Artist: Bruce Springsteen

Album: The Promise

Label: Columbia

Ah, 1978. Bell bottoms and leisure suits, as the stereotypes would have it.

Closer to reality, an upstart kid from Jersey named Bruce Springsteen had just set the music world on fire with his scorching Born to Run album, and was nervously contemplating the follow-up. It's hard to imagine a time when Springsteen wasn't the Boss, but The Promise returns us to those - pardon the pun - glory days for two masterful discs of previously unreleased material from that era, in the period between Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town. But The Promise isn't recycling. It's resurrection.

Unlike other ghosts-of-careers-past attempts, this album emerges as a fully-formed collection, not leftovers, providing a spectacular return to a markedly different iteration of Springsteen. The secret to the Boss's durability has been reinvention; if the past decade's material (The Rising, Magic, Working on a Dream) has introduced Springsteen 5.0, this album flashes back to the original model. The album is so perfectly conceived and executed, one wonders why it was never released three decades ago.

The central success of the album lies in marrying two themes: the idealism of youth, and the got-to-get-out-of-here angst that would become Springsteen's trademark from these early years. Many of these songs are awash in verbiage of the urban youth, referencing streets, cars, turf wars, and longing in a strangely West Side Story-like vibe. Anyone who doubts Springsteen's legacy should follow this album with Arcade Fire's The Suburbs. They could be brothers.

Reflecting that central thematic tension, the songs range from gentle rockabilly to harder-edged stuff that previews Darkness. In the liner notes, Springsteen describes the influence of "full-voiced rockabilly ballad singers" like Elvis and Roy Orbison. "Rendezvous" and "The Little Things (My Baby Does)" are both in this category, while "Ain't Good Enough for You" is a clever rockabilly shuffle. Even in these early days, however- this would have been Springsteen's fourth album - Springsteen is carving his own niche. Nowhere is this clearer than the revised version of "Racing in the Streets (‘78)." Instead of the piano-driven ballad featured on Darkness, this one's a super-charged, full-band explosion of sound, propelled by Max Weinberg's thumping kick drum. Springsteen also includes his version of "Because the Night," which both co-writer Patti Smith and 10,000 Maniacs turned into chart-toppers.

As one finishes the album's 22 tracks, the influence of the E Street Band on the music stands out most. It's hard to imagine Springsteen's music without his inspired and versatile delivery system. Their collaboration on The Promise not only has stood the test of time, it will likely be more impressive in another 30 years.

**This Review First Published 11/24/2010