Bruce Springsteen – Blind Spot Review

Some chatter about a hip-hop adjacent beat from Bruce Springsteen spread like wildfire after Blind Spot released. A song promoting Tracks II: The Lost Albums, Blind Spot highlights one of the many reasons The Boss may have used as a way of cancelling material. All the greats have archival tapes. To fish out the best of them, to master them the way Springsteen has, preparing them to be put out there, is bold. Streets of Philadelphia sounds as though Springsteen was close, if not ready, to commit to the popular tone of the times. He shied away from it for whatever reason. Some big-name musicians who found their footing in the 1960s and 1970s, be it Bob Dylan or Neil Young, lost their way for a little while as they chased the chart-topping sounds. Springsteen, who chose not to release Blind Spot at the time of recording, sounds as though he was onto something appropriate for the times.  

Blind Spot has a beat of the times and hearing it thirty years on from when it should have released changes relatively little. It remains a solid, if repetitive, underscore for an abandoned Springsteen track. A neat message and some guitar work which proves to be softer than first expected. The Boss sounds as though he wants to move away from his reliance on the rock liberation sound he had become so closely tied to, something he would sever almost entirely during the 2000s with folk-adjacent offerings. If not folk, then stripped-back adaptations to the world around him, commentaries with a flair of acoustic charm. A little simpler of a note from Springsteen, whose heart does not sound as though it is fully committed to this one. Hence why it was on the scrap heap. Still there is an interesting line through it, that much is clear on Blind Spot.  

Springsteen sounds as though his adaptation to the tone of the times was an easier transition. The face of heartland rock wound up with a potentially strong single for whatever album Streets of Philadelphia would have provided listeners in the 1980s, when Empire Burlesque from Dylan and Tug of War from Paul McCartney were stinking up the charts. Springsteen sounds not as moved by the times, certainly chasing them on Blind Spot, but at least keeping his earnest form, the definitive route through to the heart with the purpose of reflection, by suggesting everyone has something they are blind to. Unable to fix for themselves. We do have blind spots, and those are mused on well by Springsteen.

Where the instrumental additions and beat may feel a tad dated, they do highlight a time of popular sound. Springsteen sounds moved by the moments we cannot conceive without being told of them. He is affected by the moments he cannot prepare for, told of, and is now reacting to. A neat progression for the song with some solid writing. That is the key point to keep coming back to. Heartfelt, sure, but it feels a bit off the mark for Springsteen, who cannot evolve the popular tones of the times all that much. He feels the rough fall from grace because of those blind spots, specific enough to feel genuine, broad enough to include a listener’s own spots which need improvement. Hearing Springsteen stripped down to the barebones like this proves to be a solid listen.