Putting the flawless first 14 years of Bruce Springsteen’s recorded output to one side, there’s been a marked inconsistency since 1987’s Tunnel Of Love; for every Ghost Of Tom Joad high point there’s been a substandard release like Working On A Dream. But rumours of lost work abounded, especially from his unusually sparse 1990s.
This absolutely staggering collection of seven albums recorded – and in some cases very nearly put out – between 1983 and 2018 fills in the blanks and makes you wonder why lesser records were released instead. There’s nothing on 2014’s odd ’n’ sods High Hopes to match what’s here, for a start. Sadly there’s no Electric Nebraska, although that’ll arrive eventually.
Instead LA Garage Sessions ’83 finds Bruce moving towards the world-conquering Born In The USA with songs appearing in slightly altered form, such as a never-better My Hometown, mixed with should-have-beens like the Nebraskan strains of Richfield Whistle. At the other end is the E-Streety Perfect World, a looser entry not conceived as an album, which ranges from the anthemic Cutting Knife to the slow-rolling Blind Man.
In between, after Streets Of Philadelphia Sessions expands the gentle-beats approach of his Oscar winner to moving effect, especially on Farewell Party, are four albums that knock at least half of what was released during the same period into a cocked hat. Faithless, an abandoned soundtrack, combines Tom Joad-like instrumentation and gospel voices to mesmerising effect. Piano-based love song God Sent You is capable of moving a recalcitrant statue. Somewhere North Of Nashville, the long-promised ‘country’ record, is the pedal steel-drenched sound of a wild night out in Bakersfield, veering from the roadhouse chug of Tiger Rose to the last-call heartbreak of You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone.
Inyo, containing riveting border tales, such as the exceptional The Last Charro, sung to a Mariachi orchestra, shows that Springsteen could have had a career as a screenwriter if the music hadn’t panned out. Twilight Hours is a sister record to late-period masterpiece Western Stars and very nearly its equal. The glorious widescreen orchestrations of Two Of Us, the sparse beauty of Lonely Town and the Bacharachian longing of Sunday Love could each have replaced the incongruous Sleepy Joe’s Café on Western Stars because they’re that great.
This collection is a breathtaking gift that Springsteen acolytes will cherish. They don’t call him The Boss for a laugh.
