An American barbecue classic. If you somehow aren’t familiar with Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 album, “Born in the U.S.A.,” you definitely have heard it in some shopping mall or at a random 4th of July celebration years ago.
The rock album is 47 minutes long and contains a total of 12 songs, leading with the album’s title song “Born in the U.S.A.” His seventh studio album includes 7 singles, “Dancing in the Dark,” “Cover Me,” “Born in the U.S.A.,” “I’m on Fire,” “Glory Days,” “I’m Goin’ Down” and “My Hometown.”
Over 30 million copies sold worldwide making it Springsteen’s best-selling album, and according to Wikipedia, one of the best-selling albums of all time. It was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012.
I will admit that this album is a recent addition to my collection. Prior to listening it to this week, I had only ever heard its title song “Born in the U.S.A.” I had gone thrifting with friends this weekend and just so happened to find it on the shelf at the Elizabethtown Goodwill.
I tend to look for popular albums or something my family and friends would enjoy listening to. So, that’s why I made the purchase, but I unfortunately discovered that Sprigsteen is not my style.
His album takes on a mix of rock and pop, which is certainly a choice. It feels like a mark of the time it was created as similar rock artists embodied the 80’s pop vibe and incorporated it into this album.
The beginning of “Working On the Highway” gave this vibe. It almost reminded me of the 2013 musical romantic comedy, Teen Beach Movie starring Ross Lynch and Maia Mitchell. I cannot justify why the opening reminded me of that movie considering it is set in the 1960s, but I digress.
The synthesizer in the background of almost every song (it could be every song but truthfully they all started to blend together after a while) truly helps place this album in the proper decade.
Although the album is not my favorite, I will admit that I entirely forgot “Glory Days” existed which is fairly good. This song makes me feel as though I am sitting in the back seat of my parent’s car with my brothers after visiting the pool. Everything smells like the pool’s chlorine and my hair is plastered to my forehead, it’ll take way too long to untangle it later. The windows are down, some song is playing and we are all singing along. That’s what “Glory Days” feels like.
While I do enjoy “Glory Days,” there is not much more from the album that I do enjoy. I think my taste in rock music borders on punk so the 80s rock-pop featuring synthesizers is not my style.
I wish there was more that I could give to this review, but I am glad that I gave it a listen even if the album is something I do not plan on listening to again, at least not on purpose.
Thank you to my friend who picked this album for me this week! I am always open to suggestions from anyone, so if you have an album you’d like reviewed, email the Campus Life editor at campuslifeeditor@etown.edu.
