After several years of rumors, the long-awaited follow-up to Bruce Springsteen’s 1998 Tracks box set is upon us with the release of Tracks II: The Lost Albums on June 27.
Even during the gap years between official releases, The Boss was always working on songs and recording, be it a hotel room in Los Angeles or in the studio inside his sprawling home in Colts Neck, N.J. These seven albums presented on this highly anticipated collection, in many ways, provide a portal into those moments when it seemed like Springsteen was radio silent. In fact, he was anything but, working up material that would remain in his vault until now.
“The seven albums presented here have for one reason or another never seen the light of day,” Springsteen wrote in the introductory note that accompanies the box set. “After recording, mixing and reviewing them I felt I’d found faults that made me unsure of turning them into major releases. I’ve always released my records with great care, making sure my narratives built upon one another. I’m glad I did, as it usually assured the best of what I had came out, weaving a clear picture in my fans’ minds of who I was and where I was going in my work life at that moment.”
Recorded between 1983 and 2018, these seven albums each provide revelatory insights into the moments between the eras. This is Springsteen unfiltered, working through ideas without the pressure of a timetable or expectations from his longtime label Columbia Records. Some are fully realized visions that nearly got released, such as the loop-heavy 1993 Streets of Philadelphia Sessions, while others are works in progress that were shelved to focus on other endeavors including 2005’s Faithless, the soundtrack to a “spiritual Western” that was never made.
At 83 songs (including 74 never-before-heard numbers), Tracks II: The Lost Albums is teeming with material longtime fans have been waiting to hear since whispers of this box set began floating in the air sometime in the last 10 years or so. And now that it’s finally come to fruition, we look at one song from each LP you should check out first upon diving into this unprecedented collection.
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“Blind Spot”
Record: Streets of Philadelphia Sessions, Track 1
Allegedly the title track of the album that almost saw an official release in 1995, this lead single from The Streets of Philadelphia Sessions is where the West Coast hip-hop influence on these songs is most prevalent. Easily boasting the most trunk-worthy beat in the sound bank he kept with producer Toby Scott, “Blind Spot” nonetheless counters its bounce factor with a narrative on a relationship marred by betrayal, a thematic thread that goes through the whole set. But it’s that duality that makes not only this song, but the entire “loops record,” a gratifying listen.
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“Detail Man”
Record: Somewhere North of Nashville, Track 6
Recorded in tandem with 1995’s The Ghost of Tom Joad, Somewhere North of Nashville is Tom’s rowdy twin brother, a loose collection of country rock songs that Springsteen counterbalanced with the thematically heavy material he was working on at the time. This song, which debuted at John Fogerty’s 50th birthday party in 1995 and filmed by actor John Stamos, is one of the album’s more vibrant cuts, with a raucous rockabilly rhythm that drives the message home: “If you want the job done right, anytime a day or night, call the Detail Man!” Definitely one of the loudest tunes in The Boss’ canon.
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“The Lost Charro”
Record: Inyo, Track 5
Recorded as an intended sequel to Tom Joad, Inyo was also inspired by Springsteen’s exploration of Southern California, especially along the border. “There was constant border reporting in the Los Angeles Times, so it was a big part of your life,” Bruce explains in the accompanying essay.
But what separates these songs from its spiritual predecessor is the implementation of mariachi music into the mix, which adds a strong air of authenticity to these tales of struggle and heartache along the borders of both the Golden State and Texas. With Western Stars collaborator Jon Brion on drums and a mariachi band swelling behind him, Springsteen channels Roy Orbison in the way by which he approaches the role of a retired charro (cowboy) who gave up a life in leather for the denim calm of the produce fields.
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“High Sierra”
Record: Twilight Hours, Track 8
Around the same time Springsteen was working on Western Stars in 2010 (though it wouldn’t see its official release until 2019), he was working on another set of songs inspired by early ’70s Southern California orchestral pop in the vein of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
“I took a swing at it because the chordal structures and everything are much more complicated, which was fun for me to pull off,” he explains in the essay that accompanies Twilight Hours. But while much of the material on this 12-song set leans heavily on the “middle-of-the-road” veneer he was aiming for, the epic “High Sierra” is the closest The Boss comes to the Countrypolitan motif here. Working with some of the string and horn players from Western Stars, he sings from the booth of a small town luncheonette, where his character falls in love with a waitress as a means of distraction from the potential danger from his shady past on his heels. Glenn Campbell would be proud.
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“Idiot’s Delight”
Record: Perfect World, Track 2
Perfect World is the closest this set comes to the first Tracks box set from 1998 in its format, as it is not a proper album per say, but rather, a collection of songs compiled by Springsteen himself that were untethered to a singular project.
One of three tunes here he co-penned with longtime compatriot Joe Grushecky (who recorded it for his own album, Coming Home, in ‘98), this studio version of 1995’s “Idiot’s Delight” was first revealed on The Boss’ SiriusXM radio program From My Home to Yours during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was performed a handful of times during his 2005 Devils & Dust tour. We can only presume it was named after legendary New York radio DJ Vin Scelsa’s longtime show, though it’s not confirmed. Nonetheless, this tune deftly displays the strength of the partnership between Springsteen and Grushecky that continues to evolve to this day.
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“The Klansman”
Record: LA Garage Sessions ‘83, Track 15
Though seemingly unfinished, this ominous number about a young boy witnessing his dad and brother get seduced by the Ku Klux Klan speaks loudly to the demons at play in our modern age. Only in 2025, the Klan doesn’t wear hoods, and slides into your DMs instead of knocking at your door to recruit you. If there was a song on these highly mythical LA Garage Sessions from 1983 that truly serves as a proper bridge between the acoustic immediacy of Nebraska and the nascent synth explorations on Born in the U.S.A., this harrowing, piercing look at generational hate is the one.
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“Let Me Ride”
Record: Faithless, Track 10
Faithless, recorded as the soundtrack for a film that never came to fruition, found Springsteen further experimenting with his sound in the mid-2000s, working on most of the instrumentation himself with help from producer Ron Aniello. The gospel-kissed “Let Me Ride,” like a good portion of the material from this box, initially stems from the mid ’90s (spring 1994, to be exact), where the rousing vocals of the E Street Choir — Patti Scialfa, Lisa Lowell, Curtis King, Michelle Moore and Ada Dyer — serve as a spiritual counterpoint to the music Bruce was creating for his next album at the time, 2006’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.
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