It's amazing how much Springsteen matured as a songwriter and producer from his first to his third album. Given the two previous albums Born to Run comes out of nowhere with a sound and lyric that seem completely new and fresh. He was 25 years old when this album came out and it reflects his age. Musically he's matured with a tighter more complex sound to the songs and lyrically he's matured with stronger emotional songs struggling with getting older and being trapped in youth and still feeling youthful. But the emotions of the album are still so raw that it gives the songs a life that Springsteen could never tap again, simply because he will never be 25 again. Born in the USA is technically a better album, but emotionally it can't even come close to this album and that's what makes this one of the best albums ever recorded.
This is also the only weakness to the album. It is stuck in time in a sense. If you see Rebel Without a Cause at age 30 it will not have the same effect as it would have if you had seen it at 16. The same for this album. The emotions are so raw that if you aren't still at the point in your life where you can make that connection it is hard to fully appreciate the album. I would also think a problem might be that it is so gender specific. Not that a 25 year old woman couldn't enjoy the album, but it looks at the world through a very male centered perspective. I would love it if a woman could write an album to match this that would explore the lives of the women the voice in this album is singing to and about.
But just at The Catcher in the Rye is considered one of the great American novels, this is surely one of the great American albums.
