The (Often Terrible) Album Covers of Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen once wrote a song called “I Wish I Were Blind.” The tune appears on Human Touch, easily the most reviled album in a recording career that goes back to 1973. Released in 1992, after a five-year drought of new music wherein Springsteen — gasp! — fired the E Street Band, Human Touch gave us The Boss at his Billy Joel-iest, a synthy, syrupy snoozefest that even die-hard Boss fans (Hi!) omit from their iTunes libraries.

But while Human Touch might be the worst Springsteen album to listen to, it’s far from the worst to look at. No, that dubious honor might have to go to The Boss’s imminent Working on a Dream, which officially arrives tomorrow (though it leaked online two weeks ago and has already been streamed via NPR’s website) wrapped in a velvet-Elvis style tableau that looks like something a member of the Backstreets staff paid an art teacher at Freehold Community College to paint on the side of his van.

I’ve always found Lucky Town and Human Touch particularly egregious.

# 2009 Jan 28