Bruce Springsteen: Ranking His Albums From Worst To Best

2. Darkness On The Edge Of Town

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mNl16Ujj3M Year Of Release: 1978 Key Tracks: Badlands, The Promised Land, Prove It All Night Springsteen had to wait three years to release another album after Born to Run due to contractual obligations and a legal battle with his former manager, Mike Appel. That's a long time to wait for a man who had released his first two (Appel-produced) albums within nine months of each other in 1973. Was it worth the wait? Of course it was. It would be difficult to follow up an album like Born to Run but Bruce and the E Street Band did an excellent job with it. It's a tighter, more focused album than Born to Run, with Steven Van Zandt helping immeasurably in the production process. Thematically, Darkness focuses on blue collar Americans who live in small towns and hope and pray that they make it in spite of life's many pitfalls. It is a recurring, well-worn theme, but one that bears revisiting. Nobody can write about the plight of the working class quite like Bruce. One of the best things about the album is the frequent change in tone. It's awe-inspiring the way Springsteen follows up the full-blooded Badlands and Adam Raised a Cain with Something in the Night and the way in which a song like Candy's Room starts off so gently before exploding in a crescendo of wailing guitars and strained vocals.