went into the studio and the entire band recorded the album, Springsteen and his producers felt it didn't translate right. The end result was the actual releasing of the demos, as recorded on a 4-track in Springsteen's home. Let The Boss tell you about it himself....full text |
| Sputnikmusic |
| Summary: Springsteen hits the road looking for inspiration and finds a country lost and adrift five years after Vietnam and on the verge of Reaganomics. Muderous, cold, and bleak, Nebraska captures the pain and turns it into timeless songs for the ages. Essential Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen is #224 on Rolling Stone Magazines list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. And its a demo tape. "A demo tape," you say? Well yes, a demo tape. Number 224 on Rolling Stone Magazines top 500 albums of all time is a demo tape. How could this be, you may be thinking? Well, as with many great things (or at least some great things) sometimes greatness is accidental and unexpected. You never see it coming. Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska is just like that. Part of the collection of songs originally written for the album that would eventually become Born In The USA, the songs of Nebraska are orphans that couldn't quite find a home or fit in elsewhere. Trying the songs out with The E Street Band initially only to realize they weren't suited well to the full band treatment, Bruce was looking for a mood with these songs. Thing was he had already captured it and he knew it. The whole thing was in the back pocket of his jeans on a $5 cassette tape that was recorded in his basement. The question was how to duplicate it. Going into the studio once more only this time alone, he then set out to simply record the songs in a proper studio with the proper equipment and deliver an album of acoustic songs to the record company. But given the studio treatment the album lost it's dark edge and foreboding tone of the original to the point that the songwriter felt the songs lost their impact. Merely a copy of an original. Frustrated, his manager and close friend Jon Landau suggested he simply turn in the expected record just as it is. Straight from his back pocket. And so Nebraska was finally born. A dark folk album of sorts, the title track kicks things off and it's clear from the start this is not going to be typical Springsteen fare. While not a complete departure for the singer and songwriter, it's bleak lyrics of a murderous man on a killing spree and his girlfriend who goes along just for the ride is nonetheless as unforgiving a song as Bruce had ever recorded up to this point. The music is very quiet here, as it is on much of the album, letting the story be put front and center and providing no easy out for the listener. It's a chilling tale that provides no easy answers to it's troublesome subject matter or for the characters involved, and its a theme Springsteen would touch on again and again throughout the record. The next cut, "Atlantic City", livens things up a little musically, adding touches of mandolin and glockenspiel to the mix and allowing a little hope to seep into it's desperate tale of financial ruin, dreams gone bad, and romantic commitment, while the song that follows, the tender and reflective "Mansion On The Hill" lulls the listener into a comfortable position with it's tale of childhood dreams and soft, compassionate vocals. But while this album does have brief moments of hope and reason to believe in something, most tracks resemble the next two songs on the record, and they go a long way in establishing exactly what the songwriters intentions are regarding this album. Johhny 99, with it's train whistle vocal intro and nervous guitar whip things up into a near frenzy with it's tight story of a man on the verge of losing everything and turned to a life of crime, and the cinematic "Highway Patrolman". Just under six minutes in length, Highway Patrolman is as fully realized a story song as Bruce has ever written. "My name is Joe Roberts/I work for the state/I'm a sergeant out of Burnsville, Barracks #8/ I always did an honest job/As honest as I could/I got a brother named Frankie/And Frankie ain't no good" the song starts. And from that point on the listener is simply compelled to see it through. Ultimately a song of brotherly love and family commitment at any and all cost, Springteen weaves a story as elaborate and fully realized as any Hollywood screenwriter would be hard pressed to pack into a full length film over the course of this six minute song, and its quiet, thoughtful music and compassionate vocals are careful to never get in the way of the words or tale. Quite simply songwriting and musical storytelling at its very best....full text |
| Rollingstone |
| After ten years of forging his own brand of fiery, expansive rock & roll, Bruce Springsteen has decided that some stories are best told by one man, one guitar. Flying in the face of a sagging record industry with an intensely personal project that could easily alienate radio, rock's gutsiest mainstream performer has dramatically reclaimed his right to make the records he wants to make, and damn the consequences. This is the bravest of Springsteen's six records; it's also his most startling, direct and chilling. And if it's a risky move commercially, Nebraska is also a tactical masterstroke, an inspired way out of the high-stakes rock & roll game that requires each new record to be bigger and grander than the last. Until now, it looked as if 1973's dizzying The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle would be the last Springsteen album to surprise people. Ensuing records simply refined, expanded and deepened his artistry. But Nebraska comes as a shock, a violent, acid-etched portrait of a wounded America that fuels its machinery by consuming its people's dreams. It is a portrait painted with old tools: a few acoustic guitars, a four-track cassette deck, a vocabulary derived from the plain-spoken folk music of Woody Guthrie and the dark hillbilly laments of Hank Williams. The style is steadfastly, defiantly out-of-date, the singing flat and honest, the music stark, deliberate and unadorned. Nebraska is an acoustic triumph, a basic folk album on which Springsteen has stripped his art down to the core. It's as harrowing as Darkness on the Edge of Town, but more measured. Every small touch speaks volumes: the delicacy of the acoustic guitars, the blurred sting of the electric guitars, the spare, grim images. He's now telling simple stories in the language of a deferential common man, peppering his sentences with "sir's." "My name is Joe Roberts," he sings. "I work for the state."...full text |
| Sputnikmusic |
| Rebounding after a three year lawsuit induced layoff with the "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" album a couple of years earlier and sounding very much like a man with a new lease on life, Bruce Springsteen's "The River" is a sprawling double disc set that finds the artist shedding his old skin and sliding comfortably into a new one. Not so much an evolution of an artist as a 90 degree turn of sorts, Bruce and The E Street Band would tighten up the arrangements for The River, strip down their sound, and make their most "rock" sounding record to date. Which is not to say they would completely forsake the R&B and soulful influences of the past, its just to say the guitars ring out and jangle whereas before they seemed to blend, and the drums go pop as often as they go boom. This is Bruce setting up house for the set of songs that would comprise the Nebraska and Born In The USA albums, and he sounds as confident going in as he did coming out a few years later for a walk into super stardom. The River is one of Bruce Springsteens very best albums. One spin around the block with it and you'll know why. With Springsteen's vision going dark for his previous album after his earlier more hopeful work, for The River Bruce found room to include not just the dour but also the hope and uplift he offered on his first three albums, often within the same song, as this record would see Bruce for the first time mixing hopelessly dire lyrics with music and choruses so jubilant you can't help but dance all over your heartache. The first half of the album is decidedly more upbeat then the second as Springsteen and band get things rolling with "The Ties That Bind", and the first thing you notice is the change in sound and tone from his Born To Run days. The production is bright, sunny, and almost pop in nature, Bruce's guitar ringing out cleanly rather then blending into the mix as we've heard previous as he leads his tight band through the paces for this ode to commitment and facing those "ties that bind" in life together, rather then alone. The next tune, "Sherry Darlin", is similarly upbeat as this Clarence Clarence saxophone led blast of Philly inspired soul rocks out in a faux live fashion that sounds like it was recorded in a bar, complete with crowd noise and hand claps. Again its an offer to a girl of commitment in the face of the odds against them both, whatever those odds are, and these first few songs do indeed set the tone for the entire record, if not completely. This is a relationship album. Relationships between man and woman, friends and family, work, and even with one self when it comes to issues of identity. Perhaps nothing new for Bruce on a few fronts, but never was his vision as clear or his music as focused as on this disc. This album is the one on which Bruce would leave his humble small town Jersey roots behind for something larger and more universal. And it has the sound of an artist breaking free if not for the first time, then perhaps for the second or third, at least. Elsewhere on the first half of the record we find Bruce getting personal with the quietly touching, soulful ballad "Independence Day" which has Springsteen addressing his often troubled relationship with his father and his roots, with the final solution being one of just leaving and never looking back, however hard or however unfinished your business may be. "Just say goodbye/Its Independence Day/Papa now I know the things you wanted that you could not say/I swore I never meant to take those things away" an older and wiser Bruce sings regretfully. Too little, too late, perhaps? Its leaving time. Springsteen faves "Out In The Street", the twangy screamer "Crush On You", and bittersweet country-ish ballad "I Wanna Marry You" are also found on the first disc, all of which find Bruce's once drifting dreamers looking for something a bit more solid and real then the fleeting ideals and broken hearts found on Springsteen albums gone past. But the hopeless dead ends are also accounted for in the title track and the deceptively brilliant "Hungry Heart"....full text |
| Blogcritics |
| The River — a sprawling two-record set that reached Number One on the American charts in 1980 — solidified Bruce Springsteen’s commercial appeal while elevating him into the upper echelon of critically acclaimed artists. This release is really two different types of albums woven together and, as such, it lacks focus as a whole, but many of the individual songs are undeniably brilliant. As well, the work is accessible, carefree, searching and hopeful, yet tempered by the realization that life doesn't always end happily ever after. The River presents a series of character sketches that primarily focuses on relationships. Also, it marks a creative transition of sorts as it finds Springsteen exploring the past sonic textures of Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge Of Town while, at the same time, looking ahead to the starkness of Nebraska and the grandeur of Born In The U.S.A. “Hungry Heart” was Springsteen’s first Top Ten hit and would facilitate his move toward the mainstream. Incidentally, producer Jon Landau prevented Springsteen from giving this song away as he had done with some of his more pop-oriented compositions in previous years. “Sherry Darling” and “Cadillac Ranch” — two of my favorite Springsteen tracks — are buoyant, powerful and ultimately joyful. At the time of the album's release, I actually wished these two cuts could've been sequenced back to back rather than separated by other songs. “Independence Day” is a difficult listen as it explores the end of a father and son's relationship with quite somber lyrics, yet overall the song retains a sense of beauty. “The River” speaks of dreams going awry when confronted with reality, but hope nevertheless survives. The album's desolate final song, “Wreck On The Highway,” is more of a thematic precursor to what Springsteen would express on his subsequent release, Nebraska....full text |
| Antimusic |
| Originally scheduled for a release in the fall of 1979, Bruce Springsteen's fifth album The River finally saw release in October 1980. The massive double album isn't perfect but as I grow older and venture further into adulthood, more than any other collection of songs in Springsteen's cannon, I return to this one the most. It helps I viewed it as his most flawed record for the better part of a few decades. Coming off the Darkness tour in January 1979, Springsteen wasted no time in writing with fervor. The 1978 tour had seen the debut of a half dozen songs and one would assume that only a few other songs would be needed. For most artists this would suffice, but not for Springsteen. He wrote and wrote and wrote until he had about thirty new compositions. The E Street Band recorded all of them and an album, entitled The Ties That Bind was penciled in for release later that year. The album went so far as to have potential album covers and track listings drawn up, but Springsteen pulled the record back feeling it needed something more. In early 1980, it was determined that the album would be a double. Over sixty songs were recorded for The River and for my money, this was not just Springsteen's most productive period, but his best as well. Shifting between tracks that embody dreams and nightmares, The River is Bruce Springsteen's most bipolar collection of songs, yet it's also his most miraculous creation of songs. Let's start by making one thing very clear, no double album is perfect. Anytime you have a double disc affair, it begins with debates about how immense a single album would have been and no album, despite how legendary, goes without questioning; The White Album, Quadrophenia, Use Your Illusion, The Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness, Physical Graffiti and Sandinista! . The River is no different and as time has passed (and more tracks from these sessions are officially released) people tend to wonder how a song like "Crush On You" made the cut and "Where The Bands Are" didn't. Regardless of my (and thousands of others fans) whining, Springsteen made a grand, illustrious and profound double disc. Why did he? Because he had no other choice. The Ties That Bind may have housed a more inclusive and succinct album, but the vastness and variety of The River make it one of the most compelling albums of the last thirty-years. Springsteen makes a wide variety of music and he left off many of the poppier songs from Darkness and to do so two bleak albums in a row would have been too grim. For every Good Friday, there has to be an Easter Sunday and Springsteen thankfully acknowledged that while rock n' roll has the power to unearth dark secrets, it can also be a baptism bringing a renewed sense of faith. He also stretched back to his teen years to the music he grew up and loved. He made peace with himself that songs do not always have to carry an emotional depth to them. A great rock n' roll song isn't defined by its subject matter but by how it engages its listener and Springsteen manages to shift between the dumb and desolate better on The River than at any other point in his career. While the themes of The River don't flow as mightily as they did on Born To Run or Darkness, the most aggressive and risky nature and sequencing make The River a rare delicacy; highlighting lightness and darkness equally. Finding middle ground between the despair of Darkness and the triumphant glee of Born To Run, The River melds the Friday night escapism with brutal truths. What makes each of Springsteen's albums during this time essential is that he wrote from experienced and as he aged so did his audience. For the younger listeners who would discover the music later in life, each album encompasses a guide that makes more sense and becomes clearer with every passing year of our lives.The River has two distinct and split personalities; driving and mindless garage rock ("Crush On You", "You Can Look (But Better Not Touch)", and stark pronouncements where characters wail about failure, doom and death ("Point Blank", "Jackson Cage"). On paper, the album appears disjointed as it tries to connect two severe styles…and it is, but what a superb and ambitious mess it is....full text |
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