17 October 2013

17th October - Bruce Springsteen's The River



Artist – Album: Bruce Springsteen – The River
Released: 17th October 1980
Sounds Like: Nice to see you…

With The River, Springsteen joins Dylan as the most blogged about artist on my stupid boy project…, one more album covered than The Beatles, one more than Neil Young and The White Stripes, one more, even, than the inescapable Elbow. Congratulations Brucey! …to see you nice!

His four previously featured albums – Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Born in the U.S.A and Tunnel of Love – charted the highs and lows of the Boss’s small-town strugglers, growing ever more disenchanted and world-weary as time passes. This album is no different, and songs such as ‘The Ties That Bind’ (somewhat self-explanatory), ‘The River’ and ’Wreck on the Highway’ are almost brutal in their sense of being stuck in a rut.

The River though is a double album, unlike those other spectacular records, and this allows Springsteen the breathing space to inject just a teensy bit of frivolity and silliness into a number of his songs – the likes of ‘Sherry Darling’, ‘Crush on You’ and ‘I’m a Rocker’ are all wholly enjoyable fluff – whilst still having enough of the tracks pulling in the same direction of entrapment and lack of escape as before (and after) albums. In that sense, The River is one of the easiest to listen to in Springsteen’s whole repertoire.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       The Ties That Bind – 3:34
2.       Sherry Darling – 4:03
3.       Jackson Cage – 3:04
4.       Two Hearts – 2:45
5.       Independence Day – 4:50
6.       Hungry Heart – 3:19
7.       Out in the Street – 4:17
8.       Crush on You – 3:10
9.       You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) – 2:37
10.   I Wanna Marry You – 3:30
11.   The River – 5:01
12.   Point Blank – 6:06
13.   Cadillac Ranch – 3:03
14.   I’m a Rocker – 3:36
15.   Fade Away – 4:46
16.   Stolen Car – 3:54
17.   Ramrod – 4:05
18.   The Price You Pay – 5:29
19.   Drive All Night – 8:33
20.   Wreck on the Highway – 3:54

Listen to ‘Out in the Street’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8yphj2hUI8

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