Bruce Springsteen confirms long-awaited Tracks II: The Lost Albums will release this year

Bruce Springsteen has confirmed that the long-awaited follow-up to Tracks will be released later this year.

A post to Springsteen‘s social media accounts on April 1 tipped fans off about the possible release of Tracks II: The Lost Tapes. Some may have believed it to be an April Fool’s joke from The Boss, but an update released earlier today (April 2), has confirmed it is the real deal. Tracks II: The Lost Albums will showcase unreleased pieces from Springsteen and The E-Street Band’s career. The announcement also featured the date, April 3, but it is not known at this time whether this is the release date for Tracks II: The Lost Tapes or when further information on the set will be shared.

The first volume, Tracks, released in 1998 and contained sixty-six songs, many of which were never-before-released songs, as well as alternate versions, B-sides, and demos. A video accompanying the announcement has hinted at the periods which may feature on Tracks II: The Lost Albums. Paperwork included in the video suggests Streets of Philadelphia, the song which won The Boss an Academy Award, could be part of the box set. A scrap of paper which reads “1997” can also be seen.

The first volume of Tracks spanned 1972 to 1995, leaving some to believe the second installment may focus on songs recorded after this period. Others are holding out hope for the long-desired Electric Nebraska, an album Springsteen had recorded with the full band but abandoned in favour of an acoustic sound.

A post to the r/BruceSpringsteen subreddit had fans hoping for a Nebraska inclusion on Tracks II: The Lost Albums. One user wrote: “1983-2018, so explicitly no Electric Nebraska? Perhaps they’re saving that to coincide with the film release?”

Another user added: “We have to have hope.” A third added: “I think Electric Nebraska is a big enough thing that if they release it, it will likely be its own thing as opposed to part of a box set.”

A biopic detailing the making of Nebraska is set to release later this year, with Jeremy Allen White portraying Springsteen. Stephen Graham is set to feature too, as Springsteen’s father, Douglas Frederick Springsteen.

Tracks II: The Lost Albums has been teased by Springsteen for years. In 2017, The Boss told Variety: “We’ve made many more records than we released. Why didn’t we release those records? I didn’t think they were essential. I might have thought they were good, I might have had fun making them, and we’ve released plenty of that music [on archival collections over the years].

“But over my entire work life, I felt like I released what was essential at a certain moment, and what I got in return was a very sharp definition of who I was, what I want to do, what I was singing about. And I still basically judge what I’m doing by the same set of rules.”