Photo Credit: Danny Clinch

Bruce Springsteen has turned his focused vision of Americana to Music City today with “Repo Man,” the fourth single from Tracks II: The Lost Albums. Set for release on June 27 via Sony Music, Tracks II is a collection of seven divergent full-length records Springsteen recorded between 1983 and 2018, but stuck on the shelf for one reason or another. With the twangy boot-scooting boogie of his latest advance offering, The Boss previews Somewhere North of Nashville, a baker’s dozen of rollicking, uptempo country cuts.

Springsteen set Somewhere North of Nashville to tape simultaneously with The Ghost of Tom Joad in the summer of ‘95, a season that launched a definitive country bent in his output that trucked on through 2006’s We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions and has cropped up since in album since like 2019’s Western Stars. Unlike those entries, though, his unreleased project is less concerned with Dust Bowl grit and frontier folk culture than the rockabilly revelry beamed around the world through Music Row’s gold records.

To capture that sound and spirit, Springsteen enlisted the talents of returning collaborators Danny Federici, Garry Tallent and Gary Mallabe, plus pedal steel from Marty Rifkin and fiddle from Soozie Tyrell. The heavy pour of energy that rushes through the tracklist was distilled through full-band live sessions–much like his approach for 1994’s Born in the U.S.A., which was the original intended source for the archival cuts “Stand On It” and “Janey Don’t You Lose Heart.”

“What happened was I wrote all these country songs at the same time I wrote The Ghost of Tom Joad. Those sessions completely overlap each other. I’m singing “Repo Man” in the afternoon and “The Line” at night. So the country record got made right along with The Ghost of Tom Joad,” Springsteen shared. “Streets of Philadelphia got me connected to my socially conscious or topical songwriting. So that’s where The Ghost of Tom Joad came from. But at the same time I had this country streak that was also running through those sessions and I ended up making a country record on the side.”

“Repo Man” follows “Faithless,” a dusty, contemplative spiritual wandering from his unreleased Faithless soundtrack, “Blind Spot,” a stormy, loop-based reflection on doubt and betrayal from the Streets of Philadelphia Sessions, and “Rain In The River,” which previewed Perfect World,  “the one thing on this that wasn’t initially conceived as an album.” The wealth of music on Tracks II also includes a smoky traditional string-backed noir in Twilight Hours, the Mexican culture-inspired Inyo and LA Garage Sessions ’83, the coveted missing link between Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A. that’s been among the most widely bootlegged projects from Springsteen’s discography in recent years.

Springsteen first opened up his archives in 1998 with Tracks, a celebrated four-disc collection of 66 unheard recordings from throughout his career. While he’s followed up on that impulse since with expanded reissues of Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River and more, he’s also kept stirring the pot for a follow-up to the revealing compilation–which he seems to have been just as eager to share as the fans have been to hear it.

“The Lost Albums were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released,” Springsteen said. “I’ve played this music to myself and often close friends for years now. I’m glad you’ll get a chance to finally hear them. I hope you enjoy them.”

Tracks II: The Lost Albums will be released on all digital platforms and as deluxe 9-LP and 7-CD packages. Pre-order the record here, and listen to “Repo Man” below. Learn more about Springsteen’s busy year ahead at brucespringsteen.net.

Read on for the collection’s full tracklist.

Tracks II: The Lost Albums – Bruce Springsteen:

LA Garage Sessions ’83:
1. Follow That Dream
2. Don’t Back Down On Our Love
3. Little Girl Like You
4. Johnny Bye Bye
5. Sugarland
6. Seven Tears
7. Fugitive’s Dream
8. Black Mountain Ballad
9. Jim Deer
10. County Fair
11. My Hometown
12. One Love
13. Don’t Back Down
14. Richfield Whistle
15. The Klansman
16. Unsatisfied Heart
17. Shut Out The Light
18. Fugitive’s Dream (Ballad)

Streets of Philadelphia Sessions:
1. Blind Spot
2. Maybe I Don’t Know You
3. Something In The Well
4. Waiting On The End Of The World
5. The Little Things
6. We Fell Down
7. One Beautiful Morning
8. Between Heaven and Earth
9. Secret Garden
10. The Farewell Party

Faithless:
1. The Desert (Instrumental)
2. Where You Goin’, Where You From
3. Faithless
4. All God’s Children
5. A Prayer By The River (Instrumental)
6. God Sent You
7. Goin’ To California
8. The Western Sea (Instrumental)
9. My Master’s Hand
10. Let Me Ride
11. My Master’s Hand (Theme)

Somewhere North of Nashville:
1. Repo Man
2. Tiger Rose
3. Poor Side of Town
4. Delivery Man
5. Under A Big Sky
6. Detail Man
7. Silver Mountain
8. Janey Don’t You Lose Heart
9. You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone
10. Stand On It
11. Blue Highway
12. Somewhere North of Nashville

Inyo:
1. Inyo
2. Indian Town
3. Adelita
4. The Aztec Dance
5. The Lost Charro
6. Our Lady of Monroe
7. El Jardinero (Upon the Death of Ramona)
8. One False Move
9. Ciudad Juarez
10. When I Build My Beautiful House

Twilight Hours:
1. Sunday Love
2. Late in the Evening
3. Two of Us
4. Lonely Town
5. September Kisses
6. Twilight Hours
7. I’ll Stand By You
8. High Sierra
9. Sunliner
10. Another You
11. Dinner at Eight
12. Follow The Sun

Perfect World:
1. I’m Not Sleeping
2. Idiot’s Delight
3. Another Thin Line
4. The Great Depression
5. Blind Man
6. Rain In The River
7. If I Could Only Be Your Lover
8. Cutting Knife
9. You Lifted Me Up
10. Perfect World