10 Perfect Rock Albums That Are Incredibly Sad

10. Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen

Most of Bruce Springsteen's best work is about how the American Dream is not as out of reach as you think it is. Even though you may have your back against the wall, it's always possible for you to drop everything you're doing and be able to follow your dreams with the one you love. That's all well and good when you don't have a penny to your name, but the Boss started to get a bit more jaded as the years went on.

Outside of his own reaction to Born to Run on Darkness on the Edge of Town, Nebraska is one of the most transparent Springsteen albums that you will ever hear, framing every song as a different narrative of people who are from the wrong side of the tracks. There are definitely some great songs like Reason to Believe that fit in with Bruce's image, but where would you find a song like Highway Patrolman on his earlier albums, which talks about a man who has to choose between arresting his brother and breaking their friendship or letting him lead a life of crime?

Across every single one of these songs, these characters seem much more lost than before, looking to find some reason to keep going and not really finding anything on the other side. The production is also much more abrasive than before, with just the Boss and his guitar telling you these slower tales. Born to Run may have been about hope, but Nebraska is where you go when the hope has started to run dry.