Lucky Town (studio album) by Bruce Springsteen

Lucky Town is the sweet spot of Springsteen's 90s catalog. It's slimmer than Human Touch and is more lively than The Ghost of Tom Joad. The addition of backup singers almost gives this nice gospel undertones.

Highly recommended.

Side A: Leap of Faith
Side B: My Beautiful Reward

Lucky Town is a criminally underrated album

Unlike its overlong and weak companion album "human touch" this is a very strong consistent record

It contains some amazing songs throughout, with " if I should fall behind" , better days, lucky town, book of dreams and my beautiful reward being up there with the best of his work.

This record is an amazing in its own right....
However, if the tracks from this and human touch had been combined to make one record as has been suggested over the years ...
- I would only omit "big muddy" and at a push "souls of the departed" from the Lucky Town album
- I would only add three or four of the tracks off Human Touch (cross my heart, with every wish, I wish I were blind , human touch)

Because this IS a brilliant and underrated album

The one thing I WOULD change is the front cover - what is that about ??

This is a real good album. Every song is a winner.

Of the two albums Bruce Springsteen released on the same day in March 1992, lucky town, was without doubt the better of the two. Unlike the unfocused and overlong, human touch, it was shorter, grittier, and most importantly, had a stronger set of songs. Whether Springsteen was himself unsure about, human touch, that he released, lucky town, at the same time to compensate for it, only Bruce knows. Either way, the album kicks off with the excellent, better days, an angry but celebratory rocker. In some ways, the album was split between rock and acoustic numbers. Of the former the brilliant, living proof is the best, but the title track and, leap of faith, are enjoyable, and, local hero, is Springsteen with his tongue firmly in cheek. Of the acoustic songs, if I should fall behind, is lovely, as is, my beautiful reward. The big muddy, is Springsteen at his bluesy best. Book of dreams, is fine, though, souls of the departed, is easily the album's weakest track. Lucky town, is certainly the better of the two records, but maybe Springsteen should have released just one album, featuring the best songs from each of the two LP's, if he had, we could have been looking at another Springsteen classic.

Lucky Town and Human Touch should have been whittled down to one disc. There's some good material on both records.

Lucky Town and Human Touch should have been whittled down to one disc. There's some good material on both records.

From M42K0 01/27/2016 03:55

As most of the past reviewers said, I think 69/100 is fairly low for a solid album as this is. It feels like most of the people disregard Human Touch and Lucky Town only because they fail in comparison to Springsteen previous work (which is undeniably remarkable). It's still a very nice listen (yeah, most of the progressions and arrangements are very simple, but the lyrics are still pretty good), and I'd honestly rather listen to this than 80-90% of albums from that time period.

From zags7000 06/11/2015 23:03

Really good. Nothing special and not even close to his other stuff but it's still solid material that is worth a listen every once in a while.

From junodog4 05/29/2013 18:17

This really sounds like he's coasting. Nothing overly bad about this album, but it lacks his usual passion and energy.

From jhuik 12/22/2012 03:30

Watered down Bruce certainly and this should have been one album taking the best of this with the best from Human Touch. The last five songs are quite forgettable.