Product Description

1. Better Days 2. Lucky Town 3. Local Hero 4. If I Should Fall Behind 5. Leap Of Faith 6. The Big Muddy 7. Living Proof 8. Book Of Dreams 9. Souls Of The Departed 10. My Beautiful Reward

Track Listing

1. Better Days
2. Lucky Town
3. Local Hero
4. If I Should Fall Behind
5. Leap Of Faith
6. Big Muddy
7. Living Proof
8. Book Of Dreams
9. Souls Of The Departed
10. My Beautiful Reward

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5595 in Music
• Released on: 2000-01-10
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
After a five year recording hiatus following the emotionally eloquent TUNNEL OF LOVE (and a subsequent world tour), Springsteen returned in 1992 with the tandem release of HUMAN TOUCH and LUCKY TOWN. Though released separately, both albumssignalled the singer's more mature preoccupation with introspective, complicated themes of desire, despair and regret. The albums were also Springsteen's first without the full E Street Band. HUMAN TOUCH and LUCKY TOWN marry Springsteen's popular persona of fist-waving, stadium rocker with the morereflective, rootsier sound the singer favoured on NEBRASKA.
LUCKY TOWN's "Better Days" is Springsteen's forthright contemplation of his contradictory status as a multi-millionaire, working class hero. The slight Nashville lilt of "If I Should Fall Behind" is reminiscent of the sentimental balladry on BORN IN THE USA and "Leap of Faith" is a keening, raspy return to the Springsteen of anthemic yore. HUMAN TOUCH and LUCKY TOWN may never be revered in same way as some of hisother releases, but both albums are immensely satisfying asa double shot farewell to the raucous rebelliousness of Springsteen's youthful rock and roll years.

Customer Reviews

It takes a Leap of Faith.
If ever there was an underdog that need championing, then this album surely qualifies.Though not completely panned upon it's release, it was hardly held up to much critical acclaim either.Put out simultaneously with "Human Touch", that record in my eyes was the album the Boss felt he had to release, containing songs that he felt the public expected to hear, "Lucky Town" however feels and sounds like the album he wanted to make, or indeed maybe even needed to make.
In this respect "Lucky Town" is a very honest and personal record, detailing a specific ongoing portion of Springsteen's life, much like "Tunnel of Love" had done 5 years previously.Not only though is this (for the most part) a more upbeat, optimistic album , it also contain some of Bruce's best writing, the songs being full of memorable, meaningful couplets and verses.From the belting opening "Better Days", with lines line "I took a piss at fortune's sweet kiss, it's like eating caviar and dirt,it's a sad funny ending when you find yourself pretending, a rich man in a poor man's shirt", and the whole premise of "Local Hero", Springsteen is able to take a humble, almost self-mocking view of himself and his life up to that point.Both songs along with the title track, with it's opening lines of "House got too crowded, clothes got too tight,and i don't know just where i'm going tonight" suggest a man about to break loose, on the verge of something special.These feelings are encapsulated perfectly in the gorgeous closing song, where Springsteen sums up the prevailing mood, "Searching for My Beautiful Reward".
Inbetween we get glimpses that maybe the Boss has found what he has been looking for, "If i Should Fall Behind" is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written, and details the two seperate entities in any relationship trying to find the pace of the other.In "Living Proof" Bruce sings how "This boy sleepin' in our bed" is that "little piece of the Lord's undying light" he has been waiting to witness, and divine "Book of Dreams" should certainly be played at every wedding.
I think maybe you have to be a certain age to really connect with these songs, to have been down but crawled back up, or been hauled back up.Other Springsteen fans will rightly point to other albums as their favourites but "Lucky Town" works for me as a whole entity, each song compliments the others, they cannot be seperated or added to without messing up the structure.It is an album full of superb songs but also an album in which the finished article is greater than the sum of the individual parts.It is certainly worth a Leap of Faith to experience it.

So-so
If Bruce Springsteen had released the best material from his two twin albums "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town" on one LP instead of putting out both of them, he would have ended up with a hell of a record.
But he didn't, and both albums suffer as a result.

"Lucky Town" has better lyrics and slightly stronger material than "Human Touch", though.
Springsteen comments upon commercial success, something with which he clearly isn't totally comfortable, and sings about romantic fidelity (a far cry from "Tunnel Of Love"), as well as doing scathing social commentary (on the tough, murkily produced rocker "Souls Of The Departed").

The best song on "Lucky Town" is by far the title track, a glorious hard rock song filled with hooks. But there are other good songs as well, including "Better Days", "Local Hero", and the low-key "If I Should Fall Behind".

The only "problem" is that generic rock songs like "Leap Of Faith", "Better Days" and "Living Proof" all sound more or less the same, and they all sound like something Springsteen has done before, keeping "Lucky Town" from being truly original or interesting.
It's a good record, but not one that I return to a lot.

3½ stars.

Springsteen on top form
I can only echo the sentiments of most of the other reviewers.
This is, according to the experts Bruce SPRINGSTEEN's weaker period. I can't help but think that those who knock this album haven't really listened to it. It's purely and simply vintage SPRINGSTEEN and is a pleasure from start to finish. Stand out tracks? well, more than one - my favourite being LIVING PROOF which has a terrific beat coupled with dynamic lyrics. Is there a rock artist whose words are so easy to identify with? I don't think so. BETTER DAYS is a great tune, as are LUCKY TOWN and LOCAL HERO which follow it. Not just a rocker though because BOOK OF DREAMS and BEAUTIFUL REWARD are great ballads.
If you are a SPRINGSTEEN follower and this album has passed you by, then give it another try. Honestly, this is pure 5 star material.