ALBUM REVIEW: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, MAGIC

The career of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band has been marked not only by the band’s ability to write and perform compelling, catchy songs that sound great in the studio and even better when performed live, but also by the seemingly slavish attention to thematic and sonic unity that have elevated previous efforts from collections of songs to great albums.

The first time this writer listened to Magic, the new album from Springsteen and the Band, my initial impression was that the group had released a disc which contained some excellent songs, but which was, as a whole, less than cohesive. Fortunately, repeated listens prove this theory false.

So why the confusion? Part of it can be attributed to the quality of the songs. It might seem odd to make the argument that so many of the songs are so accessible that it is easy to be fooled by their tasty outer shell, but the more times you spin Magic, the more understandable the argument becomes and the more you’ll come to appreciate the depth of the songs on this disc.

Through the years, Springsteen has succeeded because of his innate ability to capture the cultural zeitgeist and put it on record - even if the songs themselves are not as accepting of the era as some might want to believe. His 1973 debut,Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., channeled Bob Dylan (leading to inevitable comparisons.) 1975’s Born to Run and 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town snapped a picture of a country in recession, still struggling to come to terms with the aftereffects of the Vietnam War. Born in the U.S.A. arrived in 1984 at the height of Ronald Reagan’s flag-waving presidency. The Ghost of Tom Joad examined the underbelly of America when too many were interested in reveling in the excesses of prosperity. The Rising was Springsteen’s take on the tragic events which took place September 11, 2001.

One common theme that links Springsteen’s work is the way in which he writes political anthems that work both on a pop level as well as on a social level. Those who wanted to wave their flags to "Born in the U.S.A" were not discouraged from doing so - save for the Republican candidates who attempted to co-opt the track and transform it into something that it wasn’t. Those who realized that the song was, in fact, not the pro-U.S. anthem that so many thought it was, appreciated Springsteen’s ability to write such pointed lyrics that were misunderstood by so many.

A social and political activist throughout his career, Springsteen has, over the past several years, become more vocal in his support of certain political candidates, and more critical of those who have squandered their responsibilities and made the same mistakes that their fathers and mentors did.

Though the above might have seemed like a history lesson, it actually was meant to illustrate that Springsteen’s decision to release an album that is critical and wary of the direction in which this country is moving, while doing a masterful job at couching his displeasure by constructing hook-filled melodies that allow the tracks to work on multiple levels is what makes Magic so compelling and so necessary.

The album is chock-full of allusions to the decline of the United States in the past half-decade. Commercial radio has been decimated by big media companies who spent insane amounts of money lobbying the FCC to loosen ownership rules originally put into place to avoid the faceless homogeneity that now corrupts terrestrial radio and "Radio Nowhere," the first single from Magic, illustrates that point perfectly. "This is radio nowhere," Springsteen sings. "Is there anybody alive out there?"

"Livin’ In the Future," which opens with the sax-driven sound that hearkens to a combination of Springsteen’s classic "Hungry Heart" and Billy Idol’s "Hot In the City," is not as cheery as one might think, when Springsteen sings "Tell me is that rollin’ thunder/or just the sinkin’ sound/of something righteous goin’ under?"

"Girls In Their Summer Clothes" might feel like a typical Springsteen banger on first listen, but there is a serious melancholy evident in the lyrics, when the "girls in their summer clothes pass me by." Roy Bittan’s piano eases the listener into "I’ll Work For Your Love," which soon explodes when Springsteen sings about the way in which "our city of peace has crumbled/our book of faith’s been tossed."

"Last To Die" maybe be the most overtly political song on the disc, on which Springsteen’s anger with the lies that took the United States to war in Iraq and the needless blood shed by U.S. soldiers. "Who’ll be the last to die for a mistake" Springsteen asks. "Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break/who’ll be the last to die, for a mistake."

"Long Walk Home," an instant classic performed by Springsteen on 2006’s Seeger Sessions tour, is the antithesis of Born In the U.S.A.’s "My Hometown." "In town I passed Sal’s grocery/the barbershop on South Street/I looked into their faces/they were all rank strangers to me/the veteran’s hall high up on the hill/stood silent and alone/the diner was shuttered and boarded/with a sign that just said ’gone.’" The country faces a long walk home. When you torture and kill in the name of a war that should never have been, you lose part of your soul and it appears that this is one of the messages that Springsteen is attempting to convey.

The disc’s closer is a hidden track, "Terry’s Song," a tribute to Terry Magovern, a longtime friend and mentor to Springsteen, who passed away July 30. It is a stirring, simple-yet-elegant, piano-and-acoustic-guitar eulogy that gives the disc a sense of closure, and appropriately (and unfortunately) amplifies the feelings of loss and despair that propel this disc.

That Springsteen can make a collection of songs sound both anthemic and mournful at the same time is a tribute to his talents. While other artists of his generation have long ago grown complacent with releasing yet another collection of their greatest hits, Springsteen continues to take chances and continues to elevate his game. Magic is not Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s best album, but it is a magnificent and harrowing snapshot of where we are, as a nation, at the end of 2007.

In much the same way that Born to Run painted a portrait of the artist as a young man, and Nebraska captured the despair of the early 1980s, Magic proves itself necessary and worthy of much praise because, without being too onerous, it is another, necessary, snapshot of the state of the union and a wake-up call for those who don’t realize, as Springsteen himself once said, that "blind faith in your leaders will get you killed."
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