Lucky Town is the tenth studio album by Bruce Springsteen. The album was released on March 31, 1992, the same day as the Human Touch album. Lucky Town peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, with "Better Days" peaking at number one on the Mainstream Rock and #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. Lucky Town has since sold over one million copies in the United States.
Background
Springsteen was working on Human Touch, which he intended to release sometime in 1990, but the project took him longer than he thought. He shelved the project in early 1991 and came back to it in September of the same year. Intending to record one more song for the album, he ended up with 10 new songs, which became Lucky Town. Once he completed Lucky Town, he decided to release both albums at the same time. While most of the songs from the album have received few performances since the reunion of the E Street Band, "If I Should Fall Behind" was played at every show during the 1999–2000 Reunion Tour and was included in the DVD and CD release.
Themes
Compared to Human Touch, Lucky Town has a more stripped down, folksy sound and is more personal in its songs' lyrics. Human Touch consisted of mostly love songs, while Lucky Town focuses on more specific events in Springsteen's life. The opening track "Better Days" expresses his desire to start over after some rough patches in his life. "Living Proof" is about the birth of his first son and "Local Hero" is about a time that he saw a picture of himself in a store window. When he went to buy it, the clerk told him it was a picture of a "local hero." "Souls of the Departed" recalls "Born in the U.S.A." in its sound and social commentary. The song was inspired by the Gulf War.
Critical reception
Upon release the album received generally positive reviews. Rolling Stone gave the album a positive review, but thought that the aims of the two albums "would have been better realized by a single, more carefully shaped collection." In a mostly positive review, Allmusic said of the album: "While Human Touch was a disappointing album of second-rate material, Lucky Town is an ambitious collection addressing many of Springsteen's major concerns and moving them forward."
Track listing
All songs are written by Bruce Springsteen.
"Better Days" – 4:08
"Lucky Town" – 3:27
"Local Hero" – 4:04
"If I Should Fall Behind" – 2:57
"Leap of Faith" – 3:27
"The Big Muddy" – 4:05
"Living Proof" – 4:49
"Book of Dreams" – 4:24
"Souls of the Departed" – 4:17
"My Beautiful Reward" – 3:55
Unreleased outtakes
Eleven songs were written during these sessions with the song "Happy" being the only outtake and eventually released on the Tracks box set.
