Bruce Springsteen: Magic - 2007

"It is a high energy rock album with a heavy E. St Band sound" - Jon Landau

  

Despite Jon Landau's praise, it's a strange album, this one. I rarely play it, yet the songs on it are potentially not so bad, they just never achieve what they could have done. This is largely due to the truly appalling, tinny, crashing sound employed by producer Brendan O'Brien. It renders the album, at times, virtually unlistenable. 

An example of this is on the album’s frantic, almost punky opener, Radio Nowhere - a good song spoiled by its bombastic production which almost drowns even a strong lead vocal like Springsteen’s. 

Many other songs are affected in the same way - Girls In Their Summer Clothes and I’ll Work For Your Love, in particular. In terms of themes, the album is pretty morose, dealing with conflict, social problems and personal disillusion. Only these two summery, romantic songs raise the spirits slightly, but even these are narrated by a middle-aged Springsteen wistfully thinking back on the old days to a certain extent, from his position at the bar, while asking the barmaid for another shot. 

The Last To Die, the moving Gypsy Biker and Devil’s Arcade are all covered in the dust of war and The Long Walk Home, Living In The Future, Magic and You’ll Be Comin’ Down all bemoan contemporary life in one way or another. Your Own Worst Enemy confronts psychological issues. Personally, I haven’t got a problem with someone who has become quite a wise man expressing his views on various serious matters, I just wish he would be backed by better sound quality, as he deserves. 

In many ways, all Springsteen’s albums have been blighted by one sound problem or another. If only his songs had a Steely Dan-style production. Now there’s a thought..Apparently, there were several logistical problems in getting the E St Band all together at any given time to record the album, so most parts were recorded individually and “pasted” together, so to speak. Knowing that now, it shows. 

There is certainly something half-baked and maybe a little incomplete about the material on here. As I said earlier, as if it hasn’t reached its potential. A sad thing about this recording, too, is that Clarence Clemons’ now all too infrequent saxophone solos are also becoming increasingly and so sadly irrelevant.