Record Review: Bruce Springsteen—Darkness on the Edge of Town
A little over a year ago, I was very kindly given a turntable and some records by my in-laws. Among them were a few by Bruce Springsteen. I’ve felt for a long time that I was missing something about his music. I know it’s wildly influential, and feverishly revered, but I’ve never gotten into it or listened to anything that’s not on the radio. I decided to delve into this selected discography, beginning with the earliest I have of his, Born to Run. When I put on Darkness, I found I actually liked it, and felt like trying my hand at writing music criticism, which is something I read a ton of, but have never tried. The following is my first attempt at a stream-of-consciousness, whilst-record-is-spinning review:
First up is “Badlands”. This, like many Bruce songs, I’m not sure if I’ve actually heard before, or if it just sounds so much like everything else he’s done, that I think I have. I’m sure I have. The toms sound nice. Kind of nice proto-80s reverb in the beginning. More proto-80s guitar soloing, too, then more rock n roll sax. Always mixed feelings on that. A lot of the sax interludes seem to end with the same phrasing, too, kind of like electric guitar in modern country does, you know? The music’s inoffensive enough. Maybe the weakest link has always been that voice, for me. It just makes it sound like old man music to me, even though I listen to worse offenders. The writing in the chorus seems a little weak or uninteresting too, and the snare doing quarter notes gets pretty tiring. This little interlude with the plinking piano and tambourines is nice though, then the palm mutes. Nice. Nothing amazing. Just nice. Whoa, wait,…not good…reprising the back half of the chorus, fade out. Not a good look, guys. All in all, not bad song structure.
“Adam Raised a Cain” gets off to a pretty awesome start; a solid back beat and simple baseline, with raging guitar over the top. So far, so good. Even more finesse to the vocals in the chorus. More dynamic range, he steps it up for that pre-chorus, then into a snarl on the chorus. Complete with a backing choir, kind of like the Stones. I like it! This album’s already going so much better than Born to Run. That refrain comes up again awful quick, and the guitar picking’s kind of wearing out it’s welcome. But the solo gets better with time, then some kind of ranting and raving interlude. The song structure and little squeaks in the vocals are working well here. Ugh, he’s repeating the title and dragging the ending out too much again, though. Almost Def-Leppard-esque group chants. (I just had to Google their goofy misspelled name) (I was also autocorrected when I misspelled ‘misspelled’. Ah!) I just read an article about how Bon Jovi adapted the Springsteen sound for hair metal. That makes a lot of sense, really.
On to “Something In the Night”. The beginning’s really interesting: more of that plinking piano, rolling toms, distant vocals. Then he kind of settles into this normal mid tempo Bruce balladry thing, but some organ flourishes keep it interesting. So far, I think I like this one better than “Born to Run”. He’s certainly varying up the vocals more, and the songs are structured better. This is great. Here’s a passage with just some reverbed vocals, kick drum, and tom. Then a nice guitar lick. Oooh he’s bringing in the bells like in “Born to Run”, but here, they feel earned. The unintelligible vocalizations work really well in this track, also much more successfully and to more affect than on the Born to Run record.
Hmm, “Candy’s Room” comes as a nice surprise, just sixteenth notes on some hats, and like a spoken word piece. Very theatrical. Feels like the beginning of a new scene in a play. In a good way. Now the snare’s on sixteenth notes. A little piano roll. Wonderful! Then back to a Brucey strutting chorus, with those quarter note snare hits again… Then back to some cool guitar solo and toms. Then his chorus again. Cool ping-pongee call and response interlude though. I think his music is best when he’s not in the middle of a conventional verse or chorus; the E Street Band finds really inventive ways to weave them together.
“Racing in the Street” gets off to a pretty predictable start, but I’ll give it to him; this album’s been a pretty enjoyable listen so far. We’ll see where he goes with this. I’m finding I’m trying not to pay attention to the lyrics, because at this point in my life, I feel like I’ve heard what kind of themes he writes about a little too much. The struggle. Racing for that American Dream. I get it. I don’t know about this one. The organ and bass sound pretty good. This just drags on, doesn’t it? “A dude from L.A”. in a Camero? I think I’ve heard enough…”Wash these sins off our hands?” What’s he talking about? This piano outro’s pretty effective and tasteful. Oh wait, not an outro at all, we get rim shots again, organ, kick drum, tambourine, now rolling guitar, now the organ’s rolling, they’re building it back up! Only to fade it out?! I hate the fade out. Seems so lazy.
“The Promised Land”: Those toms again, now a very short-lived harmonica solo. Did I even flip the record? This sounds exactly like the album beginning. He goes to work every day. Yeah, yeah. It seems like the things a lot of people like most about Bruce (his working-man sensibility, his anthemic choruses, etc) are the things preventing me from liking him. That’s not a bad thing, just interesting. Oh, and those gratuitous sax solos. I think sax solos can’t not be a little gratuitous. At least not rock’n’roll sax. Then that harmonica comes along and doesn’t help anything. Doesn’t even take the edge off the sax. In fact, it’s more shrill, somehow. Not badly played, just badly mixed, perhaps? Another fade out. Didn’t see that coming.
“Factory”: “Early in the morning a whistle blows”, “Ben takes his lunch”, “factory gates in the rain”, whatever. “Factory gives him life”, what? Maybe I’m getting way too cynical. The backing vocals and guitar cascades are good. But oh, another fade out. That was quick, Bruce.
“Streets of Fire”. Already don’t like the title. Sorry. Starts with organ though. That’s welcome right now. Oh I know this one, the piano diddlies are nice. I like that it sounds like maybe he’s going a little outside his vocal range, or his comfort zone, affectation-wise, here, like he’s trying new things. This guitar’s got a pretty good metallic, feedback thing going too. At first, the tempo seemed a little slow, but that solo just makes it feel right. More of that interesting vocal exercising. Or exorcism? Fade out. Again. Every time!
“Prove It All Night” seems kind of like a throw away. Maybe a b-side to a radio hit? Not bad, just nothing memorable. Too predictably structured, I guess. Another sax solo. This one ended on a better note though. Pun intended! It actually went down and did this cool low growl, then a guitar picked right up from there. Then some nice hushed vocal work again. Then…you guessed it…back to the chorus, string along the last few lines…fade out!
This title track’s pretty rockin’! It starts out with those nice sparse drums, just like tom or kick with the tamb in place of a snare, then it kind of explodes into itself pretty quickly. The chord changes in the chorus of this one are interesting too. The instrumentation’s great! Those little bells again! The timing of those guitar stabs in the verse is good too. The lyrics are just whatever. “Some folks are born into a good life…” more of the same. Really good tone on the guitar solo: reminiscent of those Dick Dale surf records, plenty of spring reverb. “I lost my money and I lost my wife…” Alright, Bruce. The piano does really well chording along to the vocal melody in the chorus, too. Alright, that fade out wasn’t so bad. You only get one, though!
This has me actually excited to listen to the next one I have: 1980’s “The River.
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