Music Banter - View Single Post - Bitesize: Trollheart's Daily Album Mini-Reviews

Trollheart · 08-30-2012, 04:34 AM

The Boss is back and the title says it all

Artiste: Bruce Springsteen
Nationality: American
Album: Magic
Year: 2007
Label: Columbia
Genre: Rock
Tracks:
Radio Nowhere
You'll be comin' down
Livin' in the future
Your own worst enemy
Gypsy biker
Girls in their summer clothes
I'll work for your love
Magic
Last to die
Long walk home
Devil's arcade
Terry's song (hidden track)
Chronological position: Fifteenth album
Familiarity: Um, just about everything! “Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ”, “The wild, the innocent and the E Street shuffle”, “Born to run”, “Darkness on the edge of town”, “The river”, “Nebraska”, “Born in the USA”, “Tunnel of love”, “Human touch”, “Lucky town”, “The Rising”,”The ghost of Tom Joad”, “Devils and dust”, “Wrecking ball”...
Interesting factoid: Bruce's first album with the E Street Band since 2002's “The Rising”.
Initial impression: Love love love it!
Best track(s): Hard to pick but Gypsy biker, Girls in their summer clothes, Last to die, You'll be comin' down, Long walk home
Worst track(s): Non sequitur.
Comments: I'm ashamed to admit it as a Springsteen fan, but there's a small gap in his later catalogue that I have yet to fill. As you can read from the “Familiarity” field above, I've heard everything from his debut right up to “The Rising”, and indeed his latest too, but there are two albums I haven't heard even once, and this is one of them. Somehow, I just never got around to it. I suppose that's the problem with the internet, you can find, download and forget, whereas when we used to buy CDs (or LPs) we almost invariably listened to them if not right away, at least within the first week after purchase. The physical presence of a disc or record was hard to ignore or forget about, but a file squirreled away on your hard drive with thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of others? Much easier to overlook.

And so I did, with the result that I'm trying to address that lapse now. And as disappointed as I was with the two albums either side of “The Rising”, I'm expecting big things from this. I'm not let down, I have to say. From the off it's power proto-blue-collar rock, the sort of Americana we've not only come to expect from the Boss, but which he helped to create on albums like “Born to run” and “The river”. Laden with the usual political statements and raging against injustice, this album has many messages, but there's room for fun too, like Girls in their summer clothes, which nestles quite comfortably along big heavy topical fare like ”Livin' in the future and Your own worst enemy. One thing I found missing off the two acoustic albums was the familiar sound of Clarence's wonderful sax breaks, God rest his soul, but they're here in all their glory, evoking memories of “Born in the USA” and “Born to run”, while the album itself for me most closely resembles “Lucky town” or “Human touch”.

Bruce has always sung about real people and real situations, and peppered that with sometimes veiled or sometimes pointed political commentary. The last to die is one of the latter, referencing the Vietnam war, with a lovely strings backing, while the title track is the only acoustic one on the album, dark and heavy with a brooding sense of menace that wouldn't be out of place on “Nebraska”. Although an upbeat, breezy song at heart, Gypsy biker mourns the death of an Iraq veteran as his coffin comes back to his homeland, while in something the same vein musically, Long walk home reeks of paranioa and fear.

It's great to see the E Street Band back together, for the last time, as the following year Danny Federici would leave us, followed by Clarence two years after that. Though the “Big Man” would play on Springsteen's next outing, 2009's “Working on a dream”, Federici would be dead by then, so this really marks the last time the guys all played together on a Springsteen album. Poignant and bittersweet really. There's also some beautiful violin from Soozie Tyrell, and even Nils Lofgren is back to play guitar, for the first time since “The Rising”.

Hey, what did you expect? It's Bruce, it's close to perfect and it's about damn time I listened to it!
Overall impression: Why did I wait so long?
Intention: Need to listen to “Working on a dream” now, then maybe give “Devils and dust” another chance. Maybe...

08-30-2012, 04:34 AM	#73 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,971	The Boss is back and the title says it all Artiste: Bruce Springsteen Nationality: American Album: Magic Year: 2007 Label: Columbia Genre: Rock Tracks: Radio Nowhere You'll be comin' down Livin' in the future Your own worst enemy Gypsy biker Girls in their summer clothes I'll work for your love Magic Last to die Long walk home Devil's arcade Terry's song (hidden track) Chronological position: Fifteenth album Familiarity: Um, just about everything! “Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ”, “The wild, the innocent and the E Street shuffle”, “Born to run”, “Darkness on the edge of town”, “The river”, “Nebraska”, “Born in the USA”, “Tunnel of love”, “Human touch”, “Lucky town”, “The Rising”,”The ghost of Tom Joad”, “Devils and dust”, “Wrecking ball”... Interesting factoid: Bruce's first album with the E Street Band since 2002's “The Rising”. Initial impression: Love love love it! Best track(s): Hard to pick but Gypsy biker, Girls in their summer clothes, Last to die, You'll be comin' down, Long walk home Worst track(s): Non sequitur. Comments: I'm ashamed to admit it as a Springsteen fan, but there's a small gap in his later catalogue that I have yet to fill. As you can read from the “Familiarity” field above, I've heard everything from his debut right up to “The Rising”, and indeed his latest too, but there are two albums I haven't heard even once, and this is one of them. Somehow, I just never got around to it. I suppose that's the problem with the internet, you can find, download and forget, whereas when we used to buy CDs (or LPs) we almost invariably listened to them if not right away, at least within the first week after purchase. The physical presence of a disc or record was hard to ignore or forget about, but a file squirreled away on your hard drive with thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of others? Much easier to overlook. And so I did, with the result that I'm trying to address that lapse now. And as disappointed as I was with the two albums either side of “The Rising”, I'm expecting big things from this. I'm not let down, I have to say. From the off it's power proto-blue-collar rock, the sort of Americana we've not only come to expect from the Boss, but which he helped to create on albums like “Born to run” and “The river”. Laden with the usual political statements and raging against injustice, this album has many messages, but there's room for fun too, like Girls in their summer clothes, which nestles quite comfortably along big heavy topical fare like ”Livin' in the future and Your own worst enemy. One thing I found missing off the two acoustic albums was the familiar sound of Clarence's wonderful sax breaks, God rest his soul, but they're here in all their glory, evoking memories of “Born in the USA” and “Born to run”, while the album itself for me most closely resembles “Lucky town” or “Human touch”. Bruce has always sung about real people and real situations, and peppered that with sometimes veiled or sometimes pointed political commentary. The last to die is one of the latter, referencing the Vietnam war, with a lovely strings backing, while the title track is the only acoustic one on the album, dark and heavy with a brooding sense of menace that wouldn't be out of place on “Nebraska”. Although an upbeat, breezy song at heart, Gypsy biker mourns the death of an Iraq veteran as his coffin comes back to his homeland, while in something the same vein musically, Long walk home reeks of paranioa and fear. It's great to see the E Street Band back together, for the last time, as the following year Danny Federici would leave us, followed by Clarence two years after that. Though the “Big Man” would play on Springsteen's next outing, 2009's “Working on a dream”, Federici would be dead by then, so this really marks the last time the guys all played together on a Springsteen album. Poignant and bittersweet really. There's also some beautiful violin from Soozie Tyrell, and even Nils Lofgren is back to play guitar, for the first time since “The Rising”. Hey, what did you expect? It's Bruce, it's close to perfect and it's about damn time I listened to it! Overall impression: Why did I wait so long? Intention: Need to listen to “Working on a dream” now, then maybe give “Devils and dust” another chance. Maybe... __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 01-13-2015 at 11:13 AM.