Bruce SpringsteenDarkness on the Edge of Town

Heat coming off asphalt at dusk: cracking drums, ringing guitars, Roy Bittan's stately piano, and Springsteen's voice frayed to its edge. After a three-year legal battle with manager Mike Appel, he traded Born to Run's open-road escape for fathers and factory workers trapped by circumstance. "Badlands" charges in on hammering piano and a Clarence Clemons sax burst; "Racing in the Street" sits as the aching center, a spare piano ballad about weary lives and the weight of staying put. The title track closes on quiet defiance instead of getaway. The record where Springsteen grew up. Drop the needle.