Spotlight Reviews
 ****½
In any body of work there are obvious high points, says Bruce Springsteen in his foreword to the "Essential" booklet. The rest depends on who's doing the listening. You know..."one man's coffe is another man's tea..."
No doubt Springsteen has had a hard time choosing these thirty songs, and his choices won't please everybody. Why "Tunnel Of Love" is chosen to represent the album of the same name instead of the much better "Tougher Than The Rest" is a mystery, as is the omission of "Waiting On A Sunny Day", "You Can Look (but you better not touch)", and the criminally underrated rocker "Sherry Darling". The nine-minute live rendition of the good-but-not-great "Land Of Hope And Dreams" could certainly have been sacrificed in favour of a couple of better songs. Most of these songs are very well-chosen, however...Springsteen have chosen the five best songs from his first two albums, and restricted himself to three songs from the commercially and critically disappointing "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town" albums. If you're a casual fan, and just want one Springsteen disc in your collection, "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" is a fine choice, since it manages to include most of the highlights from his twelve studio albums.
So should you get this one rather than the single-disc "Greatest Hits"? Well, depending on what it is you are looking for, "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" is a much better career summary in the sense that it is much more comprehensive, and also includes songs from his first two albums. But if you just want the radio hits, "Greatest Hits" is probably more your thing. The "free" rarities disc includes some great songs, some good ones, and some utterly forgettable ones as well, particularly "Missing" and "Lift Me Up". And I don't know about you, bit I really don't need another version of "Viva Las Vegas".
But I was certainly happy to see that the glorious three-chord rocker "From Small Things (big things one day come)" finally available in an official Bruce Springsteen version, and the mean, punchy little rockabilly tune "The Big Payback", the grand rocker "None But The Brave", and the live "Trapped" and "Held Up Without A Gun" are very nice as well. (The tune of "None But The Brave" is at times very similar to "I Wanna Marry You", a song from "The River", which may be why it was cut from "Born In The USA", the album for which it was recorded.) Hard core Springsteen fans will want this collection for the rarities disc, and newcomers and casual admirers will find "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" to be a comprehensive, if not truly exhaustive, career overview.
The sound is excellent (some remastering and revision has been done by former Bryan Adams and AC/DC-associate Bob Ludwig), and even though the omission of "Waiting On A Sunny Day" and "Tougher Than The Rest" really bugs me, almost all of the thirty songs on the first two discs are excellent examples of the talent and versatility of Bruce Springsteen.
The booklet is nice, too, by the way, featuring the lyrics to every song, including the ones on the bonus disc.
4 1/2 stars. One man's coffee....
In any body of work there are obvious high points, says Bruce Springsteen in his foreword to the "Essential" booklet. The rest depends on who's doing the listening. You know..."one man's coffe is another man's tea..." No doubt Springsteen has had a hard time choosing these thirty songs, and his choices won't please everybody. Why "Tunnel Of Love" is chosen to represent the album of the same name instead of the much better "Tougher Than The Rest" is a mystery, as is the omission of "Waiting On A Sunny Day", "You Can Look (but you better not touch)", and the criminally underrated rocker "Sherry Darling". The nine-minute live rendition of the good-but-not-great "Land Of Hope And Dreams" could certainly have been sacrificed in favour of a couple of better songs. If you're a casual fan, and just want one Springsteen disc in your collection, "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" is a fine choice, since it manages to include most of the highlights from his twelve studio albums.
So should you get this one rather than the single-disc "Greatest Hits"? Well, depending on what it is you are looking for, "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" is a much better career summary in the sense that it is much more comprehensive, and also includes songs from his first two albums. But if you just want the radio hits, "Greatest Hits" is probably more your thing. The "free" rarities disc includes some great songs, some good ones, and some utterly forgettable ones as well, particularly "Missing" and "Lift Me Up". But I was certainly happy to see that the glorious three-chord rocker "From Small Things (big things one day come)" finally available in an official Bruce Springsteen version, and the mean, punchy little rockabilly tune "The Big Payback", the grand rocker "None But The Brave", and the live "Trapped" and "Held Up Without A Gun" are very nice as well. (The tune of "None But The Brave" is at times very similar to "I Wanna Marry You", a song from "The River", which may be why it was cut from "Born In The USA", the album for which it was recorded.) Hard core Springsteen fans will want this collection for the rarities disc, and newcomers and casual admirers will find "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" to be a comprehensive, if not truly exhaustive, career overview.
The sound is excellent (some remastering and revision has been done by former Bryan Adams and AC/DC-associate Bob Ludwig), and even though the omission of "Waiting On A Sunny Day" and "Tougher Than The Rest" really bugs me, almost all of the thirty songs on the first two discs are excellent examples of the talent and versatility of Bruce Springsteen.
The booklet is nice, too, by the way, featuring the lyrics to every song, including the ones on the bonus disc.
4 1/2 stars.  Beware!!! Corporate Sellout!
I'll have to admit that I don't know much about Bruce Springsteen. So when I saw this for sale at Walmart, I put the "Essential Linda Ronstadt" down that i was going to buy my mom for mother's day and grabbed this for myself instead. From the first track I was loving it! I thought this man is truly a talent and couldn't wait to see how he had matured as a songwriter by the third disc. Sadly I didn't get that far, and by the second half of disc one I realized that "The Boss" had done like so many other....he sold out! Just like Pink Floyd had done with "Dark Side Of The Moon," Springcan'tsing was making generic bottom-line-only music. Its sad to think what he could have been.
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