THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Seven previously unheard Bruce Springsteen records have been released for the first time on the long-anticipated Tracks II: The Lost Albums. With 83 songs, The Lost Albums fill in rich chapters of Springsteen’s expansive career — while offering invaluable insight into his life and work as an artist. “The Lost Albums were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed,” said Springsteen. “I’ve played this music to myself and often close friends for years now. I’m glad you’ll get a chance to finally hear them.”
From the lo-fi exploration of LA Garage Sessions ’83 — serving as a crucial link between Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A. — to the drum loop and synthesizer sounds of Streets of Philadelphia Sessions, The Lost Albums offer unprecedented context into 35 prolific years (1983-2018) of Springsteen’s songwriting and home recording. “The ability to record at home whenever I wanted allowed me to go into a wide variety of different musical directions,” Springsteen explained. Throughout the set, that sonic experimentation takes the form of film soundtrack work (for a movie that was never made) on Faithless, country combos with pedal steel on Somewhere North of Nashville, richly woven border tales on Inyo and orchestra-driven, mid-century noir on Twilight Hours.
Written on the heels of its Oscar-winning namesake, the 10-song Streets of Philadelphia Sessions found Springsteen exploring an interest in the rhythms of mid-1990s contemporary music, and particularly West Coast hip-hop. Initially pouring over CDs of drum samples at his home in Los Angeles, Springsteen began making his own loops with engineer Toby Scott — which formed a rhythmic base he’d build on with keyboards and synthesizers. Both a revelation and departure in his home recording, Springsteen is the primary instrumentalist throughout most of Streets of Philadelphia Sessions — with some assists from his 1992-1993 touring band as well as Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell.
At the thematic center of Streets of Philadelphia Sessions is Blind Spot, a song which explores doubt and betrayal in relationships. “That was just the theme that I locked in on at that moment,” Springsteen explains. “I don’t really know why. Patti and I, we were having a great time in California. But sometimes if you lock into one song you like, then you follow that thread. I had Blind Spot, and I followed that thread through the rest of the record.”
Fully completed, mixed and slated for a spring 1995 release, Streets of Philadelphia Sessions was ultimately put aside — as Springsteen decided to reunite with The E Street Band for the first time in seven years. “I said, ‘Well, maybe it’s time to just do something with the band, or remind the fans of the band or that part of my work life,’” he remembers. “So that’s where we went. But I always really liked Streets of Philadelphia Sessions… during the Broadway show, I thought of putting it out (as a standalone release). I always put them away, but I don’t throw them away.”
