Darkness on the Edge of Town is the fourth studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released on June 2, 1978. The album marked the end of a three-year gap between albums brought on by contractual obligations and legal battling with former manager Mike Appel.

Reviews for Darkness on the Edge of Town were overwhelmingly positive. Critics notably praised the maturity of the album's themes and lyrics. It remains one of Springsteen's most highly regarded records by both fans and critics and several of its songs have become staples of Springsteen's live performances.  In 2003, it ranked at No. 151 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Recovering from legal troubles and the stress of the breakthrough success of Born to Run, Springsteen recorded a somewhat less commercial album in Darkness on the Edge of Town. As with the original LP's sequencing, Springsteen continued his "four corners" approach from Born to Run, as the songs beginning each side ("Badlands" and "The Promised Land") were martial rallying cries to overcome circumstances, while the songs ending each side ("Racing in the Street", "Darkness on the Edge of Town") were sad dirges of circumstances overcoming all hope.  Unlike Born to Run, the songs were recorded by the full band at once, frequently soon after Springsteen had written them.[7] Steven Van Zandt received a credit for production assistance for helping Springsteen tighten the arrangements.

During the Darkness sessions, Springsteen wrote or recorded many songs that he ended up not using on the album. Keeping the album's thematic feel was very important to him, and the songs piled up because the sessions continued for almost a year. An album concept named "Badlands" was prepared in October 1977, complete with album covers, but was rejected at the last minute by Springsteen, because he was not comfortable with the release, and wanted to continue recording. Sessions finally concluded in January, but mixing continued three additional months. According to Jimmy Iovine, Springsteen wrote at least 70 songs during this period, and 52 of those songs recorded were complete, with 18 not fully completed. Some of the unused material became hits for other artists such as "Because the Night" for Patti Smith; "Fire" for Robert Gordon and The Pointer Sisters; "Rendezvous" for Greg Kihn; and two tracks for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, "Hearts Of Stone" and "Talk To Me". Other songs such as "Independence Day", "Drive All Night", "Ramrod", and "Sherry Darling" would turn up on Springsteen's next album, The River, while still others became bootleg classics until surfacing on Springsteen's compilations titled Tracks and The Promise. Full article

Mark Richardson at Pitchfork writes: Sometimes reissues add a few demos or outtakes, sometimes they add a bonus disc with a live show or additional music, and sometimes they go so far with the bonus material they become something else entirely. The Promise, a name given to two sets based around unheard music from Bruce Springsteen dating to 1977 and 1978, when he was writing and recording the seminal Darkness on the Edge of Town, doesn't fit easily into typical reissue categories. There's a 2xCD, 3xLP set that contains 22 unreleased songs from the period, and then there's a deluxe box set that augments the unreleased material with a remastered version of Darkness and three DVDs. And the latter is housed in a faux spiral-bound notebook with facsimiles of Springsteen's handwritten studio notes from the time. Taken all together, we're talking 10 hours plus of video and audio, along with the booklet. So calling this a reissue of Darkness on the Edge of Town is not accurate. This is a trove, a vast clearinghouse from a fertile period, the product of which turned out to be one terrific album. And in addition to containing its share of treasure, The Promise ultimately confirms that Springsteen is a brilliant editor of his own material.