For Bruce Springsteen fans, the release of a live album or a bootleg is almost more exciting than a new studio album. Because as thrilling as something like Letter To You can be—a portrait of the artist as a fully grown, Social Security-collecting man—nothing quite stands up to scores of hidden gems excavated from Bruce’s golden age, when the raw, intractable energy that is the very stuff of rock ’n’ roll poured out of him like smelted iron. So, the 75-year-old rocker again blesses his faithful disciples with Tracks II, the follow up to his 1998 four-disc set Tracks. This time, the bootleg is conceived as seven distinct albums, each from a particular period in the artist’s life when he was exploring different styles of music—ranchera, retro pop, and so forth. Between the upcoming biopic about the recording of Nebraska and Springsteen’s recent outspokenness about the state of the union, it seems like a propitious time for him to release these songs (if the singles from Tracks II are any indication, they will be well received by devotees young and old). In a recent interview with The New York Times, Springsteen traced the rise of Donald Trump, saying, “I think that it was the combination of the deindustrialization of the country and then the incredible increase in wealth disparity that left so many people behind. It was ripe for a demagogue.” Less the final sentence, it’s a pretty fitting explanation for why, for over 50 years now, Springsteen himself has been regarded as both beacon and ballast for the disaffected, fed-up ordinary American. Waste your summer praying in vain for a savior to rise from these streets? Not if Bruce has anything to do with it. —Nathan King