Being a manic-depressive, Metamorpho has extremely keen senses into the sheer depth of songwriting. There were only 2 albums in the 70's that were of high, asylum quality. One was Jackson Brownes' "Late for the Sky" and the other was this gem. Love Bruce. He's from my home state and has the ability to write poetry and relate the struggle of the common man as well. But, in this one folks, he goes way deep. It cuts very deep. And I found myself in a puddle of liquid many times as I listened and clawed at my own soul and being to make sense of this world.
All of the rest of his efforts are great achievements and many are worthy of high praise. For me, though, 'Darkness' is THE MASTERPIECE! It's all a struggle. A struggle for redemption, for meaning, for elevation onto a better plain. Bruce doesn't mince words. Reality is what it is. The pain, hurt and depression are always there. We all must find a way to rise above it all and go on.
It's about the human need to redeem oneself. As in 'Racing in the Street' - "tonight my baby and me are going to run to the sea, to wash these sins off our hands." It's about faith. As in 'The Promised Land' - "there's a twister that will tear everything down, that ain't got the faith to hold it's ground."
But he will survive. He'll be out beyond 'the darkness on the edge of town'.
Bruce is very much a considerable song writer. He uses the sea in the classic English prose interpretation - as the flow of life, as a clensing. His talent extends well beyond the ordinary. Whether people really "get" all that he writes about is up to speculation. But, take it from me, Metamorpho, your favorite reflective seer, there is positively nothing shallow about Bruce Springsteen. For those that can delve into their soul - this album is a must. Yes---- we know that it isn't always pleasant - but how are you ever going to grow spiritually if you don't take the chance? Methinks, one of his very best. Trust Metamorpho. He will not lead you down a false path to sample poison kool-aid. Catch the "real" drift. View Metamorphos' other reviews. Courtesy of your local, friendly, Amazon.com reviews! Peace to all. Vision and fun to all - Metamorpho

This was the record that made me a lifelong Bruce fan. With all of the realism of an early Martin Scorsese film such as Mean Streets, it was also the record that helped develop my appreciation for themes of darkness and protest in rock music, and thus probably also paved the way to my eventually checking out Dylan and various folk/blues/roots artists - everyone from Robert Johnson to the Fugs and the Weavers. And along with the realism, is the album's mythology, grounded in a decaying working class industrial world that barely exists anymore.

Containing a bunch of my all time favorite Springsteen's songs, such as Candy's Room, Promised Land, Factory, and Racing In The Streets, the album, while bleak, also contains glimmers of home. Social and economic systems may fail, communities may become strained, but people can nevertheless find connections with others, whether it be with a girl named Candy, or with somebody else. Bruce convinces you that, in spite of everything, he does indeed believe in the promised land. I do too, in part from listening to this album.

The Rocker.

This is how I think of this album. It's Bruce's one time that he said, heck with it, I'm gonna blow the house down. Me. My voice, my guitar. Three years of anger. Three years of frustration, three years of waiting, three years of being jacked around. It all gets put away on this blazing, searing album. Payback time, and does he deliver.

Bruce CAN play that axe, folks. He purposely keeps it in the background on virtually all his other records, but not THIS one! Solo after blistering solo, mixed high, just searing the speakers with intensity. He's mad, he's disgusted, and we get to hear the results.

No one expresses themselves any better with music than Bruce Springsteen. Proof is on this set of songs. Nearly every one of the tunes has a statement or a line about anger, darkness, despair, or some other dark emotion. In "Factory" it's a statement that somebody's gonna get hurt tonight. On "Adam Raised a Cain" there is a reference to inheriting the sins and pain. In "Candy's Room" the singer is upset that strangers from the city bring his prostitute girlfriend gifts, deluding himself that he's the one she really wants. "Racing in the Street" talks about how his wife has been so withdrawn from him she can barely speak. But it's all right, because they're going to wash their sins from their hands in the ocean before going back out and racing, and folks better stay out of his way.

Every one of the above songs has the music set perfectly to the mood. Breathless full speed ahead with an agonizing solo on "Candy's Room". A dirge-like keyboard-driven slow pace to "Racing in the Street". Matter-of-fact tone and mid-tempo piano work frames "Factory".

But the gem, maybe the best song Springsteen has ever done, is "Racing in the Street". It's an epic about wasted time, and two lovers meeting in circumstances that are no longer enough to keep them together, about drifting apart.

I love "Born to Run". I love "The River". I adore "Born in the USA". I like this guitar drenched, dark vision of the world the best.