No. 2 - Born to Run (1975)
This album is where Bruce Springsteen's popularity exploded. The album reached number three on the Billboard album charts and produced his first truly iconic song, "Born to Run." The track showed the artist's talent for writing lyrics that harkened back to the good old days while the person might still be in the midst of that era. Few artists ever could take a simple idea of driving a car fast and turning that into childhood memories the listener loves even though the moment in the song may not directly relate to them.
Few artists have ever been able to form a connection with their audience the way Springsteen does either. He managed to create that rapport in just three albums and maintain that over the next four decades. But the music and the artist are worth the devotion as well.
Like his first two records, this album was also recorded partly at 914 Sound Studios but after the sessions bogged down the band moved to the Record Plant in Manhattan and there was a new focus on the songs themselves and the new vitality. Simply moving where the tracks were being recorded may have taken what was just an OK record and made the entire album nearly perfect.
The record also is not overly stuffed with tracks. There are only eight. That is partly the genius behind early Springsteen albums, though. Each song has more importance and one is able to pay more attention to each great song because one does not have to make it through 14 songs or more. And there are no bad tracks on the record beginning with opener "Thunder Road" to epic closer "Jungleland."