On this long awaited effort, Springsteen eschews the tight dense sound of his acclaimed "Born To Run" to put the emphasis on his unique throaty singing style. While more sparse, the music is equally powerful, with the seven-man band behind Springsteen aided by the studio prowess of the producers along with Steve Van Zandt, Jimmy Iovine and Charles Plotkin. Springsteen's lyrics continue their exploration of doom and adolescent angst as perceived is small New Jersey towns. This is the type of album that grows with each listening. Best cuts: "Adam Raised Cain," "Factory," "Prove It All Night," "Darkness On The Edge Of Town."

- Billboard, 1978.

Bonus Reviews!

"Promised Land," "Badlands," and "Adam Raised a Cain" are models of how an unsophisticated genre can illuminate a mature, full-bodied philosophical insight. Lyrically and vocally, they move from casual to incantatory modes with breathtaking subtlety, jolting ordinary details into meaning. But many of the other songs remain low-color pieces, and at least two -- "Something in the Night" and "Streets of Fire" -- are overwrought, soggy, all but unlistenable. An important minor artist or a rather flawed and inconsistent major one. B+

- Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981.

The delayed release of this album served notice that Springsteen, like Stevie Wonder, would not churn out product by any set schedule. Three years had passed since his previous work, Born to Run. In truth, the gap would have been shorter had he not been absorbed for the better part of the year in a legal scuffle with his former manager.

Also like Stevie Wonder, Springsteen did not merely record enough tracks to fill an album, but wrote many songs and selected numbers that would work together to produce the effect he desired. As with Stevie, some numbers were given to other artists, some retained for future albums, and several consigned to seemingly interminable limbo.

The effect Bruce and his producers did create with this album was intense and powerful, too strong for AM radio. Though several tracks were outstanding, none emerged as hit singles, "Prove It All Night" and "Badlands" peaking in the mid-third of the Hot 100.

In 1987, Darkness on the Edge of Town was chosen by a panel of rock critics and music broadcasters as the #59 rock album of all time.

- Paul Gambaccini, The Top 100 Rock 'n' Roll Albums of All Time, Harmony Books, 1987.

Contractual disputes kept Springsteen out of the studio for a couple of years. So when he bounced back after two years of intensive touring he had hardened his performance and honed his professionalism. The lyrics of these new songs were written from a more mature viewpoint -- teenage obsessions replaced by a working man's concerns.

Another Jimmy Iovine/Record Plant recording, Darkness is far tighter and "shifts gear" so much more easily than Born to Run. The deliberate padding out of the sound is no longer indulged in and the recording sets out to capture the band straight-head on.

Springsteen's screaming delivery in a song like "Adam Raised a Cain" is still robbed of much of its impact by the relatively two-dimensional recording. The density of sound leaves the album without ebb and flow.

- David Prakel, Rock 'n' Roll on Compact Disc, 1987.

From the cover photos to the contents, it's clear that this is the statement of a changed man; the boyish beliefs have been supplanted by hard won knowledge of the "real" world. (Obviously, reflection of two years of court battles with his first opportunistic manager which kept him out of the recording studio where he might have capitalized on the resounding acclamation accorded Born to Run.) Darkness on the Edge of Town echoes with the honed down gritiness of material that reflects more the reality than the romance of his beloved road. Highlighted by Bruce's painfully potent vocal outpourings and his slashing guitar, it includes some of his strongest material, "Promised Land," "Badlands," "Adam Raised a Cain" and the title cut. The CD sound is uneven, admittedly dynamic and crisp most of the time, it is impaired by occasional harshness and audible hiss on the quieter sections. Overall, the sound is an improvement over the LP, but would be substantially better if there were clearer separations among the various voicings. A

- Bill Shapiro, Rock & Roll Review: A Guide to Good Rock on CD, 1991.

Coming three years, and one extended court battle, after the commercial breakthrough of Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town was highly anticipated. Some attributed the album's embattled tone to Springsteen's legal troubles, but it carried on from Born to Run, in which Springsteen had first begun to view his colorful cast of characters as "losers." On Darkness, he began to see them as the working class. One song was called "Factory," and in another, "Badlands," "you" work "'neath the wheel/Till you get your facts learned." Those "facts" are that "Poor man wanna be rich/Rich man wanna be king/And a king ain't satisfied/Till he rules everything." But Springsteen's characters, some of whom he inhabited and sang for in the first person, had little and were in danger of losing even that. Their only hope for redemption lay in working harder -- "You gotta live it everyday," he sang in "Badlands," but you also, as another song noted, have to "Prove It All Night." And their only escape lay in driving. Springsteen presented these hard truths in hard rock settings, the tracks paced by powerful drumming and searing guitar solos. Though not as heavily produced as Born to Run, Darkness was given a full-bodied sound, with prominent keyboards and double-tracked vocals. Springsteen's stories were becoming less heroic, but his musical style remained grand. Yet the sound, and the conviction in his singing, added weight to songs like "Racing in the Street" and the title track, transforming the pathetic into the tragic. But despite the rock & roll fervor, Darkness was no easy listen, and it served notice that Springsteen was already willing to risk his popularity for his principles. Indeed, Darkness was not as big a seller as Born to Run. And it presaged even starker efforts, such as Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad.

- William Ruhlmann, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

On this, the flip side of Born to Run, the idealism of those characters turns into stark terror once they hit adulthood. This is where Springsteen's reputation as a working-class mouthpiece is based, but there's much more here than that. * * * *

- John Floyd, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

Coming after a long legal battle to extricate himself from a management deal, Darkness on the Edge of Town is indeed darker than Born to Run but not without redemptive hope in songs such as "Badlands" and "The Promised Land." This may well be Springsteen's best batch of songs, though the production is criminally flat. * * * * 1/2

- Gary Graff, Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, 1996.

After a three-year absence imposed by legal battles with his former manager, Bruce returned with a blistering tour de force that really showed off his band. Though the production is a little rough, this cathartic record is tight and direct with some of his most resonant songs. Turning to the troubles of adulthood, it offered a brooding, stark version of life for his characters and yet hope shines through -- "I believe in the promised land," indeed. * * * * *

- Zagat Survey Music Guide - 1,000 Top Albums of All Time, 2003.

"When I was making this particular album, I just had a specific thing in mind," Springsteen told Rolling Stone. "It had to be just a relentless...just a barrage of that particular thing." That obsession was the aftermath of the epic romanticism of his first three records: songs about people struggling with collapsed dreams. This was tough music, inspired by tough movies by Sergio Leone and John Ford. Recorded after a long absence from the studio (due to a lawsuit against his former manager), Springsteen and the E Street Band played rockers such as "Badlands" and "Promised Land" with barely contained passion.

Darkness on the Edge of Town was chosen as the 151st greatest album of all time by the editors of Rolling Stone magazine in Dec. 2003.

- Rolling Stone, 12/11/03.

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