Lucky Town is an incredible album

[The_Magic Rat]

It really is an excellent album, probably the one I am drawn back to most consistently. I appreciate it might not be his 'best' but I have perhaps listend to some of the classics to death. Lucky town feels effortlessly great and welcoming. Lyrically it is stunning (the laconic narrative of Lucky Town and the beauty of Living proof and book of dreams).

If he had combined this with some of the best tunes from HT he would have created one of his best albums ever.

[stillilllife]

1. Better days
2. Human touch
3. Leap of faith
4. Roll of the dice
5. If I should fall behind
6. Lucky town
7. Man's job
8. Living proof
9. I wish I were blind
10. My beautiful reward

...Would've definitely been one of his best albums indeed!

[bobfan1976]

17 minutes ago, The_Magic Rat said:

It really is an excellent album, probably the one I am drawn back to most consistently. I appreciate it might not be his 'best' but I have perhaps listend to some of the classics to death. Lucky town feels effortlessly great and welcoming. Lyrically it is stunning (the laconic narrative of Lucky Town and the beauty of Living proof and book of dreams).

If he had combined this with some of the best tunes from HT he would have created one of his best albums ever.

Always loved Lucky Town, although I do think it’s in need of a remaster. It’s Human Touch that, odd song aside, doesn’t work for me.

[Captain Chaos]

22 minutes ago, The_Magic Rat said:

It really is an excellent album, probably the one I am drawn back to most consistently. I appreciate it might not be his 'best' but I have perhaps listend to some of the classics to death. Lucky town feels effortlessly great and welcoming. Lyrically it is stunning (the laconic narrative of Lucky Town and the beauty of Living proof and book of dreams).

If he had combined this with some of the best tunes from HT he would have created one of his best albums ever.

It really is.

Great songs and I love the roughness of it. It contains one of his greatest ever songs in If I Should Fall Behind and a load of hidden gems like Book of Dreams, My Beautiful Reward and Souls of the Departed. 

Brilliant album. 

[bobfan1976]

"Better Days" 

"Lucky Town" 

"Local Hero" 

"If I Should Fall Behind" 

"Leap of Faith" 

"The Big Muddy" 

"Living Proof" 

"Book of Dreams" 

"Souls of the Departed"

"My Beautiful Reward" 
 

There’s actually nothing I’d take of there, although Book of Dreams is slight, but I’d add:

Human Touch

With Every Wish

I Wish I Were Blind

The Little Steven remixed 57 Channels

from Tracks

Sad Eyes

Loose Change

[Captain Chaos]

Let me see where I’d fit in in...

1. Darkness

2. TOL

3. BTR

4. Western Stars

5. GOTJ

6. WIESS

7. Nebraska

8. Lucky Town

9. Magic

10. Greetings

11. The River

12. BITUSA

12. The Rising

14. Wrecking Ball

15. WOAD

16. Sessions

17. Human Touch

18. Devils 

19. High Hopes

 

[sleepyjoe]

Couldn't agree more! For me, it goes:

1. The River

2. Darkness

3. Wrecking Ball

4. TOL

5. Lucky Town

[burgessliam22]

Absolutely love the song Lucky Town, never found a live performance that outclasses studio version for me

[MacBruce]

It's a good album, but nothing more than that in my opinion.

Better than Human Touch, but that wouldn't take much.

Some of the songs are great, Better Days, Book of Dreams, If I should fall behind, My Beautiful Reward....a few are OK and there are a few so-so.

There was just something about that whole early 90's era I just could come to terms with. His voice seemed strained and the songs seemed forced on many occasions. It was like he was trying too hard with his new band and all these LA session musicians to still be relevant. The decade was probably my least favourite of his career, but it was saved by the work of art that was The Ghost of Tom Joad in 1995 and Tracks in 1998. It ended well with the ESB reuniting.

 

[JustDan]

'Human Touch' (the song) is one of my favorites. & for some reason, the chickies seem to really dig the video.

[Frank]

I think Lucky Town might have been a pretty good album, had Bruce taken the time to finish the songs properly. 

As I've written several times over the years, some songs on this album sound demo-like (and in this respect, the album credits tell all). Just listen to the title-track: a great song, but where is the solo? XXplugged is hardly held as a reference in terms great music, but just listen how the Lucky Town material shines, once it was properly worked out.

Unfortunately, the "carelessness" of Lucky Town is also highlighted by the perfectly crafted (like it or not) material on Human Touch. Had Human Town been released in 1990 and Lucky Town in 1992 our opinion on both albums would have probably been pretty different, I guess.

[timeisillusion]

2 hours ago, stillilllife said:

1. Better days
2. Human touch
3. Leap of faith
4. Roll of the dice
5. If I should fall behind
6. Lucky town
7. Man's job
8. Living proof
9. I wish I were blind
10. My beautiful reward

...Would've definitely been one of his best albums indeed!

- Man's job

+ Real world

+ Sad Eyes

+ Loose change

= great 12 song album

[TOWNFULLOFLOSERS]

3 hours ago, Captain Chaos said:

Let me see where I’d fit in in...

1. Darkness

2. TOL

3. BTR

4. Western Stars

5. GOTJ

6. WIESS

7. Nebraska

8. Lucky Town

9. Magic

10. Greetings

11. The River

12. BITUSA

12. The Rising

14. Wrecking Ball

15. WOAD

16. Sessions

17. Human Touch

18. Devils 

19. High Hopes

 

That's an incredible assumption right there, WoW !! 

[stillilllife]

2 hours ago, MacBruce said:

His voice seemed strained

I think that what you're describing here is actually one of the things I really like about several of these songs. Better days is a good example. I can really Feel the song through his voice sounding at the top of its ability. That same thing is in for example Living proof and Roll of the dice as well. I love it.

[stillilllife]

1 hour ago, timeisillusion said:

- Man's job

+ Real world

+ Sad Eyes

+ Loose change

= great 12 song album

Agreed about Sad eyes and Loose change.

[Captain Chaos]

59 minutes ago, TOWNFULLOFLOSERS said:

That's an incredible assumption right there, WoW !! 

What’s an incredible assumption?

[phantomengineer]

Releasing LT and HT simultaneously was a big mistake. If Lucky Town had it's own release and promotion it would have fared far better with the public and the critics. Human Touch was the dead weight.

[Perisic]

Lucky Town is a very solid album. Human Touch... not so much. Only 3 songs that I really really really like on that album - Human Touch , I Wish I Were Blind and Real World (very underrated!). The studio version of Real World is... okay but the solo version of that song (Christic, D&D Tour) is just fantastic. If you put Human Touch, I Wish I Were Blind and a solo Real World on Lucky Town instead of Book of Dreams; Big Muddy and Souls of the Departed you'd have a classic album. And it should have been titled Living Proof, best song on the album. Yeah it's just weird that he released 2 albums at the same time. Should've combined them. And he should have recorded with E Street. Ah well, easy to say now.

Also: MTV Plugged is a fantastic live album.

[Perisic]

That being said, I do love this:

 

[Lampi]

53 minutes ago, Perisic said:

 Real World (very underrated!). The studio version of Real World is... okay but the solo version of that song (Christic, D&D Tour) is just fantastic.

Is Real World really underrated? Your post -the quoted part- says it all.

[Perisic]

51 minutes ago, Lampi said:

Is Real World really underrated? Your post -the quoted part- says it all.

Well yeah I mean there's a masterpiece hidden inside of that song.

[Gretsch Country Gentleman]

The lyrical content of LT is interesting...Bruce isn't yearning as much... he's living in the moment and appreciating what he's got... although some fans didn't connect with this..Bruce admitted as much with his comments regarding "happy music". 

But I had a housemate at the time LT came out ..he was a casual Bruce fan, and a drummer...and he was more into music than he was into lyrics. In his words, it was "sonically boring".  He made the point that the songs range from medium fast 4/4 time to medium slow 4/4 time -that's it.  Even Nebraska, despite it's simplicity, contains a shuffle, a waltz, a Bo Diddley beat song and a fast rocker.  Nearly every other Bruce album has more rhythmic variation than LT.  Add to that it's mostly guitar driven, without the memorable sax, piano or harmonica solos that feature in a lot of his other stuff....(edit) ...and it's all sung in that kind of nasal country rock voice... it's just a bit on the bland side.  

[Promise61]

It's a great album.

A minor gripe, for me, is that the Big Muddy (chorus stolen from Preacher's Daughter) interrupts the autobiographical story arc of domestic bliss.

[Jertucky]

The Big Muddy goes up on his Mt. Rushmore of bad songs. I don’t get how he could even have put that out.
I think the best songs on Lucky Town are really good songs that I love. And there a few of them. But as a total album I’m not sure where I’d rank it. Somewhere in the middle I guess. 

[The_Magic Rat]

1 hour ago, Gretsch Country Gentleman said:

The lyrical content of LT is interesting...Bruce isn't yearning as much... he's living in the moment and appreciating what he's got... although some fans didn't connect with this..Bruce admitted as much with his comments regarding "happy music". 

But I had a housemate at the time LT came out ..he was a casual Bruce fan, and a drummer...and he was more into music than he was into lyrics. In his words, it was "sonically boring".  He made the point that the songs range from medium fast 4/4 time to medium slow 4/4 time -that's it.  Even Nebraska, despite it's simplicity, contains a shuffle, a waltz, a Bo Diddley beat song and a fast rocker.  Nearly every other Bruce album has more rhythmic variation than LT.  Add to that it's mostly guitar driven, without the memorable sax, piano or harmonica solos that feature in a lot of his other stuff....(edit) ...and it's all sung in that kind of nasal country rock voice... it's just a bit on the bland side.  

That's interesting. Im strictly a lyrics man so that is an interesting perspective on both points. I find the lyrics on LT very wise and philosophical, its nice to learn that Bruce discovered, through trials and tribulations, what really mattered in life. But you can still tell that a rather cautious and scared man lies beneath that wisdom. He's and observer and will always be a bit of an outsider and his family, more than anything, try to draw him out for the better.