Featuring a stark, lo-fi sound, the tracks tell the stories of ordinary, blue-collar individuals who try to succeed in life but fail at every turn, going in search of deliverance that never comes.

[12][13] Books he read included Joe Klein's Woody Guthrie: A Life (1980), Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States (1980), The Pocket History of the United States, and Ron Kovic's autobiography Born on the Fourth of July (1976),[7] while films he watched included John Ford's adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973), John Huston's adaptation of Wise Blood (1979), and Ulu Grosbard's True Confessions (1981).

[14][15] Springsteen also began reflecting on his own childhood and studied the romans noirs of James M. Cain and Jim Thompson, the Gothic short stories of Flannery O'Connor, and the music of the singer-songwriters Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Hank Williams.

[18] The author and critic Dave Marsh said that Springsteen became impressed by the "minute-precision" of O'Connor's prose and believed that he had felt that his songwriting had been too vague, too "dreamlike",[19] instead wanting to write songs that were more detailed and concrete, away from the "clash and babble of metaphor" found occasionally on his previous albums.

"[15] Songs written during the period featured stories ranging from Springsteen's childhood to ones about criminals and violence, as well as one about a Vietnam veteran returning home from the war to an unenthusiastic response.

[59][60] In April 1982, Springsteen and the E Street Band rehearsed the demos at Bittan's house[45] before regrouping at the Power Station in New York City to rerecord them for release on the next album.

[h][62][63] The band spent two weeks attempting full-band arrangements of the Colts Neck tracks but Springsteen and his co-producers—Landau, Van Zandt, and Chuck Plotkin—were dissatisfied with the results.

[67] Other songs from the tape, including "Born in the U.S.A.", "Downbound Train", "Child Bride" (rewritten as "Working on the Highway"), and "Pink Cadillac" proved successful in full-band arrangements.

[88] After two months,[89] the final master was made at New York City's Atlantic Studios by Dennis King,[74] who was able to resolve the tape's low recording volume with noise reduction techniques.

If there's a theme that runs through the record, it's the thin line between stability and that moment when time stops and everything goes to black, when the things that connect you to your world–your job, your family, friends, your faith, the love and grace in your heart–fail you.

[4] Consequence of Sound's Bill See noted the numerous "imperfections" in the mix,[30] including "the creaking of a chair, the "P's" that pop, the over-modulated harmonicas and Jimmy Rogers-like howls that pin the VU meters".

[14] Joe Pelone of punknews.org argues that the album's lo-fi nature gives the songs a "hazy atmosphere" that "forces listeners to imagine more about what's going on, creating sounds that aren't there".

[128] In "Johnny 99", the narrator is laid off from his job at the Ford assembly plant in Mahwah, New Jersey, and takes out his frustration by murdering a hotel clerk; he is captured and subsequently sentenced to 99 years in prison and begs for the death penalty.

[115] The author Rob Kirkpatrick argues that the song's point is that "people endure, that they struggle against all evidence to the contrary, because it's the only thing that they can do—or else they end up dead, spiritually or literally".

Columbia and CBS's presidents, Walter Yetnikoff and Al Teller, respectively, believed the album would not sell as well as The River, but loved the music and felt it represented an artistic growth for Springsteen.

[179] A rock and roll record,[180][181] it featured full-band arrangements of three songs from the original Colts Neck tape: "Born in the U.S.A.", "Downbound Train", and "Working on the Highway" (reworked from "Child Bride"), while the electric versions of "Pink Cadillac" and "Johnny Bye-Bye" were released as the B-sides of the "Dancing in the Dark" and "I'm on Fire" singles, respectively.

[97][185] Robert Hilburn compared the change in style to when Bob Dylan went electric,[187] and called Nebraska "one of the most bold uncompromising artistic statements since John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album in 1970".

[189] Critics described Nebraska as Springsteen's most personal album up to that point;[r] the San Francisco Chronicle's Joel Selvin declared: "Never before has a major recording artist made himself so vulnerable or open.

"[94] Rolling Stone's Steve Pond praised Nebraska as a "tactical masterstroke", positively comparing it to Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978), and commending Springsteen's "sharp focus" and "insistence on painting small details so clearly and his determination to make a folk album firmly in the tradition".

[113] Cocks noticed a recycling of lyrical themes from older records, but felt they worked to Springsteen's advantage: "he can get the same sort of mythic resonance from this setting that John Ford took out of Monument Valley.

"[113] Commenting on the album's recording methods, The Boston Phoenix's Ariel Swartley said Nebraska is "the rock-and-roller's version of joining a monastery or running away to farm: solo, acoustic, old-fashioned, homemade.

[104][112] The Village Voice's Robert Christgau criticized the music, arguing that Springsteen lacked the vocal and melodic imagination to "enrich these bitter tales of late capitalism" with bare instrumentation.

[186] More negatively, The Washington Post's Richard Harrington said Nebraska "may be the most undynamic album of 1982", panning the "horrid" and "flat" sound quality and concluding: "One applauds Springsteen's commitment, but questions its ponderous and portentous execution.

"[112] Musician magazine's Paul Nelson said the album sounded "demoralizing", "murderously monotonous", and "deprived of spark or hope", but in the end, he "found a road map that me to the right places".

[191] In The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, Nebraska was voted the third best album of 1982, behind Elvis Costello's Imperial Bedroom and Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights.

[204] Consequence of Sound's Harry Houser and Bryan Kitching argue that due to its dark and heart-wrenching qualities, the stories were not easy-listening and lacked the ability to be played at parties or bars.

"[228] Nebraska also influenced the indie rock and underground music scenes,[96][227] paving the way for releases by artists such as Ween, Neutral Milk Hotel, Iron & Wine, and Bon Iver.

"[168] The singers Kelly Clarkson, Justin Vernon, and rock band the Killers cited Nebraska as an influence when making the albums My December (2007), For Emma, Forever Ago (2007), and Pressure Machine (2021), respectively.

Written and directed by Sean Penn and starring David Morse and Viggo Mortensen, the film follows the same plot outline as the song, telling the story of a troubled relationship between two brothers, a deputy sheriff and a criminal.

Written and directed by Scott Cooper, the film, based on Warren Zanes's book Deliver Me from Nowhere (2023), follows Springsteen as he wrote and recorded the Nebraska songs, while dealing with the personal struggles of becoming a superstar.