New Springsteen box set offers unheard treasures for fans
04:34 Share

Imagine if your favorite artist suddenly dropped not one, not two, not three, but seven new albums all at once. That is what Bruce Springsteen did this week when he let loose tracks to The Lost Albums, a box set of never-before-released music that he recorded over the course of nearly three decades. I have the ring.

The collection explores many of the Bosses' different eras, with music spanning from 1983 to 2018. And here to talk with us about a few standout moments from these lost albums is music journalist Karen Rose. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. This is not the first time that Springsteen has put out unreleased material from his vault, but this was pretty different from the last time, right? This is astronomically different.

It's records. It's not just, here's a loosely chronologically organized selection of songs that never got released or got recorded but didn't make the records. Most people have not heard this stuff before. When I heard that this was coming, I was a little skeptical because often when somebody puts out, this was never released before, you hear it and you think, ah.

Perhaps there was a reason why, or it's not quite finished. But these are all distinct albums from distinct eras. I had always heard that he had done some kind of gospel record. And I didn't realize it was mostly an instrumental for, and it was meant as a track to a movie that had never gotten made. But this was the first time where it's like, okay, yes, it exists. This is the forms that it exists in. Here it is. Finished. You can listen to it now.

Tell us about some of the other surprises, because you mentioned there's that, and there's also a country album. The country record is the one that has the most, the broadest appeal. This was their Stress Relief album.

from recording the Ghost of Tom Joe during the day. And that would have been what, the early mid-90s? That was his solo folk album? Yes, that was his solo folk album in 1995. He was working on this in 95. And with the same musicians, they would just let loose. I keep gravitating towards that country record as well. What's another one that surprised you or you've just enjoyed listening to?

I'm going to have to give you two here because it's really hard for me to choose. There's Inyo, which is a record that is, again, more folky, more acoustic, but it's really got its roots in the Southwest, in Southern California. There's two mariachi bands on there. ♪

It's really just kind of amazing the way that he immersed himself in the culture, in the stories, and in the music. And then there's Twilight Hours, which is like Bruce is a crooner. It's really all about his vocals, which for a guy that really likes to hide behind his guitar when he talks, it's kind of amazing to consider. As the darkness gives way

This is an artist who has been performing long enough that I started listening to as a teenager, and now I'm old enough to actually be in the middle-aged male cartoonish demographic that he was always kind of talked about at, you know, and he's still going. So there's a big sample size to begin with for Bruce Springsteen of many, many years of content. What do you think this adds to the music?

to your appreciation of his range or his influence or his style? What's really interesting about Bruce is that he has always been a really diligent editor of his own work, probably to his detriment.

None of these records would have hurt his legacy, the existence of them now. I think all it really does is expand on that and just show how much he was always working, even when it may have seemed from the outside he wasn't. I, as a fan, never really thought, oh, where's Bruce Springsteen? Where's the next record? Because we trusted that he was going to give us something when he was ready to give it to us.

That is music journalist Karen Rose. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Wow.