Saw*Kick Media

Magic
Bruce Springsteen

Release date: 10/2/07

Jack Says: C+

I used to detest Bruce Springsteen.

My love-hate relationship with Bruce started when I was about five. On family road trips, Springsteen, specifically the Born in the U.S.A. album, was featured in steady rotation. And like I did with most of my parents’ record catalog – the Beach Boys, James Taylor, Rod Stewart,* etc., etc. – I ate it up. I couldn’t get enough. But as adolescence set in, I found myself loathing what I thought were cheesy lyrics, lame chord progressions and stale… well… It was music my parents would listen to.

Unsurprisingly, like most of the tastes, attitudes and opinions I held in my teenage years, my feelings towards Springsteen couldn’t have been more wrong. He rocks. In fact, despite, ironically, the song “Born in the U.S.A.,” arguably his worst ever, Springsteen has, for decades, produced the quintessential American rock music.

As for Magic, the newest of Springsteen’s 15 studio albums, it never quite achieves the same emotional triumph as did those of his “Glory Days,” if you will, of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Bruce enthusiasts will not be disappointed; but for the rest of us, Magic doesn’t quite live up to its name.

…Not that it would be fair to expect it to, and not that Magic is all bad. Though brief, there are instances on this album that recall the more winning moments of Springsteen in his heyday – tracks like “Livin’ in the Future” and “Long Walk Home” – when, like it seemed to with far more consistency in the past, everything just clicks.

Depending instead on his charisma and natural ability to empathize, Springsteen has never displayed much flair when it came to his songwriting, and Magic is no different. I suppose to try to describe the sound of the album is pointless – Springsteen has, with great success, relied on a similar formula for nearly three decades, and it’s likely as familiar to most people as “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Where Magic goes wrong, however – and it’s a problem that plagues a good portion of the album – is when Springsteen leans too little on his supporting cast. The dynamic saxophone of Clarence Clemons, who sparks a great of deal of the energy of the group’s celebrated live shows and, to a lesser extent, its studio recordings, is featured prominently on a handful of the album’s 12 tracks, but is more or less nonexistent on the rest. Since Born in the U.S.A. was released in 1984, Magic is just the second album Springsteen has recorded with his legendary E Street Band and the first since 2002’s The Rising. Underutilized here, Springsteen might have made a close approximation of Magic with a group of anonymous session musicians.

These days it’s tough to deny that Bruce Springsteen, and particularly the E Street Band, is more relevant to many pop music consumers as the drummer from Conan (Max Weinberg) and Silvio, the loveable goofball who shot Adriana in one of the more memorable scenes of “The Sopranos” (Steven Van Zandt). Nevertheless, unlike some of his contemporaries, Springsteen has done nothing to damage his legacy as one of this country’s most enduring songwriters. And while it can’t hold a flame to his best work, Magic is far more than enough to keep Springsteen’s reputation intact. He’s The Boss, and as far as I’m concerned, he always will be.

*NOTE: I stopped liking Rod Stewart when I was 11, and, needless to say, he still blows.

Key tracks: “Livin’ in the Future,” “Long Walk Home,” “Terry’s Song” (hidden track)

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