Zanes has evidently been thinking about Nebraska since he first encountered it ... For fans of American music, Deliver Me From Nowhere makes a great ghost story.
Wonderful ... Zanes — in his research, his discussions with artists influenced by the album, and his sit-downs with Springsteen himself — is anything but afraid in plumbing those depths ... An amazing chronicle of one of the most unlikely albums ever recorded.
Zanes... makes you feel Springsteen’s implacable determination ... Zanes’s Nebraska narrative portrays an artist driven by a remorseless muse beyond any monetary payoff.
Zanes builds a strong case for the album’s singularity, achievement, and influence ... Zanes is especially good at showing how connected and intertwined Nebraska was with its legendary follow-up, Born in the U.S.A.
Zanes traces how the album’s punk rock spirit pushed back against the industry’s preferred polished sound to become a chart-topping success, and delivers the narrative in energetic prose that makes his enthusiasm for his subject palpable.
