Springsteen's 1992 twofer, HUMAN TOUCH and LUCKY TOWN: S/D, and what the hell, a poll.

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Poll Closing Date: Wednesday, 15 April 2026 00:00 (in 1 week)

Released 34 years ago today. Regarded as an anticlimax at the time, and rarely discussed (or listened to?) today. What, if anything, is good here?

Human Touch
Soul Driver
57 Channels (And Nothin' On)
Cross My Heart
Gloria's Eyes
With Every Wish
Roll of the Dice
Real World
All or Nothin' at All
Man's Job
I Wish I Were Blind
The Long Goodbye
Real Man
Pony Boy
Better Days
Lucky Town
Local Hero
If I Should Fall Behind
Leap of Faith
The Big Muddy
Living Proof
Book of Dreams
Souls of the Departed
My Beautiful Reward


cryptosicko, Tuesday, 31 March 2026 22:05 (two days ago)

I guess I could've started two separate threads, but figured that would be annoying.

Listened to both today, and while not all of the songs are bad, necessarily, the production on Human Touch in particular is just so slick and dull that it flattens them. Lyrically, he was really leaning into cliche at this point.

Voted "Better Days" which the 1995 Greatest Hits rescued for me (I never owned the albums themselves), and which still sounds muscular and rousing.

cryptosicko, Tuesday, 31 March 2026 22:09 (two days ago)

I really do like the title track of Human Touch

Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Tuesday, 31 March 2026 22:12 (two days ago)

Man, did these albums go splat: maybe the first time a Huge Star makes an effort commensurate with stardom only to go pffff. He must've thought it would work b/c GNR did it several months earlier.

The Luda of Suburbia (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 31 March 2026 22:29 (two days ago)

yeah, the title track has a good Bruce guitar solo xpost

The Luda of Suburbia (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 31 March 2026 22:29 (two days ago)

The title track is really good, and always a treat when it gets played. And of course "If I Should Fall Behind" became a live staple, too (and the Grant McLennan cover is lovely).

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 31 March 2026 22:32 (two days ago)

Wrong albums at the wrong time, for sure. Coming the year after Nevermind, it was the first time Bruce just felt irrelevant. (Which he had somewhat miraculously avoided with Tunnel of Love.) I voted Better Days, but Human Touch is good for sure. I only remember about half the songs from the titles, and unlike crypto I'm not going to reacquaint myself.

Ghost of Tom Joad isn't great imo but it was a much more successful navigation of the '90s currents.

paper plans (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 31 March 2026 22:44 (two days ago)

title song of "human touch" is top 10 or 15 bruce for me, and is still one of my favorite songs in his live set. nothing else on either of these two records comes anywhere close.

fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 31 March 2026 23:06 (two days ago)

I basically listen to Lucky Town with "Leap of Faith" taken off and "Human Touch" stuck into the album. It would still be a step down from his run of great albums, but it plays like a solid, respectable album to me.

"If I Should Fall Behind" is the standout - Dion did a nice doo-wop cover of it.

Also, I didn't realize the two CD's were handsomely packaged in a limited edition wooden box. (2000 numbered press run.)

birdistheword, Tuesday, 31 March 2026 23:08 (two days ago)

maybe the first time a Huge Star makes an effort commensurate with stardom only to go pffff.

was it a huge star making an effort commensurate w/stardom, or was it a huge star thinking he could start over from scratch?

fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 31 March 2026 23:16 (two days ago)

I don't know!

Has there been any attempt to reappraise Human Touch? If not -- I can't remember one -- then it would be unique.

The Luda of Suburbia (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 31 March 2026 23:26 (two days ago)

I thought Dave Marsh always championed those albums, but it's also Dave Marsh.

birdistheword, Tuesday, 31 March 2026 23:29 (two days ago)

(xpost) i can't remember one either. i do think springsteen's huge stardom, earned from a nearly decade-old album at that point, made with a different band, had already worn off quite a bit by the time his double release day came around.

fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 31 March 2026 23:38 (two days ago)

“The Big Muddy” is the one that worked for me, but more in comparison to the rest of Lucky Town than his larger body of work. Listening to it now for the first time in forever (this version from his not-unplugged MTV Unplugged is good but also, even story-wise, sounds like an unfinished sketch with a great hook, much in the same way that his only-recently released early-90s songs do.

Come On, (Eazy), Tuesday, 31 March 2026 23:49 (two days ago)

Even fans often semi-dismissively call the other band The Other Band. But I think Bruce fans understand the context of the misstep, as something he had to try and get out of his system, and in fact many consider the solo tour a couple of years later behind "The Ghost of Tom Joad" not just a kind of course correction but a rebirth, or even a peak. It kind of goes without saying, but it wouldn't have been as impressive a comeback if there was nothing to come back from.

Fwiw, me, personally, iirc it was the 1993 Unplugged performance that finally, fully pulled me on board with Bruce. I'm from Philly, more or less, and he was always part of the firmament, so much so that I took him for granted, and for sure never listened to him on purpose. But when I saw the Unplugged special (with The Other Band) I became a fan. It's not the best thing in the world, but I remember the performance of "Atlantic City" being particularly impactful. If I had heard "Nebraska" by then, I certainly hadn't heard that song electric.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVRAHKv254g

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 00:13 (yesterday)

Voted "Local Hero," the only one of these songs that I really enjoy listening to. You'd expect it to be annoyingly self-pitying - an "oh poor me it's tough to be famous" song - but the attitude of "I made this bargain and now I have to live with it, and I'd do it again," makes it more interesting than that. It's like a "Growing Up" story in song form, and it's got some lyrical echoes of "Adam Raised a Cain," and overall I think it's a pretty good addition to the ongoing Springsteen kunstlerroman saga.

Lily Dale, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 00:15 (yesterday)

Neither one of these albums got even a sentence in his autobiography Born To Run. Same goes with Working on a Dream.

kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 01:42 (yesterday)

"57 Channels" is the worst single he'd released up to that point imo

The Luda of Suburbia (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 1 April 2026 01:49 (yesterday)

otm

fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 01:55 (yesterday)

Tunnel of Love has become my fave Bruce, hence I'm inclined to vote for "I Wish I Were Blind".

A moron shaped fool (Craig D.), Wednesday, 1 April 2026 01:57 (yesterday)

I also quite like "Gave it a Name," which shares some lyrics with "The Big Muddy" and ended up on Tracks.

Lily Dale, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 02:00 (yesterday)

"57 Channels" is the worst single he'd released up to that point imo

And yet it's still better than most of what's on here, in that it's at least somewhat memorable and sounds like it was written by an actual human being.

Lily Dale, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 02:07 (yesterday)

It's funny to think of the dropoff in sales b/w BOTU and TOL in just two years from the end of the '85 US stadium tour. I suppose in 1987 t the kids replaced him with Bon Jovi.

The Luda of Suburbia (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 1 April 2026 02:38 (yesterday)

I heard Lucky Town when it came out because it was supposed to be the "dark" record of the pair, but I wasn't expecting how bland it would be. Aside from a couple of story songs the words are "this time, it's great to be married". I'm voting for "Lucky Town"; the song is lyrically the same thing, but maybe the minor key gives it some tension and pull. Good, but probably no better than the best song on any of a hundred roots rock records from the previous ten years.
Never heard the other album, partly because the snare sound in "Human Touch" seems to have been engineered for maximum irritation to my brain.

With Every Wish
Roll of the Dice
Real World
All or Nothin' at All
Man's Job
I Wish I Were Blind
The Long Goodbye
Real Man

People have written good songs with some of these titles, but all in a row I'm stultified imagining what tedium Bruce could produce from them.

I thought Dave Marsh always championed those albums

Marsh said something like, "Bruce needs to pay as much attention to crafting his music as he does his lyrics", which would be the equivalent of another critic burning Bruce in effigy.

Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 02:43 (yesterday)

A lot of Bruce fans cite the 1990 Christic solo show he played as proof that these songs are better than people give them credit for, and that they're let down by the arrangements/playing. Like, listen to this "Real World:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bfO6xrRK10

Hell, "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)" from that show is good, too! I mean, it's not a good song, but I prefer it to the studio version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0hoIHgwFzw

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 04:03 (yesterday)

At least that rendition of "57 Channels" sounds like another fun B-side novelty - I like those, I just wouldn't have expected them on his albums.

birdistheword, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 04:51 (yesterday)


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