Search - Bruce Springsteen :: Darkness on the Edge of Town (Mlps)

Cool LP Sleeve Design, Not So Great Sound!,

Frederick Baptist | Singapore | 03/26/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of Bruce's better albums and the tracks still sound as good as they've always done but now we get them in a cool lp sleeve format. This version has all the lyrics printed on a mini flyer insert albeit you'll need a good magnifying glass to read them but it's still a nice touch. No need to despair though as both the Japanese and English lyrics are also reproduced on an insert.



Why just 4 stars then? Well, the recording isn't remastered and so the sound is about the same quality as the cheaper U.S. press that you can get you hands on elsewhere.



As far as unremastered discs go, this is probably quite decent if you don't mind the muddy sound but seeing as how practically everybody and their grannies have had their classic albums remastered and cleaned up, I wonder what's keeping Bruce's people from doing the same.



So unless you are a very big fan of lp sleeves like I am, you may not want to spend the extra bucks on this.



Don't get me wrong, the album is still great with regards the tracks but I guess if you already have this, what's it going to take to make you wanna get another version of the same thing? I'm guessing it's either vastly improved sound quality and/or improved packaging. This disc only fulfils one of these two criteria so you decide what you wanna do.



By the way, it's the same with the other titles in this format like "Born To Run." and "Born in the U.S.A." etc. just so you know. As I don't already have copies of these discs, I didn't mind too much but I don't know about you."

Awesome

Pieter | Johannesburg | 07/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although Darkness On The Edge Of Town is a dark album, it is not uniformly gloomy since its despairing moments are often spectacularly swept away by powerful blasts of defiance bursting forth in songs like The Promised Land or Badlands ("We'll keep pushin' till it's understood/and these badlands start treating us good").



There is an awesome grandeur in the tone and the sound, driven as it is by majestic guitars, thunderous drums, sweeping sax and wailing harmonica. The myth of the highway and the freedom it offers, following on from Born To Run, is most dramatically explored in songs like Racing In The Streets and Streets Of Fire.



The redemptive power of love surfaces on the beautiful Prove It All Night, whilst the title track is melancholy and erotic at the same time, a brooding ballad of evocative imagery. This is classic Springsteen, a very cohesive album that brilliantly displays his mastery of both the fast-paced rock song and the introspective ballad. Powerful music."