The River - Springsteen, Bruce (CD 1987)

First things first: i'm writing this review knowing, full well, that The River is probably the last Bruce Springsteen solo album you would ever consider buying, assuming, of course, that you don't have The River and that I'm trying to sell you on it. First of all, it's not one of Bruce's real "hit" albums, at least not in the sense that Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A. are-- it *did* provide Bruce with his first number-one hit in "Hungry Heart," but the rest of the album isn't quite as legendary, nor the songs quite as ubiquitous. The River is big, and The River is awesome, but The River is.

When I first heard selections from Springsteen s epic release The River, the music scene was littered with wanna be rockers, washed up icons and a few up and coming stars. Much like Springsteen s faded jeans, flannel shirts and facial gruff - some things never change. The face of music today is blistered with boy bands , pop princesses and the ambiguous fence hoppers that can t seem to pick a sex and stick with it. Some ripped into The Boss for the tracks on The River, that they were too depressing, too close to home or too boring. Well, I hate to inform the charmed few that have a perfect...

Even though he had been simultaneously featured on the two infamous covers of Time and Newsweek five years previously and had been seeing steadily increasing record sales, in 1980 Bruce Springsteen was still waiting to become a household name. But with The River, his two-record release of that year, Springsteen would come a few steps closer to the superstardom that he would finally attain with the 1984 release of Born in the USA. A near-great album in its own right, The River sees Bruce continuing to explore the themes that so obsessed him on his earlier albums: cars, hard work, partying, and.

I think Bruce is cool. (me: just bought this CD, talking to a friend) That s what Bruce does. He s being cool. (my friend: one year older than I 23) Is it just me or do you also feel that Bruce and his band shouldn t have parted ways after Born in the USA tour? Rock and roll sure seems to have missed a lot over the 20 years between their 1983 smash and 2001 s comeback wonder The Rising. Oh but whatever, besides, if there s anything the Boss seems to have taught us with his music it must be that nothing stays the same. Born to run, he probably felt like leaving in search of something new again.