Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Tracks II: The Lost Albums’ comes out this Friday. Critics are calling it the greatest box set of all time.
Bruce Springsteen is releasing on Friday a treasure trove of 83 previously unreleased songs. Tracks II: The Lost Albums is a box set of seven albums written and recorded by Springsteen between 1983 and 2018. Of the included 83 songs, 74 of them have never been heard before in any form.
“‘The Lost Albums’ were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released,” Springsteen wrote in a statement. “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. I hope you enjoy them.”
Tracks II is the sequel to Springsteen’s first multi-album release from 1998, Tracks, which consisted of a four-CD box set with 66 unreleased songs. While the original Tracks was “arranged in a loosely chronological order,” Tracks II differs in that it’s distinctly categorized into seven disparate albums.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R24ekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R44ekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframe“These were actual albums that were of a piece, of a moment, of a genre — that fell together, often while working on other albums,” the 75-year-old hitmaker told the New York Times last week.
The release of Tracks II comes less than two weeks after 20th Century Studios released the first official trailer for the forthcoming Springsteen biopic, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White.
Below is everything to know about Tracks II ahead of its highly anticipated debut.
What songs are on ‘Tracks II’?
Tracks II: The Lost Albums will feature a whopping 83 previously unreleased songs spanning seven separate albums. The seven album titles, along with their respective track lists, are as follows:
LA Garage Sessions ’83
“Follow That Dream”
“Don’t Back Down on Our Love”
“Little Girl Like You”
“Johnny Bye Bye”
“Sugarland”
“Seven Tears”
“Fugitive’s Dream”
“Black Mountain Ballad”
“Jim Deer”
“County Fair”
“My Hometown”
“One Love”
“Don’t Back Down”
“Richfield Whistle”
“The Klansman”
“Unsatisfied Heart”
“Shut Out The Light”
“Fugitive’s Dream (Ballad)”
Streets of Philadelphia Sessions
“Blind Spot”
“Maybe I Don’t Know You”
“Something In The Well”
“Waiting on the End of the World”
“The Little Things”
“We Fell Down”
“One Beautiful Morning”
“Between Heaven and Earth”
“Secret Garden”
“The Farewell Party”
Faithless
“The Desert (Instrumental)”
“Where You Goin’, Where You From”
“Faithless”
“All God’s Children”
“A Prayer By The River (Instrumental)”
“God Sent You”
“Goin’ To California”
“The Western Sea (Instrumental)”
“My Master’s Hand”
“Let Me Ride”
“My Master’s Hand (Theme)”
Somewhere North of Nashville
“Repo Man”
“Tiger Rose”
“Poor Side of Town”
“Delivery Man”
“Under A Big Sky”
“Detail Man”
“Silver Mountain”
“Janey Don’t You Lose Heart”
“You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone”
“Stand On It”
“Blue Highway”
“Somewhere North of Nashville”
Inyo
“Inyo”
“Indian Town”
“Adelita”
“The Aztec Dance”
“The Lost Charro”
“Our Lady of Monroe”
“El Jardinero (Upon the Death of Ramona)”
“One False Move”
“Ciudad Juarez”
“When I Build My Beautiful House”
Twilight Hours
“Sunday Love”
“Late in the Evening”
“Two of Us”
“Lonely Town”
“September Kisses”
“Twilight Hours”
“I’ll Stand By You”
“High Sierra”
“Sunliner”
“Another You”
“Dinner at Eight”
“Follow The Sun”
Perfect World
“I’m Not Sleeping”
“Idiot’s Delight”
“Another Thin Line”
“The Great Depression”
“Blind Man”
“Rain In The River”
“If I Could Only Be Your Lover”
“Cutting Knife”
“You Lifted Me Up”
“Perfect World”
Does the box set come with anything else?
Springsteen performing in Clarkston, Ga., last fall. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)While Tracks II will be available to stream in its entirety on all major platforms, the physical box set is also available for purchase.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R2sekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R4sekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframeSpringsteen fans are in for a treat: The seven-album box set includes a 100-page hardcover book with archival photos, liner notes on each album by archivist and music industry executive Erik Flannigan and an introduction to the project written by Springsteen himself.
On Springsteen’s official website, The Lost Albums seven-CD box set retails for $299.99.
What has Springsteen said about ‘Tracks II’?
Springsteen on stage in Donostia, Spain, June 21. (Gari Garaialde/Redferns)The assembly of Tracks II: The Lost Albums began in 2018, and Springsteen finished “everything I had in my vault” in 2020. Springsteen, however, didn’t release Tracks II until now because the timing didn't seem right.
“I believe I’m engaged in a conversation with my audience that has a certain ebb and flow as to when records are released,” he told the New York Times.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R33ekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R53ekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframeSpringsteen also spoke of how his music frequently explores themes like isolation and depression.
“A lot of my music deals with the idea of American isolation, he told the outlet, "which pours out of the streak of individualism that is a part of the country’s personality. And also out of depression. You feel very isolated and alone. So I have a lot of characters who are fundamentally loners, which is a big part of my personality.”
Read more from Yahoo:
Rolling Stone calls Tracks II: The Lost Albums “a tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s stubborn streak”
The Telegraph says it’s “the greatest box set of all time”
Associated Press: The album “gives Springsteen completists plenty to mull over”
What’s to come for Springsteen?
Springsteen, Jeremy Allen White and Matthew Anthony Pellicano on the set of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere in Freehold, N.J. (Bobby Bank/GC Images)For starters, Springsteen has already finished his third archival release, Tracks III.
AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R3cekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#«R5cekkr8lb2m7nfblbH1» iframe“‘Tracks III,’ that is finished,” he told the New York Times. “It’s basically what was left in the vault … So there was a lot of good music left. There are five full albums of music.”
Springsteen is also the subject of the forthcoming film, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, which hits theaters this October. The biographical drama, starring Jeremy Allen White, is based on Warren Zanes’s 2023 book of the same name that chronicles Springsteen’s life before and after the recording of his sixth studio album, Nebraska, released in 1982. The album, recorded in Springsteen’s bedroom, is one of his most acclaimed, for its stripped-down, acoustic sound and somber, introspective lyrics.
“I mean, there’s some unusualness to it because the movie involves, in some ways, some of the most painful days of my life,” Springsteen told Rolling Stone of the film. “But it was a great project, and Jeremy and Jeremy Strong [who plays manager Jon Landau] were both fantastic, terrific in it as were all the other actors. Stephen Graham plays my dad, and he’s out of this world, but everybody that was engaged in the film, they were all tremendous.”
Cover thumbnail photo: Nathan Morris/NurPhoto via Getty Images
