Disc 2:
Mostly cuts from 1979-82, more orderly than the roundhouse punches of the earliest songs, but no less enthralling for their partial restraint. This period, and the "Born in the USA" sessions that followed, were a prolific time for Springsteen. You get all kinds of songs, delivered at a variety of interesting angles.
By now, the E Street Band is cooking like nobody's business, with Roy Bittan's liquid piano fills and Max Weinberg's extraordinary drumming supporting the roar. Some of the songs don't work all that well, but that's to be expected since they weren't gussied-up for public scrutiny at the time that they were recorded. For all their forceful noise, "Roulette" and "Dollhouse" are lyrically awkward, trying way too hard while achieving very little.
The good stuff is still the good stuff, though. And that often means great. "Where the Bands Are" and "I Wanna Be With You" are arena rockers with the emotional intimacy of garage jam sessions. You can also hear snatches of lyrics (and do throughout the box set) that were later worked into officially released songs.
This disc includes "Take 'Em as They Come," which actually manages to celebrate desperation; the truly endearing coming-of-age story "Ricky Wants a Man of Her Own"; and an original, altogether frightening acoustic blues version of "Born in the USA." Not even a rocker like Ronald Reagan could misinterpret this. The lyrics eventually taper off into a wordless howl.
To top it all off, there's the brilliantly cinematic "Shut Out the Light," a fiddle-backed Vietnam veteran's lament that was relegated to the B side of the "Born in the USA" 45 because Springsteen felt he only needed one song dealing with that particular topic on the album. I'd argue that this is the finest song on the "Tracks" collection.
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Listen to a clip of "Restless Nights"