I remember at the time feeling really disappointed by Tunnel Of Love. After listening to it on its day of release, I don’t think I listened to it again for another ten years. It felt like such a come down from Born In The USA, but you know what, I was wrong. Yeah, weird, but it happens occasionally. Tunnel of Love is a cracker. Putting aside how pivotal it was as the transition from Bruce then, to Bruce now (especially as a live performer), it was an album of a maturing songwriter that wasn’t going to allow himself to get carried away with the inevitable record company demands for “same again, please”. Nowhere is this more evident than on Spare Parts. The tone may return to the themes of his earliest albums, but the stripped back rock sound with none of the synth and big 8 production that Born In The USA had, showed the world that here was an artist that was always going to be his own man.