Darkness on the Edge of Town Review

Everything that was ornamental on the previous album is gone. No strings, no glockenspiel, guitars recorded flat and close, drums like a hammer on a plank. Dozens of songs were written and given away or discarded because they were too warm for what this needed to be. The people in it are older and have jobs. Racing in the Street takes the car mythology of the earlier records and follows it to a man sitting in a driveway with a wife who has stopped speaking to him, and the closing piano and organ passage runs for two minutes because words have run out.

Adam Raised a Cain is the angriest guitar sound he ever put on tape. The Promised Land and Badlands are anthems that refuse to promise anything. Factory is three verses and no consolation. This is where he stopped writing about escaping the town and started writing about the people who stayed, and it is the finest set of lyrics in his catalogue.