view all comments (6) - add your comments
Bruce Springsteen - Magic, Album Review
Bruce Springsteen
Magic
Album Review
The speed with which Magic follows the Seeger Sessions album has been a surprise for all Bruce Springsteen fans - recorded at the start of 2007, while still pushing the Seeger project, this is his fifteenth studio album. Unfortunately, the speed and even the return of the E Street Band, has not helped this album. Some of the songs still stun, and the album seems to reference a number of previous discs - The Rising and Devils and Dust mainly - but it also has a few tracks that would have previously only made it to the Tracks collections of outtakes. Your Own Worst Enemy and Girls In Their Summer Clothes are among the weakest songs that Bruce Springsteen has ever recorded, and others seem rushed to disc ahead of their time, with so-so lyrics.
The variety of styles recalls (the underrated) Human Touch or The Rising - having started strongly with Radio Nowhere, and the excellent You'll Be Comin' Down, the mood swings to New Jersey shore soul with Livin' In The Future (like a River outtake) before Side 1 (on the LP) goes to pot. Side 2 is a lot better - I'll Work For Your Love, Long Walk Home and especially Last To Die (the last two the only overtly political songs) are excellent. The song that closes the disc, Broke The Mould, is unlisted, and refers to a friend who died recently. It is one of the best songs on the album. In the Bruce Springsteen canon, Magic is sadly not one of the classics - it is less Rising II than Human Touch II.
Rating 8/10
Mike Rea
Click Here for all you need to know about: Bruce Springsteen
Related BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Content
News
THE BOSS THE CHAIRMAN JOIN STREEP BUZZ IN HALL OF FAME
SUPER GROUP PERFORMS AT LOVE MUSIC HATE RACISM
RADIOHEAD SPRINGSTEEN LED ZEPPELIN TOP BEST LIST
SPRINGSTEEN PAYS LIVE TRIBUTE TO LATE KEYBOARD PLAYER
Audio/Video/Reviews
Various Artists, The Hard Rock Benefit Album Review
Bruce Springsteen, Magic Album Review
Bruce Springsteen, Live in Dublin, Album Review
Jerry Lee Lewis (and guests), Last Man Standing, Album Review
Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, Columbia, Album Review
view all comments (6) - add your comments
First of all, the last song is entitled "Terry's Song," not "Broke the Mould"
(sic).
Exactly how does the album "reference" Devils & Dust and The Rising? You don't
say. In fact, you don't say very much at all. It "references" D&D and The
Rising, it "recalls" Human Touch and The Rising, it is less The Rising II than
Human Touch II. On what exactly do you base any of this?
If you listened closer, you might notice this is quite a complex album, more so
than most in his career. The lyrics are complicated in a way that in no way
resembles Human Touch, an out-of-touch, session-musician work that is by far
the slightest album Bruce has ever made and consistently ranks at the very
bottom of any ranking of his albums. None of the songs here are quite what they
seem; even the brightest have dark, bittersweet lyrics, including Girls in
Their Summer Clothes, which you consider one of the worst of his career and
isn't anywhere close (worse than Human Touch's "Man's Job"? I suppose you
consider that "underrated"). This is in fact an important work that ranks just
below his great run from WIESS to The River, and many reviewers who have taken
the time to listen and consider seem to recognize that.
This review strikes me as rushed and slight. You mention a lot of album titles,
which, along with band names, is a typical ploy of reviewers who want to skip
the hard work of in-depth analysis and instead opt for "insta-cred."
Massive apologies for calling Terry's Song wrong - I reviewed the album based
on the vinyl copy, and there was no title to lift from at the time...
I stand by the 'Girls' comment - for me, it's a throwaway of the Waiting on A
Sunny Day variety - I hope it comes alive in concert. I presume you mean Real
Man from Human Touch - Man's Job is a pretty decent song. You must be cleverer
than I am if you can glean something from the lyrics - there is nothing there
to suggest other than I Wanna Marry You revisited. Yup, I'd put Girls in the
same box as 57 Channels, or Real Man. I haven't come across anyone defending
Your Own Worst Enemy yet, by the way...
Living In The Future - which Human Touch song do you want me to choose from?
Those reviewers who are 'more considered than me' refer to the River for this
one, but it's less Sherry Darling than Real World...
Magic, Devil's Arcade, Long Walk Home are all songs I'd put in the
D&D-with-band category... Which is the same place I'd put The Rising album...
Instead of insta-cred, I'm a massive fan. I have some 400 Springsteen albums on
the shelf/ hard disk, so I was genuinely pained writing that review (as for the
quality of the writing... clearly you'd make a better job of it). Suggesting
that only reviewers who agree with you have 'taken the time to listen and
consider' is unfair. I like the disc (and said so, as well as rating it
highly). However, it sounds like a side from Tracks to me, and the point of
reviewing isn't to be all fanboy just because Springsteen's my favourite
artist.







