Bruce Springsteen’s “Magic” Touch Still Works On Rock Critics
Every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today’s entry is Bruce Springsteen’s Magic, which comes out on CD tomorrow:
• “Springsteen’s topical allusions are unspecific enough that Magic will remain enchanting after we get these American messes straightened out, in 5, 10, 50 years. Still, he does finally bring the war to the fore in the climactic ‘Devil’s Arcade,’ and an album that began with Bruce yelling ‘Is there anybody alive out there?’ ends on real matters of life and death. This big, slow-building ballad finds a young woman visiting her beloved in a military hospital, whispering promises of an idyllic suburban future and finally repeating the line ‘the beat of your heart’ over and over, as if that very incantation could keep him tethered to the corporeal world. It’s a moment that will break even a hardened rock fan’s heart. But by then your resolve might already be melting from the realization that, three and a half decades into his career, Bruce Springsteen is back in the masterpiece business.” [EW] • “His boomer fans revere him also as a role model–of how to grow old with integrity, how to get rich without going soft, how to not lose all your hair, how to not get fat, how to not turn into someone who would embarrass your younger self. It’s not eternal youth he symbolizes so much as a version of middle age that you wouldn’t be afraid to look at in the mirror.” [NYM] • “Certain songs don’t just echo the past, they openly mimic it. ‘I’ll Work for Your Love’ rejiggers the 1973 romantic declaration ‘For You.’ And ‘Livin’ in the Future’ swaggers like the second coming of the 1975 R&B rave-up ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.’ But the comforting sounds are often deceptive. Election day rolls around on the latter song, and a menacing stranger arrives with ‘the barrel of a pistol spinnin’ round.’ It makes for an album in which Springsteen and the E Street Band conjure the ghosts of their hardest-hitting music, 1975-80. But the singer’s lyrics don’t look back. They are about right now and a scary, uncertain future.” [Chicago Tribune] • “Artists like Bruce Springsteen face weighty expectations from fans and critics. Every album must either be a stunning return to form or a groundbreaking departure to pass muster. But sometimes a good record is just a good record, not life-changing or seminal. Springsteen and his longtime bandmates prove they still have plenty of cards up their sleeves, but they engage in a more practical kind of Magic this time out. Fifty years from now few aficionados will look to this disc as a major Springsteen work; for right now, though, it strikes a tone that feels just right.” [Boston Globe]
