Bruce Springsteen: Ranking His Albums From Worst To Best

14. Lucky Town

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEmF1RvzQlU Year Of Release: 1992 Key Tracks: Better Days, Living Proof, Local Hero Lucky Town is a good album that was given a surprisingly poor reception. Released alongside Human Touch, it was essentially guilty by association. Fans and critics lumped the two together, which was unfortunate, as Lucky Town is a much superior album and very good in its own way. Again, the E Street Band were absent, but it's not as glaringly obvious as it was on Human Touch. Fans were also dismayed that Bruce had the gall to, wait for it, write mostly happy songs for the album. Bruce had spent years writing and singing about the hardships of living in small town America, tragic breakups and the effects of war and politics and few could fathom why he was suddenly belting out anthems about the birth of his son (Living Proof) and having Better Days. What right do Bruce have to be happy, huh? It's not a perfect album, but it's a vast improvement on Human Touch and deserves to be listened to with fresh ears. The songwriting is great, the riffs catchy and the mood light. Bruce rarely performs songs from the album during the live shows, which is a shame. Come on, Bruce, give us that live version of Better Days, please!