Product Description

TUNNEL OF LOVE (Bruce Springsteen's ninth album) is essentially a solo release and marked the final chapter of The E Street band, whose members appear separately on several tracks. Springsteen's home studio in Rumson, New Jersey was the primary recording location.
Popular music as an art form has attained some of its greatest peaks when dealing with the thorny material of relationships. Bruce Springsteen's TunnelOf Love, a powerful meditation on his own disintegrating marriage, represents a classic of its type. Predominantly an intimate solo recording the songs convey the gamut of emotions experienced in a long-term relationship, from desire ('Ain't Got You') through disquiet and deceit ('Tunnel Of Love' and 'Brilliant Disguise') to despair ('When You're Alone'), ending on a note of cautious optimism ('Valentine's Day'). Springsteen would never again be as nakedly emotional as he was on this beautiful and honest album.

Track Listing

1. Ain't Got You
2. Tougher Than The Rest
3. All That Heaven Will Allow
4. Spare Parts
5. Cautious Man
6. Walk Like A Man
7. Tunnel Of Love
8. Two Faces
9. Brilliant Disguise
10. One Step Up
11. When You're Alone
12. Valentine's Day

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24539 in Music
• Released on: 2003-05-05
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
After several years at the top of the rock world, Springsteen pulled back the reins on Tunnel of Love--a lot, not just a little. Members of the E Street Band played on the album but seldom in full-band arrangements. Then, too, there are the deeply conflicted songs--"Brilliant Disguise", "Two Faces", "Tunnel of Love", "One Step Up"--that may have been written in response to the imminent failure of his first marriage. There's more to the album than divorce-court play-by-play, however. There's also the raw rocker "Spare Parts", the sprightly "All That Heaven Will Allow" and the bold declaration "Tougher Than the Rest". Overall, these are some of his most thoughtful songs and most intimate performances. --Daniel Durchholz

Customer Reviews

Springsteen classic - polished pop
As can be determined from the cover art, this is not Springsteen at his rough and tough best, but it is a collection of polished pop songs from his 1980s prime. These are heartfelt and have aged well over the subsequent years. Springsteen purists might think he went and just earned the pop music dollars with this album, but it still stands as an excellent example of where he was with his songs in the 1980s... not his best, but tougher than the rest...

Bruce's Break Up Album
After Born in the USA launches Bruce into the premier league of stadium rock acts he makes one of those brave creative decisions which he does from time to time.

Tunnel of love dispenses with the bright poppy production of Born in the USA in favour of a more intimate rock album signifying the break up of his improbable marriage to model/acrtress/whatever Julianne Phillips. This is not an album for everybody or indeed for every occasion, but boy are there some gems in here.

The a capella opening of Aint Got You immediately suggests that this is not BitUSA part 2 but something barer, more intense and intensely personal. The song is an unrequited love song to a Bo diddly type beat, cataloging an impressive list of stuff the boss has but it means nothing as he does not have the one thing money cannot buy. This is followed by Tougher Than the Rest a similarly warped, dark love song which almost has a C&W feel, no pedal steel guitars but a morose plodding synth backing - but the language of the song owes much to country music. Contrasting this is the lighter All that Heaven Will Allow - perhaps the poppiest non single on the album, a simpler romance.

Spare Parts is a more narrative song about a woman who's life which is ruined by unprotected sex, the resultant baby and absentee father. This is slightly rockier Nebraska type song, the lyric is typical Springsteen a spare yet detailed narrative about the less fortunate. Cautious Man continues in a similar vein.

Walk like a man is simpler fare - the story of a man growing up to be like his father, and realising there is a lot in life you need to figure out for yourself.

On the LP the second side opens with the mighty title track. Tunnel of Love is not like anything else in the Springsteen canon. An urgent rock song using fairground rides as a metaphor for love and life. Majestic. The tunnel of love tour opened with this song and proved to be belting set opener.

Two Faces is a stark self appraisal in song form, outlining the duality of his personality in relation to his wife. The single Brilliant Disguise is an extension of this theme in a more radio friendly form.

All of the songs carry this starkness and convey inensely personal views of the writers' perspective of life and love at this difficult time in his life.

There is not a bad song on here but it is not a record for days when you are feeling low or in the throes of a break up. In all it is a beautiful, undervalued classic record. Not his best and not my favourite but I think that may be in no small part because of its difficult subject matter.

A pointer to the future
After the barnstorming stadium rock and elevation to mega-stardom that was "Born In The USA", Bruce Springsteen, as is often his wont, decided to change things round a bit. The old faithful E Street Band, who had served him so well for so many years, are barely present on this album, save one or two individual session spots. Thus it is rendered a virtual solo album of quiet, introspective songs. There is no "rawk" on this album at all, just low-key melodic tunes and mournful, reflective lyrics, no good-time bar-room fare to be found, just ruminations on the infertility of a bad marriage (to model/actress Julianne Phillips) and the hopelessness of the human condition in general. The latter songs, such as "Cautious Man" and "Spare Parts" are told, "Nebraska"-style, in third person narration. The others are largely autobiographical "Walk Like A Man", "All That Heaven Will Allow", "Valentine's Day", "Tougher Than The Rest" and the under-rated and beautiful "One Step Up".

This is such a low-key album is is all but forgotten in the Springsteen canon, and shouldn't be. Nevertheless, the "solo" aspect to it should not be ignored as Springsteen was to dispense with his band for a period of twelve years after this. Just when his star was at its zenith, he almost deliberately reached up and pulled it down. He could have milked the "Born In The USA" fallout and effect for many years but chose not to do so. He has to be admired for that.