CD Review: Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band's "Magic"

by Rick Landers.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s new Magic CD release adds new weight to an already formidable music legacy. The Boss is fast approaching 60 and could be resting on his laurels by heading out on the road armed with his slug of hits to satisfy his long time fans, while gathering up new admirers and more bucks. Magic proves his blood still runs hot with straight "atcha" rock 'n’ roll and Springsteen and his crew once again lock and load. The album aches with Springsteen angst and could be dismissed as yet another rocker, but many of the lyrics are deep and rich stoking the fires of his feelings about the war in Iraq.

“Radio Nowhere” kick starts this album and although the familiarity of chords calls to mind the simple riffs that can be relied on to hit the Top 40. It kicks ass like a full frontal assault with its "867-5309/Jenny " hit wonder type riff and Bruce launching into some benchmark rock ‘n’ roll.

With a hard pounding snare drum and bass pedal to the metal, “You’ll Be Comin’ Down” reinforces the direction of Magic as a rock album. Here Bruce's lyrics spit out an earnest wail about how good looks and fame are like an “empty stream of stars shooting by” and how it “all falls apart with no warning.” Anger at a betrayer’s good fortune and digging into the truth of life is a hallmark of Springsteen’s songwriting skills and, of course, he knows how to deliver.

Leading off with the inimitable sax of Clarence Clemons, “Living in the Future” is pure E-Street band riffing with Bruce singing in funky clips that crouch in between the back beats. Bruce at his best sings about the anticipation of love damaged and torn apart. The song’s vintage Springsteen and could have easily been a track on “Born in the USA” as “Magic.” The track could easily be construed as a love song, but Springsteen talked about the tune on the Today Show in September offering, "So now, in the last six years, we've had to add to the American picture: rendition, illegal wiretapping, voter suppression, no habeas corpus, the neglect of our great city of New Orleans and her people, an attack on the Constitution, and the loss of our best young men and women in a tragic war. This is a song about things that shouldn't happen here, happening here. And so right now we plan to do something about it, we plan to sing about it. I know it's early, but it's late..." Too many great cuts on this album to call any of them the best, but this is Springsteen and the E Street Band signature work.

The CD gets a bit soft with “Your Own Worst Enemy” that doesn’t gather up enough steam and is too light weight and predictable to earn a spot on this one. Not sure what got dropped to include the cut, but the track’s lethargic and not up to this group's talents.

“Gypsy Biker” brings us back to Bruce the storyteller where he trashes the exploitation of a dead brother biker, leading his friends to cremate the guy’s bike. Close attention to the lyrics shows a stolen line from Springsteen’s “Shut Out the Light” where he sang about a Ford taken out of a garage and here the bike’s pushed back in and chrome polished. Pretty much the same lyric but wrapped in a greasy chain. Bruce’s harp is on track here along with some blaring lead guitar work that keeps “Gypsy Biker” in gear.

The CD’s namesake “Magic” gives us Bruce Springsteen at his ballad best. The guy can stir up a mood that can be hauntingly or tragically sad. A double-entrende lyric the song speaks of the illusions of the magician and the reality he makes, but the Springsteen’s reference point is meant to target the Bush Administration’s conjuring of fear to invoke a new reality when he sings “And the freedom that you sought’s drifting like a ghost amongst the trees.”

Bruce grabs his Tele and rushes in with “Last to Die” and it’s a perfect cut for the throngs to sing along to a Springsteen concert. Whether he’s singing a crunch of rhythm or a forlorn tale the band always gives him a full tank of fuel to push things along.

Storyteller Springsteen slows things down for a down home talk on "Devil's Arcade" that's a powerful statement on the tragedy of war. Two lovers wait, one a war casualty and the other at his or her side, both hoping against hope that tomorrow will come for both. The lyric is poetic and haunting and open to interpretation as to the genders of the two lovers and when the context of the war is brought to bear, the sadness and the yearning are rendered monumental.

The last track or "secret" track was a last minute add to the CD that pays homage to Springsteen's close friend Frank "Terry" Magovern who passed away on July 30, 2007. Terry was often called Bruce's personal assistant, but he was also a major influence on the New Jersey music scene for forty years. The tune's rightfully sparse with Bruce keeping things stripped down to his guitar, his harp and his voice. It's a personal song about a man that Bruce was close to for over thirty years and he sings "Well they built the Titanic to be one of a kind, but many ships have ruled the seas, They built the Eiffel Tower to stand alone, But they could build another if they please,Taj Mahal, the pyramids of Egypt, are unique I suppose, But when they built you, brother, they broke the mold".

Magic brings it all back home for Springsteen fans who love to hear him rock. We’ve got to give Springsteen his due. The man has an honesty and integrity in all that he’s done and there’s a core of anguish and truth running strong on this CD. Bruce offers up enough growl on both hard driving tracks and the darker whispering tunes that should please any Springsteen fan proving that he's still The Boss.

Street Date: Oct 02, 2007
Producer: Brendan O'Brien
Engineer: Billy Bowers
Recording Time: 47 minutes

Tracks

1. Radio Nowhere
2. You'll Be Comin' Down
3. Livin' In the Future
4. Your Own Worst Enemy
5. Gypsy Biker
6. Girls In Their Summer Clothes
7. I'll Work For Your Love
8. Magic
9. Last To Die
10. Long Walk Home
11. Devil's Arcade
12. Bonus Track 1 - Terry's Song/Broke the Mold

Personnel
Bruce Springsteen - vocals, guitars, harmonica, pump organ, synthesizer, glockenspiel, percussion, background vocals
Nils Lofgren - guitars, background vocals
Roy Bittan - piano, organ
Max Weinberg - drums
Garry Tallent - bass guitar
Patti Scialfa - background vocals
Danny Federici - organ, keyboards
Clarence "Nick" Clemons - saxophone, background vocals
Steve Van Zandt - guitars, mandolin, background vocals

Related Link
Bruce Springsteen

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