10 Amazing Follow Ups To Classic Albums
6. Darkness on the Edge of Town - Bruce Springsteen
From the looks of him at the time, it felt like Born to Run had sucked the lifeforce out of Bruce Springsteen. For as hard as he was working to achieve perfection for his down and out anthem, he did pay the price for it by pushing the E Street Band to their absolute brink to get the takes. When you eventually do achieve perfection though, you can't help but feel burnout on Darkness on the Edge of Town.
In keeping with the Springsteen tradition, it's not like the subjects of these songs are all that dissimilar than the ones on Born...just more refined and darker than what you might expect. Hell, even the cover hints that this is going to be a more morbid experience, considering Springsteen's vacant facial expression offsetting the seedy things that go down on songs like Racing in the Street and Prove It All Night.
If anything, the title track is enough to clue you in to the kind of album you're getting into, as these characters are from the right side of the tracks and lost the hope of finding their way back a long time ago. You may find your way out of your messed up town, but it did tends to come at a heavy price.