If you’re a Bruce Springsteen fan, at this point, you’ve likely heard all about his latest release, “Tracks II: The Lost Albums,” a collection of seven unreleased albums recorded from 1983 to 2018, a total of 83 new songs. But if that seems like an overwhelming abundance of riches, the Boss has kept you in his thoughts with “Lost and Found: Selections From The Lost Albums,” a single CD/2 LP release which whittles the tracklist down to only 20 songs, dealer’s choice. That boils down to three songs per record, with the exception of the mostly instrumental soundtrack called “Faithless,” which only claims two slots. (It’s a fair call — more on this later.)
This is a very different context than the first “Tracks,” a 4-CD set of b-sides, demos and studio outtakes spanning the time period from Springsteen’s early days (it literally opens with his audition tape for Columbia Records) until the box set’s release in 1998. That project easily lent itself to a single disc version for people who were big fans but not diehards. That excerpt, titled “18 Tracks,” gave you a lot of bang for your buck, including legendary numbers like “Seaside Bar Song,” “Where The Bands Are,” and “My Love Will Not Let You Down,” as well as a couple of songs that should have been on the full box but were not. (No, we’re not still holding a grudge that “The Promise” and “The Fever” were somehow judged unworthy of the first “Tracks.”)
But “The Lost Albums” is (mostly) brand new material, and it is explicitly presented as albums (or at least specific groupings of songs). Every record in the set has some kind of overarching theme that is important, or at least useful, in the listener’s understanding of the record. That also potentially makes it challenging to select a few songs from each record in the service of giving fans a hint of what the records are about. And given that in 2025, you can listen to the entire 7-volume box set on streaming services as part of your monthly subscription, it’s kind of a curious artifact. But if we take it at face value, let’s see how it does the job of introducing listeners to this new and exciting Springsteen project.
‘83 Garage Sessions: “Follow That Dream,” “Seven Tears” and “Unsatisfied Heart.”
This disc draws on material Springsteen was working on just after 1982’s “Nebraska” and pre-“Born In The USA.” The liner notes are careful to point out that while this collection of material was never an album, they “represent a unified body of work.” Unlike anything else on “Tracks II,” you could have run into this material before. That’s because these demos, recorded at Springsteen’s home studio, somehow walked out the door and into the hands of rabid fans, who ran copies for their friends, who made copies for their friends, and so on. And five of the songs here — like “County Fair” or an early version of “Born in the USA”’s “My Hometown” — were officially released previously.
“Lost and Found” features Springsteen’s bleak reshaping of “Follow That Dream,” an Elvis Presley song that was never released but has been performed live. “Seven Tears” has a light rockabilly swing and continues Springsteen’s affinity for the number seven, and “Unsatisfied Heart” is a heartbreaker, a legendary fan favorite that’s finally seeing the light of day.
Thematically, these three songs fit well together as part of a larger, overarching story about struggle and loss, and to quote from the previous record, debts no honest man could pay. But given the context and the history of this material, this selection is probably the least satisfying because it feels both sparse — this disc includes 18 songs, compared to the 10-12 tracks on the other discs — and random, especially without any explanation as to why these particular songs were chosen.
“Streets of Philadelphia Sessions:” “Blind Spot,” “Something in the Well,” “Waiting on the End of the World”
“The Streets of Philadelphia Sessions,” dating from the early ’90s, can best be characterized as a representation of Springsteen’s desire to try new things and move in different directions. At that time, he’d already put the E Street Band on hiatus and had done a world tour with different musicians.
The incredible critical and commercial success garnered from “Streets of Philadelphia,” the first time he’d utilized drum loops as part of his songwriting process, provided an impetus for him to keep exploring that direction. He pulled in members of the ‘92-’93 touring band and recorded what was supposed to be his next album.
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But as Springsteen explains in the liner notes for the box set, this entire record was done and on the release schedule when he made the decision to pull it completely, on the ostensible basis that it didn’t feel “finished” and that it would have been the fourth in a series of fairly heavy records about relationships.
The lyrics and melodies here are solid — there are some very good songs! — but it’s the loops, synthesizers and compression that make them sound like both a product of their time and also, are not necessarily catering to Springsteen’s strengths. “Waiting on the End of the World” is the standout of the three choices, nosing ahead because there’s a great guitar line that winds through and both grounds and elevates the song. “Blind Spot” and “Something In the Well” are lush, dense and moody. As a representative of the record, these work fine in introducing the listener to the overarching concept.
“Faithless:” “Faithless” and “God Sent You”
For years, there had been a rumor that Springsteen was working on a gospel record of some kind, and it turns out that there was some truth to that. He was asked to write music for a “spiritual Western,” and acquits himself more than respectably. “Faithless” is a dusty, sun-streaked acoustic tune that gently sets the tone, while “God Sent You” leans more towards traditional gospel, featuring Springsteen on piano, backed by the current members of the E Street Choir, a gorgeous and genuinely uplifting moment. These two songs are worthy emissaries of the general vibe here.
“Somewhere North of Nashville:” “Repo Man,” “Detail Man” and “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone”
If you’re familiar with “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” Springsteen’s 1996 acoustic album that tells vivid, bleak stories about the deep Southwest, and the people from both sides of the border that live and work there, this record is quite literally its opposite. As Springsteen explains it, these songs were what they worked on at night to balance the darkness of the “Joad” material that was being recorded during the day.
These songs swing, they shout, they rock; “Repo Man” is Springsteen at his televangelist shouter best, “Detail Man” is a rollicking number about booty calls — “You want the job done right any time of day or night/Call your detail man” — that features a righteous harmonica, and just when you think this is all about a good time, “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” is a tears-in-your-beer ballad with beautifully heartbreaking pedal steel courtesy of Marty Rifkin. These songs are a solid representation of one of the most satisfying records in the set.
“Inyo:” “Inyo,” “The Lost Charro” and “Adelita”
The same Southwestern settings that inspired the songs for “The Ghost of Tom Joad” are also the origins for “Inyo.” Just as Springsteen dove deep into the stories, the legends, and the people who lived there for “Joad,” he goes even further into the cross-border culture mix with this volume. “Inyo” is Springsteen pondering the subject of Los Angeles and its water sources against a decisive folk melody.
“The Lost Charro” and “Adelita” range even further, complete with mariachi and other traditional instrumentation and melodies. “Adelita” is an adaptation of a traditional Mexican corrido, a traditional epic poem that can be set to music. In this case, it’s the story of the women who fought alongside the men in the Mexican-American War. Again, another judicious selection that accurately conveys the energy and feeling of the entire set of songs.
Twilight Hours: “Sunday Love,” “High Sierra” and “Sunliner”
While Springsteen had previously explored writing in a more classic American songwriting style with his 2019 release “Western Stars,” which was all about inspiration from the likes of Jimmy Webb, “Twilight Hours” sees him extending his ambition even further. These songs are closer to the Great American Songbook, echoing the likes of Burt Bacharach and Hal Leonard. “Sunday Love” — one of the best songs on the entire box set — soars, “High Sierra” is an absolute heartbreaker, and “Sunliner” is firmly in a country-rock mold. But the featured instrument on this collection is Springsteen’s vocal performance, and it’s thrilling. These are 100% the best songs on this set.
Perfect World: “I’m Not Sleeping,” “Rain in the River” and “You Lifted Me Up”
“Perfect World” is the grab bag of the lot. “I wanted just a little fun, noise and rock ‘n’ roll to finish the package,” Springsteen says in the liner notes. It includes a few songs written with his friend, Pittsburgh rocker Joe Grushecky, like “I’m Not Sleeping,” the most Dad rock song he’s ever written, with the chorus, “I’m not sleeping/I’m just resting my eyes.” “Rain in the River” was one of the first songs released as a preview, and it’s as Springsteenian as you can get from that era, loud and shimmering. “You Lifted Me Up” is a little bit of an odd duck here because while it fits in musically, lyrically it’s closer to a praise song than a rock anthem. Given that this is a mixed bag by design, the songs chosen to represent it are also scattered, so it’s at least an accurate selection.
The final verdict on “Lost and Found: Selections from the Lost Albums” is that it does a very good job of highlighting the records in the box set. Priced at $15 (as opposed to the full set’s $299 for the CD or $350 for the LP), it’s certainly a more affordable — and less overwhelming — way to ease into the project. There are definitely fans out there for whom this single disc, combined with access to the rest of the box via streaming services if they get more curious, is more than enough.
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from music columnist Caryn Rose
