Springsteen's latest - Western Stars - can probably go in here. Just finished my first listen. I love the man, but haven't loved any of his studio albums since his 80s output (Tom Joad is the nearest miss since). It won't join the elite, but it'd be in with a shout for winning a best of the rest competition.
I absolutely rinsed a guy in school for letting slip that he was off to see the boss with his mum, I pulled at the thread for weeks. I wish I could Quantum Leap into his timeline and give my younger self a well-deserved fat lip.
5 track Brucey bonus Bossman sampler coming right up.
First, his two absolutely perfect tracks:
This fucking version, omd:
One more slow mover before I promise to speed things up:
Into second gear, still accelerating:
...and my favourite from Born in the USA:
My God the cuttting room floor for this mix is immense. Love the harmonica on The River.
Nebraska is his best album by a considerable distance for me (top 10 evar). It's basically a collection of demos originally intended to be fleshed out with the E-STreet band, then released unvarnished and faultless.
I love how I can request anything in this thread on a Friday night and know the booze is flowing and the links are guaranteed. Thanks chief, just waiting for the house to empty then I'm blasting those.
On it now. Love listening to him talk about songwriting because he doesn't tend to over-egg the modesty, which is something a lot of good southern writers tend to do. He knows he's a good lyricist and he knows how to discuss his own skill without sounding like a dickhead.
Reckon you'd like Tyler Childers, may have recommended before but he's got a new album due soon (and the first is legit). Both produced by Sturgill innit:
So I binged all of Springsteen's studio albums after posting some stuff further on up the page, and I'm glad I did as The Ghost of Tom Joad has forced itself into my Boss top 5. I even bought the album again as I couldn't find it to FLAC it. I'd always liked it, but considered it a sort of budget Nebraska. Which in a way it is, but it's not as far behind as I'd thought. The title track has always been one of his best, but I've really latched onto a couple of others this week, Youngstown in particular. Wrong thread for BS really, but the chat was here so here's where the extra two videos go:
...How the fuck did I dismiss that one as 'pretty good'? SMH.
Possibly my favourite of his, partly thanks to the top tier opening lines:
Studio version is more Cougar-ish, which I've got time for too ofc, but I do like a good solo performance. See also - this one by Ashley McBryde. The album version is sheer powerpop countryrock, but an acoustic performance brings the lyrics out. She chucks a Mellencamp reference in for good measure too: