18 Tracks

Human Touch	Tracks Next time you find yourself debating the worth of Bruce Springsteen, pull out this brilliant four-disc outtake set. With a flick of his grease-monkey wrist, Springsteen proves--simply by issuing long-unreleased material--why he's the most consistent (read: important) composer in ...	Chimes of Freedom Available again. Remastered from the original Canadian CD. This is a longer version than the first U.S. master and features the songs in their complete unedited form. Tracks 'TougherThan The Rest' (live), 'Be True' (live), 'Chimes Of Freedom' (live) and 'Born To Run' (live-acous...	Lucky Town	Tunnel of Love After several years at the top of the rock world, Springsteen pulled back the reins on Tunnel of Love--a lot, not just a little. Members of the E Street Band played on the album but seldom in full-band arrangements. Then, too, there are the deeply conflicted songs--"Brilliant Dis...
The River Despite the acclaim accorded Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town, this is the album that broke Springsteen into the big leagues, thanks to "Hungry Heart," then his most pointedly commercial song; it had new fans swooning but some old ones grumbling for the "poetic" Sprin...	Magic Thirty-five years as a justifiable rock musician allows Bruce Springsteen an opinion on the state of over-the-air radio, and he takes it--and takes the medium to the woodshed on the ruthless "Radio Nowhere." The opening smash sets the tone, with the ageless Boss wondering, "Is th...	Darkness on the Edge of Town The pain of a protracted legal battle with his former manager and the release of being allowed to record again after a three-year layoff are equally apparent from the piercing hard rock and harsh lyrical content of Darkness on the Edge of Town. Betrayal and hard work that comes t...	Born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. is an album painted in big, broad strokes. But it was still too subtle for some--namely politicians who tried to tap the title track as a jingoistic anthem when it is in fact a bitter diatribe by a Vietnam War vet whose country forgot him. The rest of the album...	The Essential Bruce Springsteen Vastly expanding 1995's single disc Greatest Hits, The Essential Bruce Springsteen easily surpasses the earlier best-of set by serving up all its true essentials and tossing in less appreciated treats and a full disc of rarities. Disc one spans the first decade of Springsteen's r...

Not a "must have" collection
If you are a fan of Bruce then you will find this cd to be good for an occasional listen. Especially the tracks from 11 - 18. The first part of the album is filled with songs that really didn't make the cut with good reason. They are subpar. But starting with the inspired "Pink Cadillac" the songs get much, much better. "Fever" is wonderfully infectious and conjures up visions of a funky old bar with the musicians playing just for the fun of it. "The Promise" is worth the cost of the cd alone.

When you just have to have it all.
If you're a Bruce fan you're buying this for three songs: "The Fever," "The Promise," "Trouble River." They're good tunes, but Southside does a better "Fever," and the other two are fine, but the bottom line is this is not even a very good sampler of TRACKS, as there are much better songs on the box set. ("Roulette" anyone?)Casual fans stay away; I wouldn't buy it until it hit the discount bin.

Okay sampler of box set (and why Bruce just can't win)
As everyone else has pointed out, there are three 'new' tracks here unavailable anywhere else. This has led many to accuse Bruce of ripping off his fans (with many recalling a similar sentiment surrounding the "Greatest Hits" CD from 1995, which was also padded out with 4 'new' tracks).It's a real shame the three tracks were not included in the box set (there's more than enough room on each of the four discs on "Tracks"), but Bruce did not have any sinister motive saving them for this sampler CD. One thing to consider was that Springsteen's people were rushed to complete this set. According to a detailed article in Mix Magazine, Springsteen, Landau, and his team of engineers were working at their own pace when Sony got wind that the project was under way. All of a sudden, a huge marketing campaign was begun and a three-month timetable landed on Springsteen's lap. An insane amount of coordination and work was done to meet the deadline. At one point, they had roughly 120 to 130 tracks in consideration, eventually whittled down to 66, and I wouldn't be surprised if the rush had some impact on their decision-making.When the box set finally came out, many, including Charlie Rose who interviewed Springsteen on his own show regarding "Tracks," asked about "The Fever" and "The Promise." Springsteen said that "The Fever" was never one of his favorites, and as much as he liked "The Promise," none of the recordings did it justice (none of this was new information or a big secret to longtime Springsteen fans). Well, the complaints were universal, and since there was already talk of a one disc sampler for the budget-minded fan (which eventually became "18 Tracks"), Springsteen thought he could use that disc as a way of appeasing fans. So, his engineers retrieved and remixed "The Fever" for CD release, and because he was never satisfied with the old recordings, went back into the studio and recorded a solo, piano rendition of "The Promise" in 1999 (months after "Tracks" was already released). How "Trouble River" figured into the mix, I'm not sure, but he was set on putting two new tracks on the disc, so why not a third?Of course, lots of fans already picked up the box set the month it came out, so even though Bruce was sympathetic to what he heard afterwards, you can understand why so many would still cry rip-off. But, 1) again, Bruce didn't do this to squeeze money out of his fans, he did it because he was trying to appease them. 2) you'll notice on Amazon, ebay, and many other sites that "18 Tracks" used goes for a paltry few dollars, the price of a CD single or a 45, so time has righted things for those who have yet to buy it.As for the 15 cuts taken from the box set, they aren't the 15 best. I actually like all of them, but "Thundercrack," "Roulette," "Shut Out The Light," and "The Wish" among others are more essential than "Where the Bands Are," "I Wanna Be with You," "Lion's Den," and "Part Man, Part Monkey."Unless you're strapped for cash, go for the box set. For those who have the box set and are considering buying this for the new material, don't pay full price, get a cheap, used copy, they should be easy to find.

A Treasure Trove Of Great Rare Springsteen
18 TRACKS is a treasure trove of great previously unreleased Bruce Springsteen songs. Several songs that were meant for DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN and THE RIVER, as well as "My Love Will Not Let You Down", "Janey Don't You Lose Heart", and a live "Rendezvous", are clearly among his best. If you get this and the TRACKS boxed set after BORN TO RUN, DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, THE RIVER, THE RISING, LIVE IN NYC, THE WILD, THE INNOCENT, & THE E STREET SHUFFLE, THE ESSENTIAL BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, LIVE 1975-1985, and BORN IN THE USA, you will have a great library of prime Springsteen.

***1/2
"18 Tracks" is a single-disc distillation of 1998's impressive four-CD box set "Tracks", which featured unreleased material spanning the breadth of Bruce Springsteen's career. So far, so good, but "18 Tracks" also features three songs NOT available on "Tracks", and if that's not a horrendous example of record company greed, I don't know what is. Apart from trying to force Springsteen fans to buy both the box set and this CD, "18 Tracks" is frustrating from both a critical and consumer standpoint. Those listeners who buy the disc as a substitute for the full "Tracks" box will miss out on several of the best songs, lost classics like "Bishop Danced", "Thundercrack", "Give The Girl A Kiss", "Gave It A Name", "The Wish", and the original "This Hard Land" (a re-recorded version was featured on "Greatest Hits") to name but a few. There are still plenty of highlights, though, including the hard rockers "Rendezvous", "Seaside Bar Song" and "Where The Bands Are", the incredibly rough, tough slow blues-rocker "Hearts Of Stone", and the wonderful, funky rock n' roll chestnut "Pink Cadillac". Also, "The Fever" and "The Promise" are two excellent songs recorded especially for this release, and can't be found on the "Tracks" box set. (Argh!) "18 Tracks" is a good sampler, but it doesn't really show how good the box set actually is, and it could have been better if Columbia Records had made a better song selection. It's almost like they don't want this CD to be too good...then people won't buy the box set, right?