Bruce Springsteen trots out his best husky twang amid mournful slide guitar lines on “Faithless,” the third song to be released from his long-awaited collection of unreleased music, Tracks II: The Lost Albums. “Faithless” is the title track to one of seven unheard, complete albums contained in the set, which arrives June 27 from Columbia.
Faithless was previously described as a soundtrack to a “spiritual Western” film that was never made. It was written during a two-week stint in Florida and recorded largely between the fall 2005 tour in support of Devils & Dust and the April 2006 release of We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.
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“This was a really unusual collection of songs,” the Boss admits of composing music for a film that didn’t exist. “You could recognize details and maybe a character or two. But for the most part, I just wrote atmospheric music that I thought would fit.”
The album mostly features Springsteen, although producer Ron Aniello and E Street Band members Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell, Curtis King, Jr., Michelle Moore and Ada Dyer appear at times, as do Springsteen’s wife Patti Scialfa and their children Evan and Sam.
Beyond Faithless, Tracks II is divided into LA Garage Sessions ’83, Streets of Philadelphia Sessions, Somewhere North of Nashville, Inyo, Twilight Hours and Perfect World. Somewhere North of Nashville features “country combos with pedal steel,” Inyo includes “richly woven border tales” and Twilight Hours is “orchestra-driven, mid-century noir.” As for Perfect World, it is said to possess an “arena-ready E Street flavor.”
Springsteen and the E Street Band return to the road May 14 in Manchester, England.
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