Darkness on the Edge of Town - Springsteen, Bruce (Cassette 1990)

A blaze of glory, a anthem of almost military might opens Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness on the Edge of Town." The song is "Badlands," and the singer is full of enraged determination, determination to "spit in the face of these Badlands."

So begins the narrative that this album, Springsteen's fourth, spins. For years, Springsteen opened his shows with "Badlands" as well. And it makes a fitting opening for a great album that is a triumph of artistic agony, an album that lays bare Springsteen's soul for all to see.

And a narrative it is. For the main character, the singer, is someone cast out of the mainstream of everyday American society. After "Badlands," Springsteen recounts this character's birth and childhood in "Adam Raised A Cain." With an assault of crunching guitars and unearthly wails, the pure sound of this song tells the listener the singer was damned from birth.

As the album continues, the singer seeks solace in sex (the searing "Candy's Room"), cars ("Racing in the Street") and searching for searching's sake ("Something in the Night"). The theme of determination, faith, belief never leaves the songs. In "The Promised Land," Springsteen sings "I ain't a boy/no I'm a man/and I believe in the promised land." But, in a voice dripping blood, he later screams "Blow away the dreams that tear you apart/blow away the dreams that break your heart/blow away the lies that leave you nothing/but lost and broken-hearted." The faith is shaken.

Springsteen brings his characteristic passion to every song on the album. The most musically distinctive aspect of "Darkness" is the guitar playing; it's a full-on assault, and the centerpiece of most of the songs, which isn't true on any other Springsteen album. The arrangements are spare, a departure from the bombast of "Born to Run," his previous album.

"Darkness" isn't exactly a pleasant listen. The case of my copy is broken; an old roommate and I used to joke that it continually fell off the shelf because it was trying to end it all. It's painful music, and it doesn't offer a way out. But it's also some of the most emotionally honest music you'll find in all of rock's pantheon.

In the album's title song, which closes the album, Springsteen sings: "Tonight I'll be on that hill/Cuz I can't stop/I'll be on that hill with everything I got/Lives on the line/Where dreams are found and lost/I'll be there on time/And I'll pay the cost/For wanting things that can only be found ... in the darkness on the edge of town." The singer still has the determination, but now it is a grim determination, faith for faith's sake. He's out there almost like the Catcher in the Rye, trying to keep the other souls from rotting away like his has. It is no longer the voice of a determined young man; it is the voice of a resigned old one.