News: Bruce Springsteen to release The Album Collection Vol. 1 1973-1984

For some reason I can’t help liking Bruce Springsteen. For all his bluster, forced blue-collar worthiness and questionable career moves, his heart always seems to be in the right place. Springsteen is one of those musicians who has been periodically rediscovered by new generations of music fans, as his influence has flowed down through the music industry over the past forty years.

While the string of albums that Springsteen released between 1973 and 1984 have been collected together in a box set previously, they were not remastered.

That is until now.

On 17 November Bruce Springsteen: The Album Collection Vol.1 1973 – 1984 will be released and contains remastered versions of the following:

Greetings From Asbury Park N.J.
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
Born to Run
Darkness on the Edge of Town
The River
Nebrasksa
Born in the USA

These seven albums tracks Springsteen’s evolution from his early days finding his way as a narrative-heavy singer songwriter on the first pair of albums, to the more focused escapism of Born to Run, to the darker and grainier Darkness on the Edge of Town. From there Springsteen explored more lightweight commercial material on The River, went lo-fi on the staggeringly stark Nebraska, before conquering the world with Born in the USA.

Previous to this release, only Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town had been remastered on CD, and if the other five albums are being given a similar sonic upgrade, it will make this box set a must-buy for new and old fans alike and for those of us that prefer our music on vinyl, the good news is that the box set is being released on that format too, making this the first time that Springsteen’s first seven albums have been re-released on remastered vinyl.

All seven albums are recreations of their original packaging and the set is accompanied by a 60-page book featuring rarely-seen photos, memorabilia and original press clippings from Springsteen’s first decade as a recording artist. Acclaimed engineer Bob Ludwig, working with Springsteen and longtime engineer Toby Scott, has remastered these albums, all newly transferred from the original analogue masters