Born in the USA
Bruce Springsteen
1984
Tracks
1. Born In The USA
2. Cover Me
3. Darlington County
4. Working On The Highway
5. Downbound Train
6. I'm On Fire
7. No Surrender
8. Bobby Jean
9. I'm Goin' Down
10. Glory Days
11. Dancing In The Dark
12. My Hometown
I like albums like this, ones that seem light and fun on the surface but conceal something darker underneath. "I'm Goin' Down" has the joyous cadence of a love song, but actually expresses the opposite sentiment. The entire album contains this curious element of paradox, with "Born In The USA" sounding like an anthem and being anything but.
Every song on this album is catchy and worth listening to, with my favorites being "I'm On Fire" and "Dancing in the Dark." I feel like we needed this album to inject a bit of life into the proceedings. Now I feel refreshed and ready to take on 1985.
RATING: 4/5
Immigres
Youssou N'Dour
1984
Tracks
1. Immigrés/Bitim Rew
2. Pitche Mi
3. Taaw
4. Badou
In a list that it is notoriously skewed for Western tastes (you should see the 1001 book list; it's like white guy palooza), it was refreshing to hear an album from Senegal.
I think we can all admit at this point in 1984, synths are getting annoying. But they actually didn't bother me very much with this one. Maybe it's because Youssou N'Dour has such an interesting voice that I was properly distracted.
Despite all that, my frequent readers know I connect to music best through lyrics (which has ultimately been to my detriment on this List), which is significantly harder to do when I don't speak the language. I am not faulting the album for this in the slightest, but since this blog measures my individual enjoyment of each entry on the List, this is a three-star album.
RATING: 3/5
