It's a great day when your favorite artist releases a new record. But what if they released seven new records at once, recorded across almost three decades, full of music you didn't even know existed?
That's exactly what Bruce Springsteen is doing later this month. On June 27, he will increase his officially released studio output by 30% with Tracks II: The Lost Albums, a box set of seven individual albums recorded from 1983-2018. Seven records would be a respectable career for any artist, but in Springsteen's case, it's only a partial representation of what he didn't release.
Diehard fans may have heard rumors of "the loops record" or whispers that Springsteen was working on a gospel album or that someone said there was a version of all of the acoustic Nebraska songs recorded with the E Street Band (aka the much-vaunted Electric Nebraska). Tracks II: The Lost Albums reveals that there was a little bit of truth in all of that lore.
The first Tracks, released in 1998, was a four-CD box set of rare and previously unreleased material: studio outtakes, demos, rarities and b-sides. It was arranged in a loosely chronological order and was accompanied by a lyric booklet, but was otherwise light on the history of the material. This second Tracks differs from its predecessor because it's being presented as seven distinct albums.
Unlike the first box set, the seven-album Tracks II is less about individual songs (although diehards will definitely have their favorites) than it is about the experience of each collection together as a whole. You could load the entirety of the 1998 release on your phone and let it shuffle along with the rest of the catalog seamlessly. There is slightly less potential for that here, but it doesn't mean Tracks II is better or worse; it's just different.
In a promotional film for the project, essayist Erik Flannigan, the author of the set's liner notes, calls the collection "revelatory" — and it is, but not because anything in here runs far afield of the previously existing body of work, or that the release of any of them would have significantly altered the perception of Springsteen as an artist. What's revelatory is that Springsteen had seven albums' worth of releasable material just lying around in the archive (and more — in the promotional clip for the project, the Boss declares that there will be a Tracks III). It's revelatory to learn that he'd write, record and master a record, only to recall it at the last minute because he didn't think his fans were ready to hear it, or to learn that an album project required not just one, but two mariachi bands. And, it's revelatory to see his hesitancy to follow what he's called "the big road," prior to moving forward with what would become Born in the U.S.A.
It's worth mentioning that this set is significantly more expensive than the first Tracks, which weighed in at $49.99 for the four discs, roughly $100 in 2025 dollars. Tracks II: The Lost Albums is listed at $299.99 for the seven-CD version and $349.98 for the nine-LP set. Both configurations are accompanied by a hardcover book featuring liner notes, lyrics and photographs, which NPR was unable to view by press time. Sources say it is far more robust than the first Tracks set, which contained a lyric booklet but minimal liner notes. (There's a two-CD digest version of the project available as well, featuring two or three songs from each album.) Given the price point, it's unfortunate that there is no known plan to release the records individually; a diehard fan may be very interested in the 1983 outtakes but less invested in hearing, say, Springsteen's soundtrack from a "spiritual Western" that was never made.
Most fans could find their way into the first Tracks via their favorite songs or eras, and then branch out from there. Springsteen presenting these 83 songs on Tracks II as seven sequenced records makes that process feel weightier, even with (or even because of) the expanded liner notes. With the exception of the material from the Born in the U.S.A. era, most Springsteen fans haven't heard any of this music before. So we've broken out some of the more interesting songs from each record in order to give potential listeners a further glimpse into what's inside.
LA Garage Sessions '83
Functioning as a bridge from Nebraska to Born in the U.S.A., these songs show Springsteen trying to figure out which direction he wanted to go, whether towards another low-fidelity solo project or back to the studio with the E Street Band. This is likely to be the most popular volume in the set; the songs from this time period have certainly been amongst the most bootlegged.
"Sugarland": The sobering thoughts of a Midwestern farmer besieged with doubt and debt, this song entered the pantheon of known almost-rans via two performances on the Born in the U.S.A. tour, at 1984 stops in Ames, Iowa, and Lincoln, Neb. These were regarded as particularly great shows, with unofficial recordings circulating broadly throughout the fan community back in the day.
What makes this song exceptional is its concision and compression; Springsteen pared everything about the story down to bone, conveying the sharp edges of desperation. But the images he presents are still vivid, stark and believable, sung over a sparse background of acoustic guitars and some slight keyboard notes that don't sweeten it, but rather highlight the song's inherent bleakness.
"County Fair": Springsteen perfectly describes a summer memory from a small town, capturing it like a small child running after a firefly and catching it in a bottle. There's the sound of crickets, a lightly swinging bass line and a gentle organ motif while he narrates the sights and sounds and what they mean to someone who lives there and waits for this event every year. "You can feel somethin' happenin' in the air," he sings, and he's right — you absolutely can. It's simple, vivid, perfect and somehow heart-rending, the music and lyrics working together to create a believable tableau.
According to the Tracks II liner notes, this demo is the basis for the "County Fair" on 2003's The Essential Bruce Springsteen, but it's such an evocative, exceptional composition it always deserves mention whenever it appears.
Streets of Philadelphia Sessions
The songs on this volume derive from the period just after writing and recording "Streets of Philadelphia" for Jonathan Demme's 1993 film Philadelphia, for which Springsteen won an Oscar for best original song (among other accolades). That song marked the first time Springsteen had worked with drum loops, and he found that having a rhythmic element immediately available meant that he could begin his songwriting on a keyboard instead of rhythm guitar.
Propelled by the positive reception to "Streets of Philadelphia," Springsteen got some more drum loops and kept writing songs. By the end of the summer of 1994, he was ready to record. He brought in musicians who had been part of the 1992-'93 touring band and finished an album. It was done, mixed and on the release calendar for the spring of 1995.
In the liner notes, Springsteen says, "...it never felt finished to me." He also remembers thinking that had this record come out, it would have been the fourth "really dark" record about relationships in a row, which "I didn't know if the audience was ready for. So I didn't put it out." Unsurprisingly left out of this narrative is the less-than enthusiastic reception for Human Touch and Lucky Town, recorded with mostly session musicians and released simultaneously in 1992.
"One Beautiful Morning": In this heart-rending rock and roll spiritual, Springsteen sings, "Nobody really knows / What happens when someone dies." It's a song of love, loss and saying goodbye — much like the rest of the album, to be fair — except instead of the end of a relationship, he's marking the end of a life. There's a jangly electric guitar line morphing into solos that both protest and offer solace, and a chorus of gently uplifting backing vocals from Patti Scialfa and her friends who later joined her in performing with the E Street Band: Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell. The song is full of modern sonic textures, but there's an audible kinship between this composition and any '80s Springsteen rocker.
"The Farewell Party": An ode and a lament, this song describes a relationship where the other half has vanished, whether by choice or by fault or by a premature departure from the planet. There's a lovely, meandering guitar refrain that threads itself through the verses; there's no chorus, it's a story from beginning to end, and the muted fury behind the closing guitar line mirrors the quiet anguish in the lyrics. There are no loops here, just a gentle country-esque lilt; it wouldn't have been out of place on The Ghost of Tom Joad a year later, or a decade later on Devils & Dust.
Faithless
Springsteen was asked to write some music for a film that was never made, the genre of which he terms in the liner notes as "a spiritual Western," so as to not give away any clues about its identity. Faithless is the shortest album in the collection, coming in at just over 35 minutes, and it includes two instrumental numbers.
"Where You Going, Where You From": This is less a song than a mood: it's atmospheric, it's sonic world-building — not a term one generally thinks of in the context of Bruce Springsteen, but that's what makes this one absolutely fascinating. It feels more like something you'd hear from Daniel Lanois or Ry Cooder, the kind of music you'd expect on the soundtrack for a Wim Wenders film. Springsteen did this kind of aural texturizing in the early days of the E Street Band — you can hear it live in songs like "Spirit in the Night" or "Incident on 57th Street." There are also cameos from Evan and Sam Springsteen as the children's choir.
"God Sent You": Springsteen on piano, playing with authority (sometimes he lets the fact that pianist Roy Bittan is in his band overshadow his own ability), accompanied by the entire E Street Choir, some of whom have backgrounds singing gospel music, and their presence brings a warm familiarity to the track. It's ephemeral but also firmly exalted, like the best gospel songs. It's stunning.
Somewhere North of Nashville
This record has the wildest origin story of the entire collection: while he was working on The Ghost of Tom Joad in 1995, at night he'd pivot to recording an entire record of country songs with the same musicians, tracking live in the studio. He would teach the musicians each song right then and there, cutting it live in a few takes, a respite from the more intense Joad material. Like the '83 Garage Sessions, this was another era when Springsteen wasn't sure which direction he wanted to head, so he recorded it all and let the dust settle. "It was just the better record," he says of his decision to go with Joad and put the more rollicking tracks aside.
"Delivery Man:" This could easily have replaced Born in the U.S.A.-favorite "Darlington County" in concert with the same kind of loose, rollicking, Elvis-on-the-Louisiana-Hayride energy, capped by a neat slicing guitar solo. Plus, it's a story about a chicken truck crashing, and chickens are always hilarious.
"Under a Big Sky:" This is a heartbreaker, a big country ballad about a man who's turned his back on love — we're not sure why, it's deliberately unclear — and is working as a hired hand, hoping that his work will help him forget. The whole thing swings, and you feel the sky and the endless line of the horizon you find in the west. The late, great Danny Federici is on piano, and his successor, Charlie Giordano, handles the Hammond B3 organ, while Marty Rifkin — fresh off of Tom Petty's Wildflowers and, later, part of Springsteen's Seeger Sessions Band — adds some pedal steel for a little extra dose of sorrow.
Inyo
When Springsteen temporarily relocated from New Jersey to California in the early '80s, like any newcomer, he spent time getting to know his new home. In the liner notes, he explains that he wasn't into "party scenes or cliques" but instead rode hundreds of miles a week on his motorcycle out into the mountains and the desert around Los Angeles, following the state roads between the farmlands and small inland towns. It's where he drew inspiration for The Ghost of Tom Joad, Devils & Dust, Western Stars and now, Inyo.
"Adelita": There are not one, but two mariachi bands taking their place in Springsteen's retelling of Mexican history, drawing from a corrida, an epic poem, about the female soldiers (soldaderas) who fought in the Mexican-American war. It's a vast and sweeping arrangement, with a wall of delicate work on vihuela and guitarrón from the mariachis. There are violins, there's a harp, there are horns — the whole thing is truly stirring and utterly glorious. Eagle-eyed fans will note the credit for a book called The Mexican Corrido: A Feminist Analysis, written by Maria Herrera-Sobek, from which Springsteen drew his initial inspiration. In his adaptation, however, the heroine has both agency and valor — she's the one who dies in battle, and her lover is the one left behind to mourn.
"When I Build My Beautiful House": A simple, perfectly sparse composition featuring Springsteen on pump organ and guitar, with E Street's Soozie Tyrell alongside on violin and backing vocals. This track connects to so many of the traditions he explores on these records: it's a hymn, it's a country song, it would fit within the folk tradition as well. It's a solid, well-built tune that expands as he moves through the verses, surprising the listener as it grows in power. You'll hear it in your head for days.
Twilight Hours
Imagine, if you will, Bruce Springsteen wearing a sport coat, holding a whiskey glass, leaning against a grand piano, no guitar anywhere in sight. This is the world of Twilight Hours, in which he transforms himself into a crooner, probably the most improbable volume of this set. It's a world adjacent to Western Stars, but while that 2019 album was firmly grounded in more of a country/folk singer-songwriter tradition, this volume is closer to Burt Bacharach/Hal David. It's all about the vocal dynamics, Springsteen performing in a range and style that will be new to everyone.
"Sunday Love": The slow cadence and muted trumpet in the opening motif will be the first sign that this record is not like any Springsteen album you have ever heard. The composition is ambitious, his voice is warm and soothing, the arrangement and performance are focused and restrained, requiring discipline, modulation and control. He's always in full grasp of everything that goes on in his songs, but here Springsteen had to figure out how to take his obvious skills gathered from a variety of traditions across the decades and use them to shape-shift into another world and form entirely. Seeing this live would be an unbelievable experience; perhaps it's a direction to head when he's done running across stages in football stadiums around the world.
"High Sierra": A little closer to a conventional country-rock number — there's a pedal steel guitar and an acoustic — but there's also an actual orchestra in the mix, not merely a synthesizer. You can feel the difference in what that does to the mood and modalities, its presence making you feel the mountain air in the story. Narratively, it's a beautiful arrangement of the kind of story that Springsteen has told in many different ways: a man with a troubled past tries to escape it, he finds love and a new life, and then his past catches up to him. But what always differentiates the stories are the small details he captures: here, a bell over a door, the smell of ash in the air. This one is a heartbreaker; hearing the bell at the very last moment of the song may be a tiny touch, but it stabs you where it hurts.
Perfect World
This volume breaks the established convention of this collection in that it is simply a collection of outtakes that Springsteen assembled for this release. "I wanted just a little fun, noise and rock 'n' roll to finish the package," he said. It's also the least satisfying of the seven volumes, probably because it lacks a consistent governing principle.
"Another Thin Line": This co-write with Springsteen pal Joe Grushecky (one of three of their collaborations here) debuted live in 2000 during the Reunion tour's closing run at Madison Square Garden. Although live versions easily outstrip the studio cut, it does feature a great, building vocal from the Boss and guitar from temporary E Streeter Tom Morello, as well as the welcome and familiar presence of Max Weinberg, Charlie Giordano and Garry Tallent. Springsteen talks about how great it is that his home studios allow him to roll out of bed and record, but the full-band recordings in this set (or anywhere else, for that matter) tend to be stronger, louder, broader than the ones where he and producer Ron Aniello play everything, and this is a good example.
"Rain in the River": This absolute rocker written in 1994 was originally slated for 2012's Wrecking Ball and would have fit in well, sonically and thematically. Springsteen's vocals are in full soul shouter mode, and it's wonderfully crunchy, textured, full-bodied and LOUD. It would have been great to let the E Street Band get their hands on it (instead of the only musicians being Springsteen and Aniello), because it would have been even more of a powerhouse, but lyrically it's less focused than the songs that did make the cut, so you can understand how it got left behind.
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