"Born in the U.S.A." received positive reviews from critics. In a contemporary review for "Rolling Stone", Dave Marsh called it Springsteen's most accessible listen since "Born to Run" (1975) and said that he knew how to incorporate "technopop elements without succumbing to the genre's banalities". The magazine's Debby Miller wrote that Springsteen has set songs that were as well thought-out as "Nebraska" to more sophisticated production and spirited music, and that the four story-driven songs that end each side of the album give it an "extraordinary depth" because of his world-beating lyrics. Robert Hilburn from the "Los Angeles Times" felt that, with the album's "richer" musical settings, Springsteen had succeeded in articulating his message to a wider audience. John Swenson of "Saturday Review" credited him for showing a more disciplined writing style than on his previous albums and for "championing traditional rock values at a time when few newer bands show interest in such a direction". Writing in "The Village Voice", Robert Christgau said Springsteen improved upon his previous work by eschewing dejected themes of nostalgia and losers in favor of tougher lyrics, a sense of humor, and an upbeat worldview more honest than the one-dimensional politics of "Nebraska". He added that the record's vibrant music "reminds me like nothing in years that what teenagers loved about rock and roll wasn't that it was catchy or even rhythmic but that it just plain sounded good". "Born in the U.S.A." was voted the best album of the year in "The Village Voice"s annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1984. Christgau, the poll's creator, also ranked it number one on his list, in 1990 he named it the ninth-best album of the 1980s.