Bruce Springsteen is opening his vault — and unleashing seven “lost” LPs.
On June 27, Springsteen will release “Tracks II: The Lost Albums,” a collection of 83 songs on seven CDs (or nine vinyl LPs), of which 74 have never been officially released in any form, according to an announcement from the star on Thursday.
Fans have long known that Springsteen has withheld many songs throughout his career. Over the years the singer-songwriter has made stray comments about shelved or unfinished recordings, sometimes seeming to itch to get them completed and released.
But even many Bruceologists may be surprised at the scale of “Tracks II,” which is organized as seven discrete projects from 1983 to 2018, each with its own production and stylistic approach. Among them are working tapes from Springsteen’s fruitful pre-“Born in the U.S.A.” period and a hip-hop-influenced album from the early 1990s.
“‘The Lost Albums’ were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released,” Springsteen, 75, said in a statement.
“LA Garage Sessions ’83” has 18 songs from the period when Springsteen was developing “Born in the U.S.A.,” his monster 1984 hit, a moment of transition from the raw solo demos that were released as “Nebraska” (1982). Many of those titles, like “Fugitive’s Dream” and “Don’t Back Down on Our Love,” have long circulated among fans as bootlegs, but are getting their first official release on “Tracks II.”
“Streets of Philadelphia Sessions” peels back the curtain on another phase of Springsteen’s career. After using synthesizers and a drum machine to record “Streets of Philadelphia,” a solo song for Jonathan Demme’s 1993 film “Philadelphia” — which went on to win best original song at the Academy Awards — Springsteen continued to experiment with the format, and word filtered out about a dark LP with a “hip-hop edge.” But even after fully preparing it for release, Springsteen opted to hold the album back.
In “Born to Run,” his 2016 memoir, Springsteen said he decided that the lyrics on the album, about troubled relationships, were not fully realized, and that he had grown concerned about “a faint disconnect with my audience” from previous albums, like “Tunnel of Love,” from 1987, that had explored similar themes. “I had to come to terms with the fact that after my year of work, writing, recording, mixing,” he added, “it was going on the shelf. That’s where she sits.”
Now that 10-track LP is finally coming out.
The other album collections in “Tracks II” include “Faithless,” from a film project that was never made; the country-inflected “Somewhere North of Nashville”; “Inyo,” with songs like “Ciudad Juarez” and “The Aztec Dance” that hint at Mexican culture and America’s southern border; and “Twilight Hours,” a rare example of orchestrated, traditional-pop Springsteen. He describes the last album, “Perfect World,” as “the one thing on this that wasn’t initially conceived as an album,” but rather “something I put together.”
The first “Tracks” collection, in 1998, was chocked with more B-sides, outtakes and recordings, among them Springsteen’s stark solo original demo of the song “Born in the U.S.A.”
