10 Classic Rock Albums That Got Better Over Time
3. Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen
90% of the appeal that comes from Bruce Springsteen is the power that he squeezes out of the E Street Band. As much charisma as this one Jersey boy has in his body, having someone like Clarence Clemons and Stevie Van Zandt by his side is what played into the myth of this storyteller of heartland rock. So when you strip him of every bit of his onstage confidence, how does he hold up when he's left with just an acoustic guitar?
Coming off of the massive sounds of something like Darkness on the Edge of Town, Nebraska almost feels hollow by comparison, being just a set of demos that Bruce decided to release in their raw form instead of taking them into the studio. While you can definitely tell that something's missing on these songs, they're the kind of stories that benefit from having only one man singing them.
Even though the Boss was getting tagged as the next version of Bob Dylan, he sounds like his own man painting these tales of sorrow, whether it's a man not getting closure from his past sins on My Father's House or a cop having to come to terms with losing his relationship with his brother on Highway Patrolman. Whereas the other albums got us used to what Springsteen was like as an electric frontman, this is the first moment where we got a glimpse at Bruce as a person.