Devils & Dust
The last time Bruce Springsteen ventured West for inspiration, the result was the desolateNebraskaand its tales of serial killers and used cars. On his first record in three years, Springsteen navigates barren deserts and Old West war fields for a dozen forlorn songs that co-star the artist and his acoustic guitar. Though he's always had a knack for carving out the hooks and melodies that make each journey memorable, this time around Springsteen relies on the lyrics to carry the tune-desperate tales of tragedy, heartbreak, and lust with a Latino twist, like the boxer coming home ("The Hitter"), a distressing border-crossing incident ("Matamoros Banks"), and the Nevada hooker with good intentions ("Reno," which led to the warning stickerAdult Imagery). With no E Street Band in the mix, the album is decorated with horns and strings and Springsteen’s novel falsetto on two his best efforts: "Maria’s Bed," where the narrator comes home to his woman after 40 nights on the road, and the fast-picking "All I’m Thinkin’ About," where he has more than Carolina on his mind. A decade from now this will be an underrated record in the Springsteen chronicles.--Scott HolterThe Best of Bruceby guest editor Steve PerrySteve is editor-in-chief ofCity Pagesnewspaper in Minneapolis, Minnesota.The    Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle(1973)After    a folk-rockish debut album that bubbled with ideas and dense lyrical play, this    is where Springsteen began to find his voice as a rocker and as a songwriter.    The prisoner-of-love romanticism of "Rosalita" and "Incident on 57th Street"    hinted at what was coming, and this early version of the E Street Band--jazzier    and more spare than later versions, thanks largely to David Sancious's piano--sounds    great, if a little ragged, these many years later.Born    to Run(1975) andDarkness    on the Edge of Town(1978)These two records, which belong on any compilation of the top 100 rock albums    of all time, sketched the themes that he would spend his whole career chasing,    and defined the expectations fans would bring to his records ever after. The    first chords of "Born to Run" sounded like freedom itself the first time I heard    them on the radio, and the album lived up to them. "Thunder Road" is still the    greatest rock & roll love song anyone's ever written. The record sounded    so big and impassioned and propulsive it was easy to miss the dread running    underneath it.Darkness...put the dread front and center. There are    more of his best songs here than anywhere else, even if the sound is muddy and    leaden at times.Nebraska(1982)AfterThe River(the best record that didn't make this list) and the ensuing    tour answered his rock & roll prayers--he was a big star now, not just a    perennial critics' favorite--Springsteen holed up in a rented house on the Jersey    shore, where he wrote these songs and sang them into a four-track recorder in    his living room. The tape was supposed to be a demo for the band, but after    several false tries he concluded that the tape he'd been carrying around in    his pocket was the record. Quiet and bleak,Nebraskanonetheless grabbed    you by the collar and made you listen as surely as his rock & roll records    ever had.Tunnel    of Love(1987)The    glare and hubbub surrounding theBorn in the USAtour (the tour was    great--the record itself overrated) made him pull back again, this time to write    a cycle of songs about love and fear and self-doubt. After this, Springsteen's    first marriage broke up, and he started a family with Patti Scialfa, disappearing    for the better part of 10 years, notwithstanding the pair of not bad, just disappointing    albums he released in 1992,Human TouchandLucky Town.The    Ghost of Tom Joad(1995)Some call itNebraska II, but his second acoustic album was not a repeat    of his first--the characters and settings had changed, and their circumstances    were more expressly desperate, and social--though it did share the same interest    in what happens to people whose isolation or marginal status renders them invisible.The    Rising(2002)Everybody--including Springsteen himself--seemed to think it was a record about 9/11, but the subject    was broader: death and loss as seen from more than halfway down life's road.    Dave Marsh nailed it: "A middle-aged man confronts death and chooses life."    Brendan O'Brien's production sounds great.