Louder: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ risk
Plus: Doechii, Sheena Easton, Erykah Badu and more
Louder
October 25, 2025

The Bruce Springsteen film “Deliver Me From Nowhere” arrives this weekend, though I hesitate to call it a biopic because it focuses on such a narrow slice of the musician’s life: the time he spent making his lo-fi 1982 LP, “Nebraska,” just before he unleashed the anthem and album that propelled him to the rock stratosphere.

So, what was the deal with “Nebraska”? Jon Pareles explains, writing about a new boxed set Springsteen released with the movie, which largely underscores the original point of the album: sometimes a musician’s first instinct, and original, scrappy recording, is the right one. Manohla Dargis reviewed the film, Mekado Murphy brought us the director’s dissection of a scene where Jeremy Allen White (who plays the Boss) records “My Father’s House” and Ben Sisario gave us a little reality check breaking down what’s real onscreen, and what isn’t. (And a hat tip to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs drummer Brian Chase, who briefly portrays the E Street Band’s Max Weinberg.)

While Springsteen was struggling with how to reckon with his past and define himself for the future, another ’80s star was making her way through the pop gauntlet: Sheena Easton. Bob Mehr spoke with her on the occasion of a new boxed set, and got her own recollections of that era (and why she’s glad she left the music industry behind).

On the rising star front, this week Lindsay Zoladz reviewed Doechii’s Live From the Swamp Tour in New York (a Critic’s Pick) and Eleanor Stanford caught up with the British singer and songwriter Olivia Dean.

A man in cowboy boots and jeans strums a guitar while leaning against a bed in a bedroom.

Macall Polay/Disney, via Associated Press

‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’ Review: The Boss in the Void

Jeremy Allen White plays the singer-songwriter in an affecting drama about the making of his 1982 album “Nebraska” when he slipped into a terrible darkness.

By Manohla Dargis

In a still from a movie, a man sits cross-legged in a chair while strumming an acoustic guitar. A lake is in the background.

‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’: What’s Fact, What’s Fictionalized

The new biopic gets a lot right about the Boss and the making of “Nebraska.” But there are elements that were made up for the film.

By Ben Sisario

A man wearing headphones sits in a bedroom acting as his recording studio. He's playing an acoustic guitar and singing into a microphone.

Anatomy of a Scene

Watch Jeremy Allen White Sing in ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’

The director Scott Cooper narrates a scene in which Bruce Springsteen (White) records the song “My Father’s House.”

By Mekado Murphy

A still from the movie Spinal Tap, with three elaborately glammy hair-metal rockers posing with their instruments.

Bleeker Street and Authorized Spinal Tap LLC

8 Really Great Songs From Fake Movie Bands

In honor of a new film about the (real) Bruce Springsteen, revisit tracks from Spinal Tap, Sex Bob-Omb, Stillwater and more.

By Lindsay Zoladz

A woman in a purple dress holds a microphone stand with one hand and holds her other hand close to the mic, looking downward in focus.

Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

Sheena Easton, an ’80s Pop Phenom, Is Glad She Left the Rat Race

The “Strut” singer had creative relationships with Prince and Nile Rodgers and experimented in different genres. A pair of new boxed sets chronicle her peak years.

By Bob Mehr

POPCAST

Popcast

Erykah Badu Says Making Music Is a Sport. It’s Game Time.

The singer and songwriter on her reign as one of music’s most idiosyncratic and spiritual figures and where her creative impulses are headed next.

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1 HR 4 MIN LISTEN

Popcast

Remembering D’Angelo, a Classicist Who Moved Us Forward

A conversation about the casual virtuosity of D’Angelo’s too-brief career with a pair of journalists who each interviewed him twice.

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1 HR 12 MIN LISTEN

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Damien Maloney for The New York Times

Olivia Dean Adds Love to the Mix

The chart-topping British singer’s music defies genres, because she’s more interested in feelings than styles.

By Eleanor Stanford

THEATER & DANCE

A crowd stands under a glowing marquee that reads: "Pre-Broadway performances begin October 16" and "Purple Rain."

Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ Takes the Stage in Minneapolis

There was a flourish of purple at the State Theater for the debut of a new musical adaptation of the performer’s 1984 movie in his hometown in Minnesota.

By Jeff Ernst

A man in a blue baseball cap and black shirt stands on the rafters of a stage.

Tom Morello Brings Rage to an Unexpected Genre: the Musical

This firebrand guitarist pulled songs from his lesser-known catalog for “Revolution(s),” about a family of activists, now playing in Chicago.

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

A portrait of Charm La’Donna, striking a pose. She wears a blue shirt and bluejeans and is seen against a wall of blue-painted bricks.

Meet Charm La’Donna, a Dancer’s Dancer and an Empire Builder

The hip-hop choreographer brings irrepressible enthusiasm to her work for Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Dua Lipa.

By Margaret Fuhrer and Michelle Groskopf

An illustration on lined notebook paper includes images of a woman smoking, a Zippo lighter that says “Korn,” a “cool S” and an anarchy sign.

Reporter’s Notebook

Y2K Kids Were the Last to Really Rage With No One Watching

The angst of nu metal is being discovered by Gen Z, but with digital eyes always looming, the ephemeral catharsis of collectively going mad is a thing of the past.

By Maya Salam

OBITUARIES

With the unusual hairstyle described in the text, she looks straight at the camera with a blank expression on her face and holds a pacifier in her right hand. To her right is another woman, her back to the camera.

Ray Stevenson/Camera Press, via Redux

Soo Catwoman, ‘the Female Face of Punk,’ Is Dead at 70

With a tuft of hair on either side of her shaved head and long tendrils of eyeliner swiped across her lids, she helped define a scene.

By Ash Wu

Black and white photo of two men in leather black outfits on stools.

Fin Costello/Redferns, via Getty Images