Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love
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Free Music Notes for Tunnel of Love
Free Music Review: What a difference three years make
Hit: 4 Stars
Coming three years after the cultural phenomenon that was "Born In The USA", this record has a much more subdued Bruce Springsteen on the cover, wearing a black suit and a cautious look on his face.
It seems obvious that these often bleak songs about mistrust and deceit in a relationship reflect Springsteen's own marital problems at the time, and some of the lyrics on "Tunnel Of Love" are darker and more personal than most of what came before.
But that doesn't mean that it's all gloom and doom. "Ain't Got You" is a good-natured bluesy little number, and the glorious, slow rocker "Tougher Than The Rest" is one of my favorite Springsteen tune. The music is wonderful, and the lyrics are so incredibly macho - without even being vulgar ;o)
"All That Heaven Will Allow" is light-hearted and fun in spite of itself. "Brilliant Disguise" is one of Springsteen's later masterpieces, a bitter tale of supposed infidelity set to one of his very best tunes. The tragic, yet hopeful "Spare Parts" rocks, "Two Faces" and "One Step Up" are pleasant little mid-tempo folk rockers, and the quiet "Cautious Man" would have fitted seamlessly onto "Nebraska".
The only song that really doesn't work for me is actually the title track. A bland melody and too many unnecessary sound effects and annoying backing vocals.
"Tunnel Of Love" is certainly not the most accessible album Bruce Springsteen has ever made, and it is not as pop-radio friendly as "Born In The USA" or a cohesive as "Darkness On The Edge Of Town". But give it a chance, and you will find that the lesser songs are vastly outnumbered by the good ones. And besides, it has "Brilliant Disguise" and the majestic "Tougher Than The Rest". Gotta have those two, right?
Free Music Review: Bruce's Most Overlooked Album
Hit: 5 Stars
When most critics or casual fans think of Bruce's greatest albums, this 1987 effort is usually not one of those picked. It seems to have been lost in the bright spotlight of "Born in the USA" 3 years earlier. This is a shame, because it really is one of Springsteen's 2 or 3 finest albums. I don't know that I've ever heard another album that expresses one man's feelings of loneliness, deception, betrayal, and overall heartache as much as "Tunnel of Love" does. The lyrics and music are thoughtful, reflective, and passionate. I think every man can relate to the feelings Bruce expresses on this album. The songs provide a nice contrast to Springsteen's powerful rock anthems. Free Music Review: Redemption
Hit: 5 Stars
Three years after the stadium thunder entitled "Born In The USA," Sprinsgteen assembles (either by luck or design---you be the judge) his best work in almost a decade. Thoughtful, insightful, and mature, "Tunnel" is a classic example of how life manifests its universality via art. One could even argue that this album may be the original spark for several country and western sounds from the 90's to today.
This album opens up with a self-parody and self-pitying riff called "Ain't Got You." Remarkably sounding like some sort of "Elvis Unplugged" offering (complete with "misters" and sirs" in the lyrics), it's a light juke with mostly acoustic guitar and harmonica. By sharp contrast, the second cut, "Tougher Than The Rest," is a full-sounding ballad of hopeful love.
"All That Heaven Will Allow" is the poetic, hopeless romantic Springsteen. "Spare Parts" is Springsteen sounding like he's at a Texas roadhouse: hard, fast filled with determination despite the bad breaks of the central charcters. "Cautious Man" and "Walk Like a Man" quickly return to the insightful Springsteen. The former is a classic story about a amn and the difficulty of love. The latter is a first person account of life's lessons.
At this point the album starts to build to the climax. The title track is probably the only true pop offering. However, "Two Faces" and subsequently "Brilliant Disguise" and "One Step Up" are classic examples of Sprinsgteen (or his personae) in conflict. These three songs, in my opinion, are the essence of this album. "Brilliant Disguise" is a who's fooling who in a dark statement of love going south. "One Step Up" is simple exasperation: if you've ever experienced this in real life, these words will resonate clearly with you. The final two offerings close on a somber note, 'When You're Alone" and "valentine's Day" are remarkably darker, similiar to "The River' closing with "Wreck On The Highway."
The remarkable aspects of this album in my mind are: 1) Springsteen for the 4th album in a row finds a way to re-invent himself and 2) his outpouring of emotion in a controlled, but not contrived, manner gives this album distinctive realism. Replace some of the arrangements and production, and this could easily become a classic Johnny Cash album. And perhaps that beauty of this album: it's ability to speak to everyman. On 'Born In the USA," Springsteen did it in 4/4 time thanks to Max Weinberg's drums. This time Springsteen delivers from the heart...and hits the mark.
Sad how some of an artist's best work is inspired by perosnal turmoil (a poor marriage to Julianne Phillips, in this case). Perhaps Springsteen fans should be thankful to her; she may have provided the source for his best material/album ever.
Free Music Review: Bruce in love
Hit: 5 Stars
The want of love, the loss of love, the power of love, are all topics of this Springsteen "solo "album. Going in the opposite direction of BORN IN THE USA, TUNNEL OF LOVE softens the approach, allowing Springsteen the luxury of letting the simple melodies and heartfelt singing to be the focus of the song, rather than just an aspect of the song as was the case on BORN. Love the cause of so much joy and so much pain has always been a great topic for Springsteen's songwriting and while you might think a whole album dedicated to love might be too much, Springsteen pulls it off magnificently. While the E-Street Band makes appearances throughout, this really is Springsteen going it alone. A little more high-tech than NEBRASKA, TUNNEL OF LOVE reaches for the same sense of intimacy and grabs it with intensity.
Free Music Review: Underrated Best of Bruce's Career
Hit: 5 Stars
Obviously the majority of the reviews posted here agree with me that this is one of Bruce's finest albums. However, it seems to be one of the more neglected collections in his catalog, even from Bruce himself who rarely plays any of these songs in concert. To me, it's his most cohesive and coherent collections- a concept album without the pretentions that often go along with such. Bruce captures all the aspects of love and relationships, and that's not always a pretty thing. There's the unrealistic idealization of "Ain't Got You", the giddy joy and optimism of "All That Heaven Will Allow", the swagger and cockieness of "Tougher Than the Rest" (a great country song from a non-country artist), the ambiguity of the title song, and the despair and self-doubt of "Brilliant Disguise" and "One Step Up" (Bruce's most beautiful song, rivaled only by "Racing in the Street"), and finally the acceptance and moving on of "When You're Alone". I hope that my marriage never "falls apart when out go the lights", but it's great comfort to know that there's someone who recognizes that love is a strange, tenuous concept and that romance and relationships can bring out both the best and worst times in our lives. That we have Bruce Springsteen putting these ideas into song is truly a gift to any music-lover...