The Promise

Bruce Springsteen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 16, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Columbia
• ASIN: B0040JHWKS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #5 in Music > Rock > Singer-Songwriters
  • #13 in Music > Pop > Singer-Songwriters
  • #17 in Music > Classic Rock > Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)

Editorial Reviews

"Darkness was my 'samurai' record," Springsteen writes, "stripped to the frame and ready to rumble. But the music that got left behind was substantial." For the first time, fans will have access to two discs containing a total of 21 previously-unreleased songs from the Darkness recording sessions, songs that, as Springsteen writes, "perhaps could have/should have been released after Born To Run and before the collection of songs that Darkness on the Edge of Town became."

Highlights include the extraordinary rock version of "Racing in the Street," the never-before-released original recordings of "Because the Night," "Fire," and "Rendezvous," the supreme pop opus "Someday (We'll Be Together)," the hilarious "Ain't Good Enough for You," the superb soul-based vocal performance on "The Broken Hearted," the utterly haunting "Breakaway," and the now finally released, fully orchestrated masterpiece and title song, "The Promise." All 21 songs have been mixed by Springsteen's long-time collaborator, Bob Clearmountain. According to long-time manager/producer Jon Landau, "There isn't a weak card in this deck. 'The Promise' is simply a great listening experience."

Lyrics to all of the songs, a new essay from Bruce Springsteen and never-before-seen photographs from the Darkness sessions are also included.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

136 of 147 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bruce Springsteen - The Promised Land Delivered, November 16, 2010

By 

Red on Black (Cardiff) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Promise (Audio CD)

Oh the agonies of being Bruce Springsteen. You have recorded what many consider to be one of the best ever rock albums in 1975's high adrenaline anthem laden "Born to Run", you have been proclaimed the "future of rock n roll" and expectations are running at a fever pitch that after a three year lay off compounded by legal disputes you are about to release "Born to Run - part 2". So what do you do? Answer - like all great artists you confound expectations and by doing so release the brooding and primal masterpiece 1978's "Darkness on the edge of town". On it Springsteen combined songs like "Adam raised a Cain" that contained so much raw fury it could have started a war with the sheer unadulterated beauty of other songs like the towering "Racing in the street". In addition with his well known prolificness he recorded enough material to literally swamp the 16 track equipment of New York's legendary Record Plant.

The Darkness sessions are now captured in all their glory on a huge box set release and hopefully Santa's elves have already packed it in a parcel marked "Cardiff". But in the meantime we have the music that got left behind from those sessions captured on this essentially "new" double album "The Promise" and frankly your humble reviewer has died and gone to heaven. This album represents a completely essential addition to the Springsteen canon and must be viewed as one of his great seventies albums albeit over thirty years late. "The Promise" very much prefigures "The River" and is packed full of so many styles from joyous jukebox rock n roll such as the Buddy Holly like thumping "Outside looking in" and the wonderful soulful Graham Parker sounding "Talk to me". Then we have huge slow Roy Orbison infused poignant ballads such as "The Brokenhearted", the songs which must have been on the reserve list for "Darkness" such "Come on (lets go tonight)" marking Elvis's death and the brilliant title track previously included on "18 tracks".

What other artists other than Dylan have given away brilliant songs as cavalierly as Springsteen? Thus finally we get to hear his studio versions of the two uber hits "Because the Night" (Patti Smith) and "Fire" (Pointer Sisters). Smith's version of "Because" probably has the edge but then it is one of the most viscerally powerful cover versions ever and Springsteen's does come close (and anyway he wrote the bloody song). "Fire" is a sheer delight stripped of the "pop" of the Pointer Sisters it becomes a sexy rock song full of dirty Clemons sax solos and a brilliant vocal by the Boss. Throughout the E Street Band are tighter than a shark with lock jaw and when it all clicks together on songs like the Roy Bittan piano driven "Spanish eyes" or the redemptive roar of "Gotta get a feeling" it is the musical equivalent of Category 5 hurricane and destroys everything in its wake. It is guaranteed that the sing-along "Ain't good enough for you" will have your smile fixed like the Joker and believing in the redemptive power of rock n roll.

And then there is "Racing in the Street (`78)" and "Someday (we will be together)". The first is a version of the moody ballad filled with latent regret on Darkness which is transformed into a huge piano and a high lonesome harmonica driven "River" style anthem which absolutely laid to me waste when I first played it and it has been on repeat since. It contains one of Springsteen's greatest vocals and shows that the man is touched by the angels. Similarly "Someday" shows that when it comes to doomed romanticism Springsteen has an all encompassing monopoly and hearing this superb song it was like being transported back to those heady days in the seventies when I played his music so much that every member of my family would hum his songs around the house and ask "who is that"?

Unlike the patchy mopping up exercise "Tracks" which had variable quality spread over its 4 disc compilation (although "Thundercrack" is one of the seven wonders of the world) "The Promise" feels like a unified whole. In Springsteen's own words it is a "fully realised piece of work" which shows that he knew precisely what he wanted from "Darkness", an album that would stand as a polar opposite to its predecessor. In doing so however he had to jettison songs of such verve and quality that you can only gasp at his audacity since many artists would lose a limb to pen songs of this depth and strength.

So there you have it, a "promise" delivered. The Boss and the E Street Band at their absolute peak, 21 peerless songs, a great lost work recovered and easily one of the best albums released in 2010. What more do you really want from life?

51 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For once, believe the hype..., November 17, 2010

By 

Paul D. Sandor (CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Promise (Audio CD)

Bruce delivers big time! Imagine... The Beatles found extra tracks for Revolver; another side of the moon was discovered by Pink Floyd; U2 planted another Joshua Tree. Sounds impossible, doesn't it? Well, the Boss had arguably the best three album run of the seventies (The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town) and now he's just dropped a fourth masterpiece from that peak period thirty-something years later. These twenty one tracks are not b-sides,Darkness cast-offs or novelties. They are the most thrilling and eclectic bunch of songs you'll hear in 2010. It sounds like Bruce's London Calling.

Disc one begins with Racing in the Streets ('78). I'm getting chicken skin just thinking about this track. Bittan's piano marches us into an electric track that sounds as if it could have been recorded for Born to Run. The songs are so strong on this disc that the one track I was really excited about hearing, Because the Night, is not one of the better songs (and it's great!) Candy's Boy brings out a sensitive side to that wild girl that we could have never imagined on Darkness.

Now I was fully prepared to be let down by the second disc. I thought Bruce had obviously front loaded this package. Was I wrong. If anything the second disc is more upbeat and melodic,revealing Springsteen's fifties and sixties influences. By the time the refrain on the second track, Ain't Enough for You kicked in, I felt like clapping right along. Also, the second disc contains the best track on the album, The Promise. It's as good as anything Springsteen has recorded (man, is that saying something!)

Okay, I'll take a breath and let the hurricane of hyperbole die down to a steady rain. Here's the facts: An iconic artist has released twenty two (surprise, there's a hidden track!) songs from his peak period. If you've ever turned up Born to Run when it comes on the radio or witnessed the live miracle of the Boss in concert, you owe it to yourself to buy this gift of an album. Merry (early) Christmas!

91 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Little Insubstantial At Times, November 24, 2010

By 

Bornintime (The East Coast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Promise (Audio CD)

I like this collection. I'm excited to have this collection. But I think, after listening to this repeatedly for a few days that this is not all that I hoped it would be. Despite the claims of the Springsteen camp this is not the long lost album between Born To Run and Darkness, not the missing link that will join these 2 masterpieces. Bruce and Stevie and John have been talking about how wonderful these 22 songs are but keep in mind a few things:

These songs were rejected when putting together Darkness.

These songs were rejected when putting together The River (even though the River had multiple songs from the Darkness era and had musical styles all across the spectrum).

These songs were rejected when putting together the Tracks collection (4 discs!)

These songs were rejected when putting together the bonus disc of studio outtakes for The Essential Bruce Springsteen.

It is a tribute to Bruce's talent that his 5th rate songs can still be of pretty solid quality. But to my ears about half of this collection is a little dull; mid tempo rockers with unmemorable lyrics and unremarkable (though somewhat catchy) melodies.

All that being said I can say that there are about 6 or 8 songs that are pretty solid and make this set worth the low price. My general lack of enthusiasm seems to speak to how great Bruce's instincts were when he put together Darkness. In listening to these songs as well as Tracks, etc. I don't think there is a single song on Darkness that I would swap out for another. The original released album is a complete, cohesive whole that works perfectly.

But there is another issue that has been discussed in some of these reviews. Bruce has recorded overdubs and actual vocals onto most of these tracks. The more I think about it the more I think this is quite simply just WRONG. I love Bruce's work throughout all of his career. I will buy the next cd the week it comes out like I have bought all the others. But in my opinion there is no reason for a 2009 Bruce vocal to be on a song from 1977. I don't care if it supposedly makes the song better. I would rather hear an "inferior" version (or no version at all) than hear something that has been doctored and sweetened to make it more palatable to an unknowing audience. Again this is just my opinion, but it seems deceptive and contradictory to the spirit of this release. I think the reason I am not more excited when I hear most of these songs is that my gut instictively knows that I am not hearing music from Bruce Springsteen in his prime as we were lead to believe.