release date: Jun. 2, 1978
format: vinyl (1987 reissue) / cd (2010 remaster)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,42]
producer: Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau, Steven Van Zandt
label: Columbia Records - nationality: USA
Tracklist: A) 1. "Badlands" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Adam Raised a Cain" - 3. "Something in the Night" (4 / 5) - 4. "Candy's Room" (5 / 5) - 5. "Racing in the Street" (4 / 5) - - B) 1. "The Promised Land" (4 / 5) - 2. "Factory" (4 / 5) - 3. "Streets of Fire" (4 / 5) - 4. "Prove It All Night" (4,5 / 5) - 5. "Darkness on the Edge of Town" (4 / 5)
[ full album ]
4th studio album release by Bruce Springsteen who continues his work with producer Jon Landau after helping him in finding a more contemporary sound on the predecessor. The album basically continue the style developed on Born to Run (Aug. 1975) only accentuating its rock tone.
This was the very first Springsteen album I heard, although, I may not have come across it until 1980. The album was released at a time when I had only just discovered a world of music, you could say. Within a few years, I went from listening mostly just to ABBA, Boney M, and the music of my older brother, i.e. Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Jean-Michel Jarre, Frank Zappa, to a state where I was constantly looking for music of my own taste. In '79 our class was on a trip to London, and I bought albums with The Police, Pink Floyd and Dire Straits, and a year later, I loved all the new wave and punk rock stuff from Britain and artists like Elvis Costello, The Jam, Black Uhuru, The Clash, The Cure, Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Blondie (as one of only a few artists from America). Somehow, I also found room for Springsteen, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Kiss, Thin Lizzy, and many others, despite the fact that it was clearly two very different approaches to music. Springsteen had been a slow growing star in the US and in the rest of the world, and I was introduced to his music through a teacher from another school. Of course the library had other Springsteen albums, and soon I knew them all. After this I heard his next album, which had only just been released, the double-album The River (1980), which is another great album. I then went backwards and discovered all his great music, only this very album remains my all-time favourite Springsteen album. On this, you'll find some of his original music inspired by rock & roll, which may be heard on his first albums, and his ability to write both great down-to-earth stories of ordinary life and epic pop / rock outbursts of pure energy. On the predecessor, yes he found his musical output, you could say, but his lyrics were a bit of a mix on that. It was an album which looked backed on his first two albums on Columbia with a Dylanesque-inspiration, whereas this one is his first where he brings about his stories of the working class.
I think, after he became really huge, meaning post his best-selling album Born in the U.S.A. (1984), his music lost some of the originality and he began repeating himself, playing along on the idea that he was this icon of pop, which he undoubtedly was, but his music kind of got lost in the big 1980s heavy productions and bigger-better-giant stadiums-philosophy. Yes, he made some other great albums afterwards but not to the extent of Darkness.... This very album is of course enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
Darkness... is an album without fillers and it just contains hit after hit. To me, this is the best Springsteen album of them all, and naturally it's a highly recommended piece of work.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 5 / 5 stars ]
1978 Favourite releases: 1. The Clash Give 'Em Enough Rope - 2. The Jam All Mod Cons - 3. Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town
