User Submitted Album

Harbor Lights

Bruce Hornsby

1993

2.68

Rating

111

Votes

Distribution

Rock Jazz

Album Summary

Harbor Lights was the fourth album by Bruce Hornsby and was released by RCA Records in 1993. It was the first album credited solely to Hornsby, without his previous backing band, the Range. The record showcased Hornsby in a more jazz-oriented setting and featured an all-star lineup, including Pat Metheny, Branford Marsalis, Jerry Garcia, Phil Collins and Bonnie Raitt. Unlike earlier albums, Harbor Lights allowed more space for Hornsby's and guest-players' "extended instrumental" solos to "flow naturally" out of the songs. The tone was set by the opening title track, which after 50 seconds of expansive solo piano lurches into an up-tempo jazz number, ending with Metheny's guitar runs. The album closes in a similar fashion with "Pastures of Plenty", this time with an extended guitar solo from Garcia intertwined with Hornsby's piano. Hornsby also quotes the main musical phrase from the Grateful Dead's "Dark Star" as the jazz head to his song about tensions surrounding a biracial relationship, "Talk of the Town". The mid-tempo "Fields of Gray", written for Hornsby's recently born twin sons, received some modest radio airplay, peaking at #69 on the Billboard Hot 100. Harbor Lights was well received by critics and fans, who praised it for its "cooler, jazzier sound" and its "affinity for sincere portraits of American life, love, and heartache." The album cover uses Edward Hopper's 1951 painting Rooms By the Sea.

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Reviews

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Sep 01 2025 Author

The title track has genius level piano playing in it (that intro!) and a guitar solo by Pat Metheny that is its own masterpiece. Bruce Hornsby is a genius level jazz pianist cleverly straddling the line between pop hooks and jazz harmony. Been a fan of his for years. Fantastic stuff.

Aug 26 2025 Author

Never heard of this before but it was surprisingly cool. A bit jazzy at times, but nothing obnoxious. Good soft rock album. 4/5.

Aug 30 2025 Author

A warm blanket of music. Enjoyed it more than expected

Aug 26 2025 Author

This is really cheesy soft rock from the 90s. It's just so... lame? Like it's just so bland and inoffensive and sounds like the credits over some generic 90s film. Compared with the jazz album yesterday this is childsplay. It really sounds like the default sounds you get on your casio. My personal rating: 2/5 My rating relative to the list: 2.5/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Aug 27 2025 Author

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Passing through, What a time

Sep 23 2025 Author

This is a very well-produced album from 1993 displaying the very best that 1984 had to offer.

Aug 28 2025 Author

The only remarkable part of this album is the cover by Edward Hopper. The music and performance on this jazzy pop rock album is harmless in every way. Quality elevator music I guess.

Aug 27 2025 Author

Maybe didn’t give this enough time, but just comes across as cheesy soft rock, not for me.

Sep 12 2025 Author

This was a nice album - sort of noodly long songs with that Hornsby piano. Guess Bruce does ok even without the range.

Sep 28 2025 Author

Stellar cast of guest appearances and great songwriting by Hornsby. He balances the jazz, rock, pop and world influences wonderfully, leaning heavier into the jazzier sides of things - hard to complain.

Sep 28 2025 Author

I have hated quite a bit on jazzy soft rock albums, put apparently what I needed was even more organ and synth. Delightful and catchy.

Oct 06 2025 Author

At times I thought that I was listening to Steely Dan but that’s no bad thing. Enjoyed it more than I expected to.

Aug 26 2025 Author

It's alright, but sort of bland. 3 stars.

Aug 26 2025 Author

This was a quite fun soft rock album but I didn’t get too much out of it. Catchy hooks but very dated production, even for the 90s when it came out. Kind of like Billy Joel with more of a groovy jazz/funk influence

Aug 28 2025 Author

Fine piano rock

Aug 28 2025 Author

This is the kind of music that when you were a kid in the 90s and your friend's parents listened to it you were like "ah so this is grownup music" Yuppy-ass nonsense

Aug 28 2025 Author

Absolute shoutout to the legend who found this album of the music they played at KMarts

Aug 29 2025 Author

Not bad

Aug 30 2025 Author

I thought this was all right - very well executed for what it is, though the smooth jazz thing isn't so much for me. But it made for perfectly enjoyable backing music for a morning of chores.

Aug 30 2025 Author

Rock, jazz, soft rock. Ni fu ni fa.

Aug 30 2025 Author

Love the Hopper-esque (or Hopper-excerpted) cover. Love the warmth and soft perceptibility of the music, but it’s so down the middle as to be a veritable snooze. Piano playing is fine throughout, lovely and grand, alternately. Vocals are sub-par. Reminds one of the early Sting records (which are on balance a notch better), “Fields of Gold” = “Pastures of Plenty,” basically. “Talk of the Town” sounds like the Charlie Rose soundtrack; much else like brief excerpts of Dead shows. Can’t speak to where this fits with Hornsby’s evolution as an artist, but it would seem less a major new territorial expansion than an incremental maturation.

Sep 02 2025 Author

Sting - 1/3/93 - Fields of Gold Bruce - 6/4/93 - Fields of Gray I know which one I’d rather listen to.

Sep 17 2025 Author

This is really tight musically, if a bit dated for 1993. Also, is it just me, or did Bruce Hornsby's voice age a heck of lot between '86 when he was with the Range to '93? Still, this was a perfectly pleasant listen and a nice break from some of these other user submitted albums. Thanks for recommending it. Fave Songs: Harbor Lights, Fields of Gray, Long Tall Cool One, China Doll

Nov 01 2025 Author

I'm immediately taken with the album art, reminds me of an album we had in the main list I think by Dire Straits.

Nov 04 2025 Author

Given that Genesis had formed, released 14 out of their 15 albums, and had damn near disbanded by the time Bruce released his debut album, I feel secure in my claim that this project is derivative. While I understand that Phil makes several appearances on this record, it’s still no excuse for him to copy his own style and pass it off so blatantly as someone else’s. I knew that the was album was going to have that gimmicky production just by looking at the cover. This thing didn’t need to be this long and just drags. I will give it that the instrumentation is superb. 3/5

Nov 12 2025 Author

Yacht rock, about 10 years late. Pleasant enough, but not entirely essential.

Nov 19 2025 Author

Hmmm, this didn't really land for me. Not chill enough for chilling out, not energetic enough for getting pumped up, not atmospheric enough for creating a mood. The vocals remind me a little of Sting and Bruce suffers in that comparison, I'm afraid. Still, it didn't actually grate (although "Talk of the Town" was a little cringe) - I certainly don't resent being introduced to it! Ni fu ni fa, to use a phrase I've picked up from these reviews. Fave track - "Pastures of Plenty", let's say.

Nov 19 2025 Author

First listen I was like -- middle of the road jazz pop -- but I did start to warm to a bit on the second listen -- comfortable music.

Nov 25 2025 Author

I enjoy the instrumentals especially when it gets into more jazzy sounds. The vocals don't really do it for me though and make it feel like cheaper soft rock.

Aug 27 2025 Author

Bruce has got to pick a lane. This starts off as more of an adult contemporary jazz album, which though there may be talented musicians involved, is a bit painful to wade through. It then spins more towards a mainstream audience, hiding the jazzy influences and ending up as pretty boring soft pop. Pass on this.

Aug 28 2025 Author

Discount store Genesis, tries so hard to invoke the progressive rock titans of its time that it loses any sense of individuality in the process. Silly lyricism and muzak-level instrumentals further hinder the LP, and it ends up going in one ear and out the other – listened to this in the morning and it was gone from memory by lunch.

Aug 30 2025 Author

I didn’t hate this but yet I didn’t really love it. Hornsby has some solid hits but this solo album doesn’t hit that same piano soft rock vibe. This felt like the jazzier rock of a divorced dad that was really trying to still feel cool. Which sucks because yacht rock, to me, is cool but this tries really hard and comes off a bit lame. Some of the songs are alright where the jazz instrumentals are left alone, but the lyricism like rainbow’s Cadillac for example just seems forced. Not every album is gonna be a piano jazz banger. That’s just the way it is. 5.3/10

Sep 01 2025 Author

Sorry. Not for me

Sep 22 2025 Author

Snoozefest

Sep 24 2025 Author

Soft rocking from out of time. its a little over produced in that way that a lot of the soft rock of the era.

Aug 31 2025 Author

This is like a throwback to the 80's only made in 1993. It's just insipid. There's nothing here to ignite any interest.

Sep 02 2025 Author

Just the epitome of the 90s: the CD-player production, the smooth jazz compositions, the cover, the utter vapidity of the whole damn thing, like every track is the theme song to some horrible unfunny sitcom, delivered without any cynicism or wit, just get your words out of my ears, Bruce.

Sep 05 2025 Author

Actually despise this 1

Oct 02 2025 Author

Soooooo bland

Oct 16 2025 Author

I’m unsure about this. I like Bruce Hornsby and the Range but I’m not sure about Bruce Hornsby and the smooth jazz. I think I’ll pass.

Nov 23 2025 Author

I never could understand why bands used Roland pianos in the studio if they were using the standard piano sound. It sounded like shit then. It sounds like shit now. Using a real piano in the studio is an absolute no brainer. I just don't get it.