While several of the albums that make up Tracks II: The Lost Albums comprise songs from separate sessions, Perfect World is the only one not set out as a stand-alone album, more a collection of songs recorded over a near-twenty year period and set should aside just such an occasion arise. It’s also the album in the collection that the marketing was able to highlight as the most ‘obvious’ Bruce set, one that evokes the ‘E Street flavoured rock’ that would make it an easier sell, perhaps.

Except, it’s not. Not really. In contrast to Tracks, where the bulk of the material was band-backed, Tracks II is very much a series of albums that find Springsteen exploring his solo voice and sound. Perfect World is no exception and the presence of the E Street Band is minimal. There’s no ‘lost’ full band songs from the post-reunion sessions or those aborted pre-Rising recordings. Perhaps those will grace Tracks III. Fittingly enough, then, Perfect World sits in the same category as the final disc in the first Tracks in as much as while there’s nothing fundamentally bad about these songs, there’s nothing here that makes you feel like it would’ve made a stronger inclusion on the album from whose sessions it was born. And, much like that disc, most of Perfect World finds Bruce working either solo or with ‘other’ musicians.

It’s easy to see why, in the build up to its release marketing for Tracks II made so much of Perfect World being the box’ ‘rock’ album – perhaps to convince anyone sitting on the fence about splashing out a mortgage instalment on the package that there’d be a ‘business as usual’ set to soothe. But because it’s so typical Brooooce, it’s pretty ‘meh’ as a result. Again, there’s nothing on Perfect World that’s particularly bad, more that it feels like Boss on Autopilot for the most part. Oh, and it’s very much a Ron Aniello production too… to the point that if you were to ask AI to create a late-period Bruce Springsteen song, you’d probably end up with something similar to many of the songs here. They make all the right noises, hit all expected tropes but lack that bit of magic that would make them genuinely memorable.

The opening volley – ‘I’m Not Sleeping’ (which had the fitting misfortune to arrive while I was battling one of my perennial bouts of insomnia), ‘Idiot’s Delight’ and ‘Another Thin Line’ are all cowrites with Joe Grushecky and while I’m glad to be able to hear them, they’re just that – great Joe Grushecky songs of the heartland rock variety. ‘Rain In The River’ may well be among the hardest-hitting beats Springsteen has put to tape and songs like ‘The Great Depression’ and ‘Perfect World’ are all pleasant enough. ‘If I Could Only Be Your Lover’ is one of the albums outliers in as much as it’s a bruising, burnished, late-career gem that I’ve had on repeat many a time since – it feels surprisingly at home with the material from Streets of Philadelphia Sessions – and those songs that feature E Street Band members (there’s no full E Street Band backed material here) are immediately propelled by their involvement and, as is often the case with that fourth disc on Tracks too, make you wonder what they could’ve bought to the rest of the material here.

Look, I’m no E Street purist but if there’s a group of musicians that you’ve got such undeniable natural chemistry with that bring even your weaker songs to a new level… then songs with session musicians or, worse, where your producer plays all the instruments directly into the board instead, are going to suffer in comparison. Especially when they’re grouped together on the same disc.

Least: Blind Man

Perfect World was the first of the box I cued up after Philadelphia Sessions and it kept me company on a commute or two. Except for ‘Blind Man’. Aside from my disappointment that it wasn’t a cover of Aerosmith’s 1994, I never found a hook in it enough to keep me away from that ‘skip’ button.

Most: You Lifted Me Up

Now this is much better. Any song where you can spot Max Weinberg keeping the beat from the word go is, if you’ll excuse the link, going to be lifted up immediately. Same rule for Steven Van Zandt’s backing vocal harmony. Plus, beneath my cynical and sarcastic wrapping I’m a soppy bastard at heart and these seemingly light, un-laboured and genuine odes to love like this that Springsteen does so well like are going to sit well with me.