What a great exercise/idea! I could see myself falling down a rabbit hole and doing this for any number of bands.
I agree that the hallmark of any "good" (subjective, I know) Springsteen album is a balance of the introspective and anthemic. Sometimes that comes in sound form, and sometimes in the lyrics. This is a great place to start as Human Touch/Lucky Town could've--and IMO should've-- been one record.
Taking the best of each and distilling it into one compact record would likely have made for one of the best records in his discography. Instead, we got 2 that were...okay.
I really like it as an exercise (and it's one I know I've done before from the days of making mix tapes and cds, I might condense my favorite tracks from two albums into one CD or tape so I only have to carry one with me).
As I've written about before, I have such a strange relationship with that stretch of Springsteen's career because... I just love the E Street guys so much. Honestly, if you did an album of these songs with the E Street band (so you get Clarence's sax and Danny's organ), it's continues the run that began with... The Wild, The Innocent...
Oh, I agree. I know it's an easy comment to make, but there's something about the E-Street band that you can't replicate. It's a big part of why his latest record fell flat for me.
What a great exercise/idea! I could see myself falling down a rabbit hole and doing this for any number of bands.
I agree that the hallmark of any "good" (subjective, I know) Springsteen album is a balance of the introspective and anthemic. Sometimes that comes in sound form, and sometimes in the lyrics. This is a great place to start as Human Touch/Lucky Town could've--and IMO should've-- been one record.
Taking the best of each and distilling it into one compact record would likely have made for one of the best records in his discography. Instead, we got 2 that were...okay.
I really like it as an exercise (and it's one I know I've done before from the days of making mix tapes and cds, I might condense my favorite tracks from two albums into one CD or tape so I only have to carry one with me).
As I've written about before, I have such a strange relationship with that stretch of Springsteen's career because... I just love the E Street guys so much. Honestly, if you did an album of these songs with the E Street band (so you get Clarence's sax and Danny's organ), it's continues the run that began with... The Wild, The Innocent...
Oh, I agree. I know it's an easy comment to make, but there's something about the E-Street band that you can't replicate. It's a big part of why his latest record fell flat for me.