Patti Smith Group - "Because the Night"

Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith should have written more songs together.

The Least-Listened-To Songs on Great Albums

Recently, Spotify changed its layout, allowing you to see the play counts of every song on every album. For InsideHook, I checked out a bunch of classic albums to see which track was played least. Some of these songs are actually great -- I can't believe more folks don't listen to 'em. Here's my tribute to some underloved songs.

A Brief History of Songs About Work

For MEL, I did a deep dive into songs about the workingman, including a certain classic by Mr. Merle Haggard. It's an interesting subset of music, reaching across all genres, and it's evolved over the years as blue-collar jobs have shifted. Hope you enjoy.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'Bernadette,' Bruce Springsteen and 'The Lost Boys'

On this week's episode, we mourn Where'd You Go, Bernadette and say some nice things about Blinded by the Light. And then I mostly make fun of The Lost Boys in our Reboot segment. Hear the whole thing down below.

Sundance 2019: 'Blinded by the Light' Review

Bruce Springsteen songs are marshaled to help tell the story of a young British-Pakistani man who feels lost in his nowhere town. Blinded by the Light was one of the big acquisitions at Sundance. It's a crowd-pleaser, even if it's also a little slipshod. My review is up at Screen International.

'Springsteen on Broadway' Review

Springsteen on Broadway comes to Netflix on Sunday. For MEL, I reviewed this fairly fabulous, candid performance.

Bruce Springsteen - "Factory"

Happy Labor Day weekend. How about we play a song about actual work?

Bruce Springsteen - "Dream Baby Dream"

Bruce Springsteen's cover of "Dream Baby Dream," which appeared on his 2014 album High Hopes, is having a moment. Alan Vega, the co-founder of the band Suicide that wrote the song, died this summer, which prompted Springsteen to pen a eulogy for the musician, which brought more attention to his version of this song.

Also, the cover is used prominently in American Honey, which opens this weekend. The movie is fabulous, and so is the placement of the track within the film.

Bruce Springsteen - 'High Hopes' Review

For this week's Playboy column, I wrote about Bruce Springsteen's new album High Hopes. But more specifically, I got into my issues with the Boss since his 21st-century renaissance. I've always loved the guy, but in the past decade or so, it's been significantly harder to do so. I go into my reasons here.

Bruce Springsteen - "State Trooper (Trentemøller Mix)"

If it's playing in your town, you should see Rust and Bone, the fine new film from French director Jacques Audiard, who previously made the great A Prophet. Lots of reasons to recommend Rust and Bone, including the performances from Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, but Audiard has also put together a great collection of disparate tunes for the soundtrack. Katy Perry's "Fireworks" has been the most noted, but I also deeply dug this remix of Bruce Springsteen's "State Trooper," which at first you might not realize is a remix. Shocked the hell out of me in the movie -- and now I'm fairly obsessed with it. Not being familiar with Trentemøller, I found this rather helpful background. And here's his website.

My Top 20 Albums of the Last 40 Years

My beloved KEXP is celebrating its 40th anniversary by asking its listeners to pick their Top 20 albums of the last 40 years. In other words, what do people think are the best albums of the post-Beatles/Kind of Blue era? For the fun of it, I decided to vote and, like with my Sight & Sound ballot, I opted for quick, intuitive picks rather than laboring over my selections. In both cases, I feel like I got to something purer -- and, hopefully, more honest -- than if I had allowed second thoughts to cloud my process. KEXP didn't ask for these to be ranked, so I won't bother doing that here. Instead, they'll be listed alphabetically by album title, with a few stray observations where appropriate...

Appetite for Destruction, Guns N' Roses
Nothing any of these people have done since came close. 

Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
Confirmation that I'm a sap at heart, Blood on the Tracks cuts me deeper than Dylan's '60s masterpieces. Opens with "Tangled Up in Blue," possibly his greatest song. Concludes with "Buckets of Rain," also possibly his greatest song. Such a magnificent album even the so-so "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" can't derail it.

Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen
I've been told that if I was from another generation, I'd understand that Born to Run is really Springsteen's best record. Maybe, maybe not.

Call Me, Al Green
Never-ending beauty.

Chutes Too Narrow, The Shins
More thoughts on this album here.

The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd
I'm the furthest thing from a stoner or a concept-album fanatic. And yet I love this record.

Endtroducing..., DJ Shadow
For the record, he's made good albums after this one.

For the Roses, Joni Mitchell
Not a popular choice among Mitchell fans, who would probably cite Blue or Court and Spark. I prefer the challenging arrangements and thoughtful anxiety of For the Roses, which she put out in between the other two.

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, Sinead O'Connor
Lord, do I worry for the sanity of this talented woman.

Illmatic, Nas
I slept on Illmatic when it came out. I'm making up for it by playing the hell out of this album throughout my adult life.

In Utero, Nirvana
Why, yes, I am one of those guys who thinks this is the better Nirvana record. Just as catchy as Nevermind but even angrier and confused. Probably the greatest dealing-with-fame album ever.

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Public Enemy
Friends have made convincing arguments about why Fear of a Black Planet is PE's true masterpiece. For now, I'm sticking with this one.

Marquee Moon, Television
I always swear I'm going to just listen to "See No Evil." And then I listen to the whole thing.

Never Mind the Bullocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols
The Clash have the greater legacy, but none of their albums is top-to-bottom as corrosive as Bullocks.

OK Computer, Radiohead
Remember when people claimed this was the '90s' answer to The Dark Side of the Moon? Wow, were they dumb.

Pretzel Logic, Steely Dan
My favorite band who don't have one indisputably perfect album. There's a Steely Dan record for every mood, but I went with Pretzel Logic because, when push came to shove, it's the one that called to me the most.

Ramones, Ramones
My biggest surprise in the Top 20, mostly because I don't listen to it all that much. But, c'mon, how can you argue with its bam-bam-bam-bam brilliance?

Rust Never Sleeps, Neil Young
In retrospect, should I have gone with After the Gold Rush? You know, maybe I should have. (Update: Ah, yes, After the Gold Rush came out in 1970, so it doesn't count.)

Sail Away, Randy Newman
12 Songs and Good Old Boys have their champions. Sail Away has less filler.

69 Love Songs, The Magnetic Fields
One day, I will get my wife to understand what a wonderful album this is.

mastodon speaks

I interviewed Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor for Revolver. We discussed their upcoming record, whether it's a concept album, and how Bruce Springsteen's Magic inspired its making. The interview is not available on the magazine's website, but the issue should be on newsstands now.

michael clayton and the amazing george clooney

If you want proof that I'm not one of those critics who hates everything that comes his way, check out my latest Consumables column, where I liked all nine things I wrote about, which includes Michael Clayton, The Darjeeling Limited, Eastern Promises, Bruce Springsteen's Magic, and M.I.A.'s Kala.

bruce springsteen returns

The Boss is back with his new album, Magic. In honor of the occasion, I look back at Springsteen's greatest non-hits for VH1.

white stripes

Icky Thump is easily the band's loudest record. It's also one of their best. Elsewhere in Consumables, I take on Wilco, Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M.'s cover of a John Lennon song.

bruce springsteen: protest folkie

While I respect Springsteen's post-9/11 work, it's been hard for me to love it as much as Tunnel of Love or Born in the U.S.A. His fans, of course, won't have the same difficulty.

springsteen, without cliches

Bruce Springsteen is such an instutition -- more icon now than man -- that it's hard for a reviewer to judge anything beyond the mystique. Such difficulties are no problem for Robert Christgau, though, who starts his review of the re-release of Born to Run this way ...

The biggest problem with Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 breakthrough album was always how unabashedly it proclaimed its own greatness. The wall-of-sound, white-soul-at-the-opera-house Born to Run is definitely full of itself — its lead track emoted over five minutes of portentous piano, its title track laden with glockenspiel and guitar guitar guitar, its thematic burden an unresolved quest narrative, its groove as grand as a V-8 hearse. Newcomers may not get why its class-conscious songcraft provided a relief from the emptier pretensions of late-hippie arena-rock. Yet it sounds greater today than it ever did.