Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska is a disarmingly simple recording. I guess that makes sense. Springsteen famously recorded the album while touring, sitting in hotel rooms with a guitar and hammering out these appreciably haunted folk songs. Nebraska isn't much more than a well-mastered demo and that clearly works in its favor. The ideas sound fresh and, while the recording is impressive for what it is, its imperfections lend another layer to the songs.

"Atlantic City" is remarkably clever for a demo. Spingsteen recorded rough harmonies an octave lower than the lead melody, mixed them down, and threw some reverb on them. They climb up out of nowhere, assume their appropriate place, and create emotional urgency. The backups allow the listener to really appreciate the barrenness of the song. There aren't any sounds in that register and when they creep up, it both adds force to the melodies they accompany and pulls the listener back from the guitar to a vantage point where he or she can appreciate the entire landscape.

Side note: A few months ago I was having a pretty had time trying to figure out how to pick a good guitar tone. I could make the guitar sound great in isolation, but once I added it to a full song, it always seemed out of place. My friend told me that, when mixing, it helps to think of the song as a physical space. Everything needs its only place and your tools are, largely, based on EQs, panning, and volume controls. By bringing the volume up or down, you can bring the sound forward or backwards, panning brings it side to side, and EQs bring it up or down (as the frequency would obviously indicate). I think the physical space framework can be helpful when trying to replicate or understand why a certain sound in a song has the affect that it does.

Second side note: Nebraska looks exactly like the cover of this album.


Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen