Latest news with #TracksII:TheLostAlbums
France 24
a day ago
- Entertainment
- France 24
Springsteen digs into the vault to rewrite his 'lost' '90s
It turns out "The Boss" never bought into that narrative, and now he's aiming to overturn it with a new collection of unreleased material, "Tracks II: The Lost Albums," released on Friday. "I often read about myself in the '90s as having some lost period," the 75-year-old rocker said in a 17-minute documentary released last week. "Actually, Patti and I were parenting very young children at the time, so that affected some of your workout," he conceded, referencing his wife and E Street Band member, Patti Scialfa. "But really, I was working the whole time." During the Covid pandemic, Springsteen returned to his archives and "finished everything I had in my vault." The result is a sprawling box set compilation of 83 songs organized thematically into seven albums, spanning his output from 1983 to 2018. But the greatest spotlight falls on the 1990s -- a decade long seen as a wilderness period for the New Jersey native, who was said to be struggling to find a solo identity during his hiatus from the E Street Band. Springsteen first burst onto the national scene in the '70s as a would-be heir to Bob Dylan, hit new commercial heights in the '80s with "Born in the USA," and delivered what many view as the definitive artistic response to the 9/11 attacks with "The Rising." One album in the box set revisits the "Streets of Philadelphia Sessions," evoking the namesake hit with a moody blend of synthesizers and pulsing drumbeats as he explores dark emotional terrain. "I'd made three albums about relationships, I had a fourth one," Springsteen said. "It was particularly dark, and I just didn't know if my audience was going to be able to hear it at that moment." Another record, "Somewhere North of Nashville," is a rollicking, country-rooted romp. A third, "Inyo," recorded in the late '90s along California's borderlands, is an ode to Mexican-American culture. Springsteen is far from the first major artist to unearth new material from songs that were originally shelved, following a tradition established by Dylan's "Bootleg Series" in 1991. "Tracks II," as the name suggests, is a sequel to 1998's "Tracks" -- and "Tracks III" is set to follow. Over the years, critics have often argued there's a reason some tracks remain unreleased -- with "new" Beatles songs based on the late John Lennon's homemade demos often cited as proof that not every vault needs to be reopened. So far, however, "Tracks II" has been received favorably by many reviewers. "For any fan, it's a revelation to hear the secret mischief that Bruce Springsteen was making in the shadows, during his most low-profile era -- the music he made for himself, after years of making music for the world," wrote Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone. © 2025 AFP
New Straits Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New Straits Times
#Showbiz: Springsteen digs into the vault to rewrite his 'lost' '90s
WASHINGTON: Conventional wisdom among Bruce Springsteen fans holds that the 1990s were his "lost" decade – a period where he struggled to chart a new course after parting ways with his longtime collaborators, the E Street Band. It turns out "The Boss" never bought into that narrative, and now he's aiming to overturn it with a new collection of unreleased material, Tracks II: The Lost Albums, released on Friday. "I often read about myself in the '90s as having some lost period," the 75-year-old rocker said in a 17-minute documentary released last week. "Actually, Patti and I were parenting very young children at the time, so that affected some of your workout," he conceded, referencing his wife and E Street Band member, Patti Scialfa. "But really, I was working the whole time." During the Covid pandemic, Springsteen returned to his archives and "finished everything I had in my vault." The result is a sprawling box set compilation of 83 songs organised thematically into seven albums, spanning his output from 1983 to 2018. But the greatest spotlight falls on the 1990s – a decade long seen as a wilderness period for the New Jersey native, who was said to be struggling to find a solo identity during his hiatus from the E Street Band. Springsteen first burst onto the national scene in the '70s as a would-be heir to Bob Dylan, hit new commercial heights in the '80s with Born in the USA, and delivered what many view as the definitive artistic response to the 9/11 attacks with The Rising. One album in the box set revisits the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions, evoking the namesake hit with a moody blend of synthesisers and pulsing drumbeats as he explores dark emotional terrain. "I'd made three albums about relationships, I had a fourth one," Springsteen said. "It was particularly dark, and I just didn't know if my audience was going to be able to hear it at that moment." Another record, Somewhere North of Nashville, is a rollicking, country-rooted romp. A third, Inyo, recorded in the late '90s along California's borderlands, is an ode to Mexican-American culture. Springsteen is far from the first major artist to unearth new material from songs that were originally shelved, following a tradition established by Dylan's Bootleg Series in 1991. Tracks II, as the name suggests, is a sequel to 1998's Tracks – and Tracks III is set to follow. Over the years, critics have often argued there's a reason some tracks remain unreleased – with "new" Beatles songs based on the late John Lennon's homemade demos often cited as proof that not every vault needs to be reopened. So far, however, Tracks II has been received favourably by many reviewers. "For any fan, it's a revelation to hear the secret mischief that Bruce Springsteen was making in the shadows, during his most low-profile era – the music he made for himself, after years of making music for the world," wrote Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone.
Toronto Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
On Springsteen's ‘Tracks II,' a trove of worthy castoffs
Published Jun 27, 2025 • 6 minute read Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform on, Nov. 19, 2024 in Edmonton. Photo by Greg Southam / Postmedia Network Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account A long time ago, in a century far, far away, Bruce Springsteen released two discrete albums of new music at the same time. 'Human Touch' was the one he had sweated over and second-guessed across three calendar years, 'Lucky Town' the one he had knocked out in a couple of months thereafter. These were the first records he had released since informing the E Street Band in 1989 that their services were no longer required. Springsteen's new box set, 'Tracks II: The Lost Albums,' marks the simultaneous unveiling of not two or three but seven complete records made between 1983 and 2018. That's the swath of temporal real estate in which the Boss became an MTV star; suffered a crisis of confidence and reemerged as a sombre, goateed balladeer; then – in the wake of 9/11 and the reassembly and expansion of the E Street Band – matured into a beloved elder statesman and international goodwill ambassador. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. These long-shelved records transcend eras, genres and sartorial regrets. They also reveal that what looked like distinct, easily sorted phases in the latter half of Springsteen's 60-year career were in fact illusions based on whichever creative identity the Once and Future Boss felt like foregrounding at the time. An example: When he recorded 1995's downbeat set of border tales 'The Ghost of Tom Joad,' and then set out on a long tour in support of that powerful but almost willfully uncommercial album, the knee-sliding, amp-blowing Boss of lore didn't go into a coma. We now know this because 'Somewhere North of Nashville,' one of the previously unknown albums included in this treasure trove, was recorded concurrently featuring the same players. And it's a barn-burner, more country-fried and twangy than his albums with the E Street Band, but still the kind of boisterous, upbeat music that the rowdy fans who couldn't abide his nightly requests for quiet on the folkie, solo acoustic 'Joad' tour might've welcomed. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'The L.A. Garage Sessions '83' is the outlier. Its 18 tracks are a decade older than any of the other music here. Die-hards will probably know them – from their infrequent live performances, from 'Born in the U.S.A.'-era B-sides (later compiled on the first 'Tracks' set) or from long-circulating bootlegs. They capture a self-described 'gun shy of fame' Springsteen continuing to experiment with home recording on the opposite coast after 'Nebraska,' a record for which he famously chose to release his four-track solo cassette demos instead of the subsequent full-band studio takes, which he found lacking in magic. Empowered, as longtime Springsteen historian Erik Flannigan explains in his liner notes, by the discovery that he could explore new paths without dragging his band into a studio for two years, Springsteen continued working in that vein. While bits of lyrics from these often ghostly, reverb-heavy tracks found their way onto more familiar releases later, only 'My Hometown,' included here in a version on which Springsteen sounds more hoarse than usual, made it onto 'Born in the U.S.A.' the next year. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It's puzzling that Springsteen has opted at last to share these era-bridging recordings this way, instead of on a past-due 40th-anniversary edition of 'U.S.A.' A jumbo-size reissue of the Boss's best-selling album – the one that turned him, for better and worse, into a mainstream celebrity – would've felt like a given after the tricked-out deluxe versions of 'Born to Run,' 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' and 'The River' he put out circa 2005-2015. Anyway, after the '83 stuff, we still have more than four hours of music that even former Backstreets magazine subscribers (RIP, Backstreets) have never heard in any form. Want wintry mid-Atlantic depressive Bruce? I give you 'The Streets of Philadelphia Sessions,' an introspective set recorded in the same percussion-loop-based style that begot his Oscar-winning song for Jonathan Demme's film 'Philadelphia.' Fans for whom decades of rumours about a shelved Springsteen hip-hop record conjured images of, say, Warren Beatty rapping in the bizarro 1998 satire 'Bulworth' can relax. You prefer redemption-seeking searcher Bruce? 'Faithless,' compiling songs and instrumentals he was commissioned to compose 20 years ago for an unnamed 'spiritual Western,' is meditative and haunting, tender and rapturous. The film this music was written for remains unmade, but the movie it inspires in the listener's mind could've been directed by Jane Campion or John Ford. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. How about mariachi Bruce? (I'm sorry, it sounded like you said mariachi Bruce.) He's here, too, on 'Inyo,' which returns to the Texas and California border settings of 'Tom Joad' but accompanies its tales of striving migrants, conflicted cops and vanished loves with brighter and more varied instrumentation. It revives Springsteen's penchant for stealing movie titles with 'One False Move,' inspired by Carl Franklin's superb 1992 Bill Paxton-starring southern noir. No skips. A more surprising success than mariachi Bruce is easy-listening Bruce. 'Twilight Hours,' his experiment in Bacharach/David-style balladry, is at least as good a showcase for his age-70-plus singing as 'Only the Strong Survive,' the weirdly sterile 2022 set of soul and R & B covers that set out to emphasize his September-of-my-years vocals. Hey, Sinatra was from New Jersey, too. Like 'Somewhere North of Nashville,' 'Twilight Hours' was recorded in tandem with a more familiar album, the equally confident 'Western Stars.' Evidently Springsteen thought the cowboy hat fit him better than the fedora. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. None of this material is embarrassing, and much of it is inspired. At 83 tracks and 5⅓ hours, 'Tracks II' is an investment, a commitment and an odyssey. It's 20-track sampler version, 'Lost and Found,' seems pointless in the streaming era. This new menagerie is a gift not least because of what it says about Springsteen's obsessive self-curation. 'I've always released my records with great care,' he writes in the set's introduction, 'making sure my narratives built upon one another.' Finishing these up for release was a pandemic project for the workaholic Springsteen. But he's been operating in legacy mode for more than a decade now, uncorking a still-flowing river of archival live releases, the memoir 'Born to Run,' its stage adaptation 'Springsteen on Broadway,' several documentaries, a podcast with President Barack Obama (!) and, most frightening of all, the upcoming feature film 'Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,' starring Jeremy Allen White as 'Nebraska'-era Bruuuuuuuce. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. While the first 'Tracks,' released a generation ago in 1998, included material from before Springsteen assembled the E Street Band and from after he dismissed it, the collection was still a band-forward affair. Nearly every member of the present-day E Street Band plays on 'Tracks II' in some capacity, but they don't feel present as a collective. Five of these seven albums are conspicuously LP-sized, as in 40 minutes long or less. 'Garage Sessions' and 'Twilight Hours' are each spread over four sides of wax – if you're willing to part with Something North of Three Hundred Dollars to hear them in that format. 'The joy of these records to me now are their imperfections,' Springsteen reflects in his introduction. Certainly I can think of a dozen songs from his 'regular' albums I would rate below anything in these lost ones – and not just most of 'Human Touch.' These albums may have been imperfect for their times, but for these times, they're close enough to perfect. Read More Love concerts, but can't make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances. Toronto Raptors News Music Toronto Raptors Canada
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Listen: Bruce Springsteen releases 'Tracks II' album of 83 never-heard songs
June 27 (UPI) -- Bruce Springsteen is back with new music. The "Born to Run" singer, 75, released Tracks II: The Lost Albums Friday, which includes 83 never-heard songs from seven previously-unreleased albums. "The Lost Albums were full records -- some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released. I've played this music to myself and often close friends for years now," he said in a statement."I'm glad you'll get a chance to finally hear them. I hope you enjoy them." Springsteen last released the 15-track album Only the Strong Survive in 2022. The first Tracks album contained 69 songs and arrived in 1998. "Just building my mansion in the evening sun, glory hallelujah," he sings in "Where You Going, Where You From" on his latest album. "I've got scotch in a whiskey bottle, I've got a round in my Hawken gun. I've got a smile that ain't a smile, black powder on my thumb." A post announcing the new release was met with positive support from fans, who commented about their excitement. "I cannot be more grateful for these new albums," one commenter said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) Springsteen is the subject of the upcoming biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, starring The Bear actor Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen.
Irish Daily Star
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Star
That's So Raven star pregnant and determinedly says child 'will be a feminist'
Anneliese van der Pol is pregnant with her first child with husband Johnno Wilson . The That's So Raven actress is expecting her first child with her actor husband, who played her ex-husband on Disney sitcom sequel Raven's Home. A rep for the 40-year-old couple confirmed the news to PEOPLE . They also confirmed that the Anneliese and Johnno will be having a baby girl who is to arrive later in October. "We're having a girl! I have two sisters and I could not be happier to bring another girl into the sisterhood," Anneliese told the outlet, while disclosing they found out the gender when Johnno hit a golf ball that erupted into pink powder. "I didn't realize how much I wanted a girl until he swung and it went pink." Read More Related Articles Orlando Bloom seen leaving his hotel as he heads to Jeff Bezos' wedding alone Read More Related Articles Bruce Springsteen's most political songs as he releases Tracks II: The Lost Albums "Of course, you just want a healthy child, and a boy would've been exciting too, but there's something about a girl in this time that I'm just so proud of," she continued. "I don't want her to be a performer or care if she's a she WILL be a feminist." The couple is pregnant with their first child (Image: anneliesevanderpol/Instagram) We'll be bringing you the very latest updates, pictures and video on this breaking news story. Please check back regularly for updates on this developing story HERE. Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion, and video on the stories that matter to you by following Irish Star every time you see our name.
