Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. Our latest round-up brings new music from Joan Jett, terrific live rarities from Bruce Springsteen, a band with a lot more going on than their name, and a tribute to one of the 20th century's greatest lyricists.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, The Darkness Tour '78 (Columbia/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)

Following up a record as lauded as Born to Run might've stopped the heart of a lesser rocker - but Bruce Springsteen, freed from a lengthy legal dispute with ex-manager Mike Appel and with classic songs overflowing from his pen, was more than up to the challenge. 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town, released 45 years ago yesterday, was wall-to-wall raw songcraft, widening its lens beyond the Jersey shore while still weaving arresting tales of America's broken down dead-ends.

As a terrific extra companion piece to 2010's The Promise box set, Springsteen and Legacy Recordings have dipped into the Thrill Hill vaults to craft a terrific streaming-only playlist of songs previously only available through the volumes of archival live shows Springsteen's released through Nugs.net, all taken from various stops on the ensuing Darkness Tour of fall 1978. In addition to versions of all 10 songs from the original album, this set features songs from the album sessions and elsewhere that would end up with other artists, from Patti Smith (who completed his half-finished "Because the Night" and made it a Top 20 hit that same year), Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes ("The Fever") and The Pointer Sisters ("Fire"). Plus, early live versions of tracks like "The Ties That Bind," "Sherry Darling" and "Independence Day" offer a look at what was on the horizon for the Garden State's finest musical poet.

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Mindsets (Blackheart) (iTunes / Amazon)

On Jett's first release since last year's acoustic Changeup, the rock legend gets back to what folks know her best for: tightly-wound, electric guitar-forward rock co-written with Blackhearts guitarist Dougie Needles and co-produced alongside longtime collaborator Kenny Laguna and engineering giant Thom Panunzio.

Passion Pit, Gossamer (Expanded Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)

The electropop duo celebrate the 10th anniversary of their sophomore album with this digital expansion, featuring two Japanese-only CD bonus tracks ready to stream everywhere for the first time.

Bunny DeBarge, In Love (Motown) (iTunes / Amazon)

As one of the key members of Motown's biggest family act of the '80s, Etterlene "Bunny" DeBarge co-wrote two of the band's breakthrough/crossover hits, "I Like It" and the soaring "Time Will Reveal." The label banked on lead singer Eldra "El" DeBarge as a breakout solo star (and were rewarded with the quirky Top 10 "Who's Johnny"), but also signed Bunny for an album of her own. Despite an eclectic group of collaborators, from Diane Warren to Reggie Lucas, it failed to match the success of the family's records, and Bunny retired from the music business shortly thereafter.

Quincy, Quincy (Epic) (iTunes / Amazon)

A delicious LP of CBGB-era post-punk was unfairly buried by a bizarre lawsuit: the New Jersey-born band was sued by a much more famous artist who shared a name with the band. (The group would record a second album under the name Lulu Temple, and band members/brothers Stephen and Brian Butler would later form the group Smash Palace.) A must-hear for fans of the era before New Wave washed up on the shores of America.

Nancy Wilson, Today - My Way (Mono Expanded Edition) (Capitol/UMe) (iTunes / Amazon)

Jazz singer Nancy Wilson broke into the Top 20 - and eventually the Top 10 - of the Billboard charts across 1963 and 1964 with pairs of themed albums: Broadway My Way and Hollywood My Way, and Yesterday's Love Songs/Today's Blues and Today, Tomorrow, Forever. Naturally, in 1965 she'd combine the concept for Today - My Way, featuring modern standards like "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," "Dear Heart" and Bacharach and David's "Reach Out for Me," all arranged and conducted by longtime Ray Charles bandleader Sid Feller. This digital edition features that album in mono, plus a pair of singles released around the same time, including a Van McCoy original called "Where Does That Leave Me."

Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians, Perspex Island (A&M) (iTunes / Amazon)

The third of the British singer/songwriter's LPs to be released stateside by A&M, Perspex Island continued Robyn Hitchcock's flirtation with America's modern rock charts; lead single "So You Think You're in Love," featuring contributions by Michael Stipe and Peter Buck of R.E.M., would hit No. 1 on that survey.

Das Psych-Oh! Rangers, The Essential Art of Communication (ZTT) (iTunes / Amazon)

This rock outfit cut only one commercial single for ZTT in 1986, and it's often cited as one of the label's lesser efforts during their most influential phase. But ZTT's 40th anniversary digital Definition Series has been getting lots of the label's more obscure repertoire out to the public, and so Das Psych-Oh! Rangers' purpose is served once more.

Eleri Ward, Acoustic Sondheim: Live from Brooklyn (Ghostlight) (iTunes / Amazon)

Eleri Ward has released the third and final album in her exquisite trilogy dedicated to the late Stephen Sondheim. Following the studio albums A Perfect Little Death (2021) and Keep a Tender Distance (2022), Ward continues her exploration of the legendary composer-lyricist's oeuvre with this live set recorded in Brooklyn, now available for streaming and download. These intimate, soulful, and searching acoustic guitar renditions place the master's music on the spectrum of folk, Americana, and indie pop; the lyrics can often be heard as if for the first time as simply and elegantly arranged by Ward for solo voice and guitar. She comments in the press release:

This live album Acoustic Sondheim feels like a perfect bow to tie my time making these Sondheim arrangements. Since I perform most of these arrangements differently when I am singing in concert, this seemed like the perfect way to honor the shows I've been playing and my albums, while also creating something new. I use the dynamics of my voice more in concert, as well as strum more on the guitar. So my live versions take on a different personality, versus listening to the finely curated sound of the albums. Lots of folks have requested I put out the live versions of these songs, so that's just a bonus reason to do it.

Keep a Tender Distance arrived this week on vinyl; Ward celebrates both that release and this digital one with a concert on Monday, June 5, at Joe's Pub in New York City.

Joe shares a few words on Cynthia Weil...

In 2004, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil took the stage of New York's Promenade Theatre with a show they coyly entitled They Wrote That? Indeed, one could hear the audible gasps from the audience members as the down-to-earth, unpretentious couple onstage revealed each successive song which they had written - songs which formed the soundtrack of the lives of every person in that audience. Weil would quip that it felt like she and Mann had been married for 168 years, taking in the fact that they were not only married personally but professionally. A through line and running joke of the show was Mann's desire to be a "singer-songwriter with something to say" rather than "just" a pop tunesmith.

The joke, of course, was on Mann - and he was in on it. Ear candy though many of their songs might have been, they had plenty to say. And the words were Cynthia Weil's, set to her husband's powerfully melodic, unforgettable music. Cynthia, confidently breaking ground as one of a handful of female songwriters in an era in which the field was still dominated by men, captured the frustrations and malaise of the Vietnam era with the visceral "We Gotta Get Out of This Place." She was forceful yet empathetic in begging a dear friend to stop searching for "Kicks."  She gave encouragement to those most in need with the empowering admonition to "Make Your Own Kind of Music."

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. "On Broadway," "Here You Come Again," "I Just Can't Help Believing," "Soul and Inspiration," "Somewhere Out There," "It's Getting Better," "Just a Little Lovin'," "Only in America," and the most-played song of the 20th century, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'"...they wrote that?!? Cynthia occasionally wrote outside of the Mann/Weil team, too, contributing words to Tom Snow's music for Barry Manilow's "Somewhere Down the Road" or trading partners with Gerry Goffin to pen "One to One" with her lifelong friend Carole King.

When a musical about King's life was being mooted, the creators couldn't figure out what was missing. Then they hit on it. Classic Broadway musicals frequently had a secondary couple. Think Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, and so on. Barry and Cynthia would be the "secondary couple" supporting the story of Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Not that there was anything secondary about their music. Their presence lifted Beautiful: The Carole King Musical to international success. The words of Cynthia Weil will live forever, amplifying joy, explaining sorrow, and capturing the human condition through the eyes of a wise friend, or as she and Barry once wrote for Gene Pitney, "through the eyes of love."