Bruce Springsteen: Ranking His Albums From Worst To Best

9. The Wild, The Innocent And The E. Street Shuffle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYjtuG9btDI Year Of Release: 1973 Key Tracks: Rosalita (Come Out Tonight), Incident On 57th Street, 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) Bruce's second studio album picked up where his first one left off: It was a great effort with some real standout songs, received good reviews but failed to make any sort of commercial impact. Bruce would have to wait a couple of years to have a true chart hit. The album is also, like Greetings, very wordy, but this time the compositions of the songs are tighter and Bruce displays a grander, more operatic vision with songs like the epic Rosalita and Incident on 57th Street. Rosalita is clearly the best track on the album, and was regularly used as a Bruce and E Street show-closer over the following decade. Part of the reason for the lack of commercial success may have been because Bruce released the album only nine months after the release of Greetings. It was a different album, more jazzy and less folksy, but it was a little too similar to be released so soon after. Contemporary reception has been kinder and tracks from the album are frequent requests at live shows. Springsteen's most overlooked album.