I know it's tempting to pick up the single disc 18-Tracks compilation instead of the whole four disc set, but this is truely four discs worth of great music. Fans of Springsteen should definitely pick up this set. I'm usually bored to death by B-Sides and rarities collections, but I absolutely adore this set. Every song has something to say. When most bands are struggling to include one or two decent songs on an album, Bruce has come forward with stuff that didn't make the cut at first, and it's more consistent then most albums coming out today. He is an amazing musician and this release helps to display that. It's hard to believe that most of these songs stayed in the vaults for no one to hear for so long. One highlight is My Love Will Not Let You Down, which consistently made it's way into live sets when the E Street band reunited in 1999. There's a great recording of This Hard Land, which is one of my favorite songs Bruce has ever written. Overall, I like the recording found on his Greatest Hits set more, but this recording is still wonderful. This set is a must buy for fans, and it is certainly good for anyone seeking an education in what real music is all about.

For diehard Springsteen fans, no review is necessary. If any one of them has yet to acquire a copy of this stunning four-CD set, it is certainly not a matter of WHETHER or not to do so, but simply a matter of how to beg, borrow, or steal the sixty-odd dollar price of the collection. And once the copy is finally purchased, the fan won't be reading reviews; she'll be too busy immersing herself in the power of the music, the joy of watching Springsteen's songwriting evolve, and the fascination of discovering the roots of well-loved and well-worn Springsteen classics.

So let me target my review to newer Springsteen fans - those who own one or two records but certainly not the whole canon, or those who know his songs from radio play or friends, but have yet to pick up any of his music. For these people, the obvious question arises - is Tracks a good place to begin?

For all the incredible things I could say about this record (notice my unequivocal five-star rating) and for all the time that these four CD's have spent in my CD player, I would suggest that the new fan start elsewhere. In my opinion, there are at least three records that one should buy first: Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Nebraska. I don't think that I venture too far into hyperbole with the claim that these three records offer a power, brilliance, and consistency of vision almost unmatched by any trio from any artist in the whole of rock and roll. If you don't own these three records, go out and buy them now. When the chills finally start to subside and your breath finally begins to return, THEN you can order yourself a copy of Tracks. You won't be disappointed.

That said, the absolutely amazing thing about this collection is how very close it comes, in quality and span, to these three keystone records. While I've recommended them over this collection, one would not go far wrong by starting with Tracks as an introduction to Springsteen. This is an extraordinary claim, after all; I am arguing that a collection of unreleased material and B-sides comes very close to holding its own against three of the greatest records in all of rock and roll.

Very, very good music.

At the beginning I thought this was the typical kind of barroom-music rubbish, only for the real freaks.

But no, these are really very good songs, lots of them worthy of being publicated on the first LPs. The problem is, he wrote so many good songs in such a short time, that he had to chose between good and even better songs.

This is definitely a must have for all Bruce Springsteen fans, and it's a pleasure to listen to new songs in the 21st Century, with the quality of the much younger Bruce.

Most artists shouldn't have collections of outtakes and unreleased songs, but most nowadays do. Often they're disappointing. You have to be very prolific and very good to make them worthwhile. You also have to be a questionable arbiter of your own material to keep such good material off your "official releases" (something Bob Dylan's been accused of). But, there is a reason why Springsteen, like Prince, Neil Young, and Dylan, is widely bootlegged, and not just for his amazing concerts. He is prolific, he is very good. BUT, he is a pretty good judge of his own material. A few lapses, but he still bats close to a 1.000.

The set starts off with a few demos. Here's a young man, hungry, ambitious, exploding with nervous energy and ideas, rushing through his songs on just his voice and an acoustic guitar. Upon repeated listening, they pale to the live, full-band versions, all except "Growin' Up." A great, great version. Next up, a great live cut, "Bishop Danced," just Bruce with Federici on accordian. It's a lost classic, and so is "Thundercrack." "Seaside Bar Song" is a good-time, swinging record, but "Santa Ana," "Zero...," and "Linda..." don't take off, lyrically or musically. I almost turn off the record, but then things pick up with the lost classic "Thundercrack." The best of the rest, a rocking live "Rendezvous," the retro, pile-driving "Give The Girl A Kiss" and "So Young...," the slow, romantic "Hearts Of Stone," and a slow, brooding "Iceman" are all good, but they don't match what you find on "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" or "The River." Either it's not quite as good or thematically, it clashes too much, or both. On a few, Bruce doesn't get through the whole song without botching the lyrics (luckily, they print them up for you). Still, a song like "Restless Nights" has a killer guitar break even if it isn't one of Bruce's best songs. The middle of the set is sustained by some excellent B-sides from the singles off the "Born In The USA" Lp, but the stand-out is the acoustic version of that Lp's title track. It takes the song somewhere darker, more disturbing, and ultimately saves the song from being hijacked as a widely-misinterpeted arena anthem. Bruce's 'cars and girls' songs are getting better, too. By 1978, they already transformed into social commentary, anger, and frustration instead of the retro, romanticism of his early years, but as you can see from the outtakes, he was still writing and recording some in that mold as late as 1984. But, again, he had outgrown them, so the nice, romantic "Frankie" gets shelved and the swaggering "Pink Cadillac" is banished to B-side purgatory. This is where the pickings get slim, and Bruce nearly hits a brick wall. Most of the last disc is generic sounding. They're not bad, but they cover well-worn territory. If they were musically more compelling, he'd get away with that, but they aren't. They sound generic. Still, "Sad Eyes" creates a nice mood, as does "Happy." The last track, "Brothers..." (unrelated to the similarly titled song on Disc 3), however, ends the set on a high note. Not a lost classic, but better than anything on the "Tom Joad" album. Just excellent. Had his effective, underrated re-recording of "The Promise" and "Missing" been included here instead of being banished to "18 Tracks" and a Europe-only CD single, respectively, the last quarter would've been so much better. The former is a lost classic (previously recorded in intolerably slow versions), the latter a strong latter day song exploring new ground (done for a movie directed by Sean Penn). "The Fever" should've been here, too (also on "18 Tracks").

Bruce's studio albums from "Wild, Innocent..." to "Tunnel Of Love" are all very good to great. Each one had been called a masterpiece by somebody, and dropping the songs you hear on "Tracks" doesn't hurt them. But, one could have a very respectable career had they recorded the music you hear on "Tracks."

The Track's Box set collection takes some getting used to for a normal Springsteen fan. The reason for that being that these songs are not what has come to be thought of as "Springsteen music". There is much more of a country and early 50's rock feel to some of the music on this collection.

You also get a lot of the evolution to music by the Boss. Sometimes just a line from a song, a others half the song become something else. There are ever some instances where the tracks version of a song turned into two different songs on his normal album work... half turning into one thing, and the other half into another thing.

It took me some time listening it to get to love this album. But it is worth having it, as it is great.