Bruce Springsteen – The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle

This is a Don Mills Ontario pressing which is good from my point of view

How does this $100 release compare to the 2014 $25 Chris Bellman release? Worth the upgrade?

Anyone else not get an insert talking about how these one steps are pressed? I got one of them with the Greetings From Asbury Park release and am curious if that insert comes with all new one step releases or just certain ones

A rich musically varied set of bright energetic tunes & epic lyrical songwriting possessed of characters references & conflicts of the fever-dreams of youth that’s part soul, part carnival, fusing pop w/ R&B & a touch of jazz as a sort of American Van Morrison that turns ‘70s urban & suburban American nightlife into cinematic poetry w/ the E Street Band providing the rocking soundtrack at full-throttle exuberance at a rollicking heart-bursting party. A consistently good album w/ nary a weak track on it that still retains its freshness and vitality 51 years after its release.
An absolute master piece of singular power & beauty. Should be in every collection!

Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen got a lot of the same chops. This, Springsteen's first album, 1973. Tom Waits' first album, same year.
Tone, this pressing, is clear and bright and strong. My fifty-year-old thrift store copy's big hit, B2, sounds about as great as you'll want it.

I am not a great fan of Bruce - except for Nebraska - but I quite liked this early release. Certainly better than the big hit albums of the 80’s. Certainly conjures images of run down steel towns of the 70’s

Purchased this 1980 Japanese pressing of “The Wild, Innocent & The E Street Shuffle” as a birthday gift for my father-in-law (his favorite Springsteen album). After playing the album, he said it was the best his stereo system has ever sounded! The dynamics of Japanese pressings are usually (but not always) superb.

Since the postal code didn't come into wide practice until about 1975 this pressing is not likely from 1973.

These releases aren’t cheap of course they are great quality but am I the only one who thinks that maybe there should be a booklet with some information about the recordings and mastering etc ? I don’t think the two sided card showing the album sleeve cost much to produce did it ?
As to the record itself it sounds great on my system, put me down for Born to Run and Darkness, even though the Japanese pressings I have are superb.

Definitely a good-sounding record; fans of this, perhaps Bruce's most fun album, will certainly want to pick it up. Those complaining about sibilance or other factors may be complaining about the quality of the original recording. It really wasn't produced that well - I reading Dave Marsh saying it's "muddy," and at this point in his career Bruce was a novice in the studio, probably happy just to get the record out - but on the other hand, this is probably as good as it can get. The guitars in particular, both acoustic and electric, benefit from this mastering.