Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town Review

Everything which makes a homeland emotionally transfixing can be heard in Darkness on the Edge of Town. What a stark difference it is to Born in the U.S.A. just six years later, but what a lot changed in that time. Bruce Springsteen has so often found influence in the every day, in the streets he would traipse even as an icon of stage and studio. Darkness on the Edge of Town is an incredible moment for The Boss because it follows on from one of his two most identifiable pieces of work, Born to Run. This would not be the first nor last time Springsteen fielded those folk influences with flourishing writings tied to America’s finest wordsmiths. Darkness on the Edge of Town is one in a thankfully plentiful line of evocative and proud songs from Springsteen.  

Melodramatic tales and the spoils of the everyday form the very best of Springsteen. Darkness on the Edge of Town is filled with those volatile yet personably common moments. Opener Badlands is a belief in the love of another but the rejection of it and the suspect feature of it. Edgier tones are soon taken after an opener which feels for the previous joys of a much-beloved album. Springsteen does not fear the punchy tone of piano-led blues and Adam Raised a Cain, its religious intertextuality and the soggy emotional crawl of being stood in the rain have a rugged brilliance to them. This is the sort of sophistication in the face of rage and a one-year ban from the studio only the greats can bounce back from. Springsteen fighting his way out of a bad record deal and subsequently finding the urgency and venom necessary to reflect on that deal, and the year lost to legal hang-ups, is all laid bare with Darkness on the Edge of Town.  

Justifying that tone taken and writing it up with the same punchy style as fans were getting to grips with in stadiums and with copies of Born to Run was no small feat. Springsteen wallops it out of the park here, though, with spectacular arrangements for the likes of Something in the Night, that groaning, fiery build-up with the steady introduction of percussion, is a stunning experience. Forget Born to Run, this here is some of the strongest material Springsteen had ever written, and will ever write. Something as subtle as Candy’s Room or as daring as Racing in the Street is all the more reason to fall back into those grooves once more, however many times it takes, as a way of getting to the core of freedom in the face of rebuttal from whoever or whatever stands in your way. What keeps Darkness on the Edge of Town so powerful, still maintained as a fulfilling and liberating piece of work, is the note taken of blossoming genre work across the world.  

Springsteen is not one to flinch in the face of a new momentum or style. Those who hear flickers of Elvis Costello in the tempo or The Clash in the punchy instrumental confidence are not mishearing the likes of Badlands or Streets of Fire. Genuine chills from Darkness on the Edge of Town should be no surprise. This is Springsteen with the gloves off. He has gained an edge which only comes from burning resentment and the punch of punk music from across the waters. Those influences wash over him and provide not only some of his best material but also one of his finest studio moments. Shockwave after shockwave makes Darkness on the Edge of Town not just an extraordinarily solid listen but one which documents a period in Springsteen’s creative process where he is more than challenged. He is run through like a deer on the tracks, but if Prove It All Night and the closing, titular track are anything to go by, it does not stop Springsteen.