Bruce Springsteen is really throwing open the vaults for his upcoming Tracks II: The Lost Albums box set. But, unlike the his 1998 four-disc odds and sods Tracks collection, The Boss’ sprawling sequel will contain seven previously unheard full length records. According to a release on Thursday (April 3), the 83-track collection due out on June 27 through Sony Music will “fill in rich chapters of Springsteen’s expansive career timeline — while offering invaluable insight into his life and work as an artist.”
In a statement, Springsteen said, “The Lost Albums were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released. I’ve played this music to myself and often close friends for years now. I’m glad you’ll get a chance to finally hear them. I hope you enjoy them.”-
The box will include the lo-fi LA Garage Sessions ’83, described as a “crucial link” between the bare-bones Nebraska and the full-throated Born in the U.S.A., as well as the drum loop and synthesizer experimentation for the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions. The project covering the years 1983-2018 is a peek into 35 years of home recording and songwriting that the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said provides insight into work that no one has heard before.
“The ability to record at home whenever I wanted allowed me to go into a wide variety of different musical directions,” Springsteen said. Some of that includes the “sonic experimentation” on “Faithless,” a film soundtrack he wrote for a movie that was never made, as well as the country-leaning, pedal steel-fueled sound of Somewhere North of Nashville, featuring songs such as “Repo Man,” “Tiger Rose,” “Silver Mountain,” “Janey Don’t Lose Your Heart” and the title track.
There’s also the “richly-woven border tales” on Inyo songs including “Indian Town,” “The Aztec Dance,” “Our Lady of Monroe” and “Ciudad Juarez” and the “orchestra-driven, mid-century noir on such Twilight Hours tracks as “Sunday Love,” “Lonely Town,” “September Kisses” and “High Sierra.” Another album, Perfect World, featuring the songs “I’m Not Sleeping,” “Idiot’s Delight,” “The Great Depression,” “If I Could Only Be Your Lover” and “You Lifted Me Up.”
Springsteen previewed the album on Thursday with the muscular, devastating Perfect World song “Rain in the River,” on which he sings, “Down at the water, I head my Marie/ She said, ‘Now Johnny, your love mean no more to me’/ Than rain in the river/ Than rain in the river.” He also posted a 90-second trailer for the album on Thursday morning, in which he says, “I often read about myself in the ’90s as having some lost period or something. And I really, really I was working the whole time.”
The rock icon explains that during the COVID-19 pandemic he “finished” everything he had in his vault, totaling 83 songs — 82 of which have never been heard before — including 74 that have never been heard before in any version.
The Lost Albums will come in limited-edition 9-LP, 7-CD and digital formats, with distinctive packaging for each previously unreleased record, as well as a 100-page cloth-bound hardcover book with rare archival photos, liner notes on each album from essayist Erik Flannigan and a personal introduction from Springsteen. A 20-track compilation entitled Lost and Found: Selections From The Lost Albums will be released on June 27 on two LPs and one CD.
Check out “Rain in the River” and the full track list for Tracks II: The Lost Albums below:
LA Garage Sessions ’83
1. Follow That Dream
2. Don’t Back Down On Our Love
3. Little Girl Like You
4. Johnny Bye Bye
5. Sugarland
6. Seven Tears
7. Fugitive’s Dream
8. Black Mountain Ballad
9. Jim Deer
10. County Fair
11. My Hometown
12. One Love
13. Don’t Back Down
14. Richfield Whistle
15. The Klansman
16. Unsatisfied Heart
17. Shut Out The Light
18. Fugitive’s Dream (Ballad)
Streets of Philadelphia Sessions
1. Blind Spot
2. Maybe I Don’t Know You
3. Something In The Well
4. Waiting On The End Of The World
5. The Little Things
6. We Fell Down
7. One Beautiful Morning
8. Between Heaven and Earth
9. Secret Garden
10. The Farewell Party
Faithless
1. The Desert (Instrumental)
2. Where You Goin’, Where You From
3. Faithless
4. All God’s Children
5. A Prayer By The River (Instrumental)
6. God Sent You
7. Goin’ To California
8. The Western Sea (Instrumental)
9. My Master’s Hand
10. Let Me Ride
11. My Master’s Hand (Theme)
Somewhere North of Nashville
1. Repo Man
2. Tiger Rose
3. Poor Side of Town
4. Delivery Man
5. Under A Big Sky
6. Detail Man
7. Silver Mountain
8. Janey Don’t You Lose Heart
9. You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone
10. Stand On It
11. Blue Highway
12. Somewhere North of Nashville
Inyo
1. Inyo
2. Indian Town
3. Adelita
4. The Aztec Dance
5. The Lost Charro
6. Our Lady of Monroe
7. El Jardinero (Upon the Death of Ramona)
8. One False Move
9. Ciudad Juarez
10. When I Build My Beautiful House
Twilight Hours
1. Sunday Love
2. Late in the Evening
3. Two of Us
4. Lonely Town
5. September Kisses
6. Twilight Hours
7. I’ll Stand By You
8. High Sierra
9. Sunliner
10. Another You
11. Dinner at Eight
12. Follow The Sun
Perfect World
1. I’m Not Sleeping
2. Idiot’s Delight
3. Another Thin Line
4. The Great Depression
5. Blind Man
6. Rain In The River
7. If I Could Only Be Your Lover
8. Cutting Knife
9. You Lifted Me Up
10. Perfect World
