This CD along with "Human Touch" tends to be ignored by a lot of Springsteen fans because neither CD included the E Street Band. The CD includes some of Springsteen's best songs though sales were low partly for the fore-mentioned reason and "Lucky Town" and "Human Touch" were released at the same time which hurt sales of both CD's.
However, it is a much better record than "The Rising" and falls short of "Born In The USA", the CD has several good songs such as "Local Hero" and "Living Proof".
The biggest plus of the CD is simple; it is Springsteen playing rock music, which is his strength instead of another "Nebraska" or "Tom Joad".
When one considers the cohesiveness and magical moments Springsteen has been able to orcestrate with his E Street Band backing him up, you can't help but wonder why he would feel the need to venture beyond that. Sure he had put out the completely solo acoustic Nebraska album a few years before this one, but here he is back rocking in true "Boss" style, albeit without his familiar back up band. Not surprisingly he pulls it off amazingly and the listener doesn't take very long to totally forget this isn't Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, it is just the Boss on his own. An excellent album that doesn't let the listener down at all.