1001 Albums Summary

first album i got for this project and it's one i'm already familiar with! you could be forgiven for thinking that the opening title track is the only outright bitter song on here, but the venom in his voice as he barks his way through [BORN IN THE U.S.A.] seeps through and infects the entire album, and that bitterness comes in a range of flavours: the listless exhaustion of [DANCING IN THE DARK] ; the palpable tension at the heart of [I'M ON FIRE] ; and, man, oh MAN, the utter heartbreak of that final verse in [BOBBY JEAN]... even a track like [GLORY DAYS], which on any other album might end up straightforward Remember The Good Ol' Days nostalgia-bait, is transformed in this context - what else can anyone do but sit around and drink themselves numb and reminisce about a time when things didn't feel so hopeless? by the time we reach the end, however, it's as if that venom has finally worn off, and [MY HOMETOWN] has a greater sense of clarity than anything before it. he sings of the violent racial tensions he witnessed as a teenager, as if coming to remember that those days weren't as glorious as he'd led himself to believe. he finally seems to accept that his hometown doesn't anything left to offer, and that's it time to move on, if not for himself then for his little boy. over 40 years later, as i find myself closing in on the age Bruce Springsteen was at this album's release, it's painful to think how much i can relate to. a generation that feels forgotten, defined by aimlessness. high streets decorated with boarded-up windows. no jobs, no money, no hope. nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go.

album #2 and not only is it another one i already know, it's an album that as a teenager i considered one of my favourites! i don't know that i really have much to say about it though... it's mostly just some some good as hell stadium rock from one of the best headline bands of the early-to-mid 00's, right before an inexplicable nosedive in quality from which they would never pull themselves back up. that being said: i don't think this should be on the 1001 Albums list over {ABSOLUTION}, and certainly not over their bizarre sci-fi magnum opus {ORIGIN OF SYMMETRY}.

shit must've been DIRE in the 60s for this to be as important as it is people talking about "the songs demonstrate the Beatles' increasing maturity as lyricists" and the lyrics in question are like "baby baby, call me on the phone / little girl please can't you throw this old dog a bone"