Darkness On the Edge of Town (Remastered)

iTunes Review

All of 28 when Darkness on the Edge of Town was released, Bruce Springsteen was ready to pull back on the dreamscape of his previous three albums. Its more clearly recorded sound reflected a tough clarity of vision on the American Dream - for each flinty vow to reach the "Promised Land," each lustful eyeing of "Candy's Room," there were wiped-out factoryworkers and car rides that didn't quite end the way"Born to Run" had promised. The verbal action of the earlier songs was also cut back; Springsteen offered plenty of memorable lines ("It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive"), but gone were the Berry- and Dylan-dense lyrics. They apparently didn't seem appropriate to what their creator had learned while seeing his career sidetracked in a legal battle with former management, not to mention the close reading he'd given The Grapes of Wrath. He wasn't denying fun and romance, but he'd obviously found an answer to the question "Is thatall there is?"