Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Perfect World’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

The cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Perfect World” album.

(Note: This is the seventh and last post in a series in which I have reviewed all the albums in Bruce Springsteen’s “Tracks II: The Lost Albums” boxed set, separately. The set will come out on June 27.)

Tracks II: The Lost Albums should really be called The Lost Albums Plus ‘Perfect World.” Because this album, unlike the six others, was never lost.

“That’s the one thing on this that wasn’t initially conceived as an album, but it was something I put together” for the boxed set, says Springsteen in the liner notes. That makes it, in a way, the least interesting of the Tracks II albums, since it’s really just a random collection of songs — not something that Springsteen thought, at some point, could hold together as a cohesive artistic statement.

Still, of the seven Tracks II albums, Perfect World sounds the most like something that Springsteen might record as an E Street Band project. And E Street musicians are, indeed, all over it — though, following the boxed set’s frequent strategy, most of the instruments, on most of the tracks, are played by Springsteen and co-producer Ron Aniello.

The most unusual (for Springsteen) track on it is “You Lifted Me Up,” a song of spiritual and/or romantic rapture with repetitive, bare-bones lyrics. The verses are one-word phrases (“All of my praise to you,” “All of my faith’s in you,” “All of my love’s with you”), repeated multiple times; the choruses are just the title phrase (or, one time, “You are my prayer”), sung over and over. And that’s it.

According to the liner notes, the hard-hitting “Rain in the River” (already released as a single) dates all the way back to 1994 and the title track to 1997, and both songs, as well as “If I Could Only Be Your Lover,” were considered for Springsteen’s 2012 Wrecking Ball album.

“I’m Not Sleeping,” “Idiot’s Delight” and “Another Thin Line” were all co-written by Springsteen and Joe Grusehcky in the ’90s or early ’00s and recorded by Grushecky for his own albums, and have been performed in concert by both Grushecky and Springsteen.

The title track was recorded by John Mellencamp on his 2023 album Orpheus Descending.

Bruce Springsteen’s “Tracks II: The Lost Albums” will be released on June 27.

I like the snarling “Idiot’s Delight” the best among the Grushecky tracks, which are grouped together at the start of the album.

I am also very fond of “The Great Depression” and “If I Could Only Be Your Lover” — ornate pop songs with complex, sensitively sung lyrics. Especially the latter, whose title and chorus express the kind of romantic longing you often find in pop songs, but whose verses make it clear that Springsteen is singing about a past he wishes to return to.

“The evening, a small picnic ‘neath summer trees,” he sings. “Everything so quiet you’d never notice you’re holding a dream.”

He returns to the theme in the title track, which closes the album (and, of course, the boxed set), singing:

When you held me, I couldn’t fall
When we walked together, we walked tall
When you locked me in your arms, I felt free
When I looked in your eyes, I saw what I thought could be

“A perfect world,” he sings, before adding “a nearly perfect world,” as if he can’t even bring himself to consider the possibility of something ever being absolutely perfect. Spoken like a true artist.

The songs of Perfect World are:

“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”

For more information, visit lostalbums.net.

HERE is my review of the boxed set’s first album, “LA Garage Sessions ’83.”

HERE is my review of the boxed set’s second album, “Streets of Philadelphia Sessions.”

HERE is my review of the boxed set’s third album, “Faithless.”

HERE is my review of the boxed set’s fourth album, “Somewhere North of Nashville.”

HERE is my review of the boxed set’s fifth album, “Inyo”

HERE is my review of the boxed set’s sixth album, “Twilight Hours.”