Bruce Springsteen - Magic
|
List Price: Our Price: $14.99 You Save: $3.99 (21%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $3.21 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Magic
Free Music Review: Decent, but in no way great like you would be led to believe.
Hit: 3 Stars
After seeing Bruce do several songs on the Today show (I Think it was "Today"!) I was particuarly blown away, like most people are, by Radio Nowhere; I watched it over and over; then I hooked my VCR up to my stereo to watch in full stereo (which it wasn't) and realized, wait a minute! No wonder this song sounds familiar, the verses have the same melody as one of my favorite Warren Zevon songs, Splendid Isolation! (Just faster paced). This makes sense, Springsteen was guilty of unitentional musical plagarism on the Ghost Of Tom Joad LP, with Dylan's Love Minus Zero/No Limit. Any big music fan can do this, and Springsteen has always been a fan, I don't believe this was concsious, no way! The real irony is Springsteen's song is about wanting to escape isolation, and Warren's is about retreating. I prefer Splendid Isolation, but that takes nothing away from the greatness of Radio Nowhere.
Which lures you into thinking this whole album will be exciting like it.
The other songs, well, lets see...
For starters, if you don't go into this album expecting the greatness that all the magazines are claiming, you may enjoy it. It's better than that Seeger Sessions live album, which for me, only had When The Saints Go Marching In and a definitive Highway Patrolman making it worthwhile, not nearly as good as the studio Seeger Sessions album, which was his most enjoyable album in ages--for a brief period. (His albums don't have the long-lasting power they once had).
The Rising was a great album in PLACES for me, but after certain personal events, I find it too painful to listen to now. (It was and still is hyped way too much also).
By the way, anybody reading this, I've been a fan for nearly 30 years (albeit mostly of his early material), and have followed him since then pretty well. I lost some interest around the Ghost Of Tom Joad album, for he was doing what he described in Better Days "it's a sad funny ending to find yourself pretending, a rich man in a poor man's shirt". I am one of the rare fans who doesn't like that album ("Ghost..."). But I did hear a few concerts from that tour, the songs came alive, well, most of them, except for the last few he'd play every night in the same order, the "border suite".
I'm glad also that he quit being this angry old grouch who would tell his audience to shut up! You can't do that in a rock concert at a stadium show anyways! Impossible to try...
Well, this being his first album of original material since the dreadful Devils and Dust (the album with the least cohesion of anything he's ever done), this is a lot better. But it's still not GREAT; it's merely decent.
People are complaining about the production, I didn't even realize that may be a problem here, so some songs are apparently diluted in spirit? That makes sense, this isn't exactly the energetic rock 'n' roll that you might expect based on the initial thrill of hearing Radio Nowhere. This is nonetheless better than anybody had a reason to expect him putting out. Which is why reviews are overplaying how it is, claiming it one of his best. Nonsense! His period from '72 through '78 will never be topped, and it's unfair to expect it from him.
Other decent songs on this, after said great song, are Last To Die, a fine song against our illegal, immoral war which we as citizens have clearly no control over as long as Bush is in power, thankfully that won't be TOO much longer (oh, the damage he can do in one day though! I don't wanna think about it!) Long Walk Home is alright also, ditto You'll Be Coming Down (this is a fairly depressing sounding album), also Your Own Worst Enemy, Girls In Their Summer Clothes, and the formulaic (I can't believe I'm using that term in a Springsteen review, but it's true) Livin' in the Future, an inferior re-write of Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, with socially conscious lyrics replacing the poetic beauty of his then-personal angst, triumph through his band, and just plain Fun. It's not a bad song, but why bother starting here when you can get Born To Run first? (I always recommend Darkness on the Edge of Town for Springsteen neophytes as the starter anyhow, it's his masterpiece).
Note: this album is a conscious attempt to re-create the magic (NO pun intended) he DID have once, right down to the sound aping Born To Run; but the songs ain't exactly "Backstreets". This album is at times a case of style over substance, really sad.
The second finest song on here is an unlisted, untitled song he doesn't seem to be doing live, according to the setlists on the Backstreets site, a tribute to the late Terry Magovern.
I recommend either getting this album as cheap as possible, or perhaps going for downloading Radio Nowhere and this song ("Terry's Song"?).
Songs like Magic, are just plain boring to me. I find it hard to understand how anybody familiar with Springsteen's body of work could consider this one of his best albums. It's just not, the songs are sluggish at times, and yes, the more I listen to it again, the more I can see that the sound, the production, is really pretty bad; it makes for a soporific experience almost at times, and considering this is Springsteen, that's a real shame; but then, he's almost always messed up his albums, since The River actually (some INCREDIBLE songs on there, but what a mess overall! look at what he left off!); esp. look at Born In The U.S.A., man , what a hard album to listen to now, even with songs as good as I'm On Fire; the production on that one STINKS!; Tunnel Of Love was quite overpolished, it took seeing him live to realize there was more to it than Walk Like A Man (still the best song on it); his '92 'comeback' albums, esp. Human Touch, are a perfect example of how he overthought himself in the studio then. In fact, go back to The River (where the over-thinking really began), and listen to Point Blank, and then listen to one from the Darkness tour if you can, and tell me he didn't ruin that one!)
So, to sum it up, a fairly decent album, a couple great tunes, a few decent ones, and some pretty dull ones as well. And sadly, that's all we have any reason to believe he will be able to do from now on.
This is overall decent, just not great: I believe his fans WANT to believe that this is great, his big comeback, because why wouldn't we? But let's face up to the truth, it's here for all to hear. I mean, look at say, the pages of Backstreets, or better yet, For True Rockers Only, from '92. People were RAVING about how great a lot of the songs from Human Touch and Lucky Town were, debating the merits of individual songs there. Then a couple years later, these same fans couldn't have cared less about them. But most all his big fans always will go back to his '70s output, and STILL find that thrill.
There's an old cliche amongst musicians; they always will say "this is my best album yet" and "the band has never sounded better".
Springsteen has stuck to these lies since he sold out in '84.
And all the claims that this album is one of his best is absurd. If you disagree, you are entitled to your opinion, but please listen to Darkness or Born To Run, or The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle albums and tell me this is still one of his greatest. You won't be able to listen to this much anymore, save a couple songs.
At least he unintentionally borrowed from Warren Zevon, and we have Radio Nowhere.
Free Music Review: Better than I expected!
Hit: 3 Stars
I was a huge Springsteen fan in the 70s, starting with the E Street Shuffle album. I think that Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge Of Town are two of the highest points of American music - evah.
But Bruce lost me somewhere after The River, and each successive release seemed less compelling. That's not surprising - what fueled the early releases was the fervent belief that rock 'n' roll really could save the world. That's a young person's game, and it can't be credibly sustained into middle age without just feeling forced and phony. The last time I saw Bruce with the E Street Band a couple of years back at the Tacome Dome it felt like they were just going through the paces.
So I wasn't expecting much when I put on Magic for the first time last night. But I was sucked in right off the bat - Radio Nowhere grabbed me and most of the CD kept me there. The songs are suffused with a sense of melancholy that somehow suits my mood this season, the band sounds like the seasoned rock pros that they are, but there's enough variation of sound and texture to keep it interesting. Where it's less successful is when Bruce tries to reconstruct the old Phil Spector sound of Born To Run (Your Own Worst Enemy).
I do agree with lots of the other comments that Brendan O'Brien's production doesn't do Bruce any favors here - the sound is way to compressed and slick to let the performances breathe - it's like you have to struggle to really hear the fine work that's going on. But it's worth making the effort.
Free Music Review: Great album ruined by over compression
Hit: 2 Stars
If this album was produced by someone who had some sense, this album would have garnered at least 4 stars, the songs are great, but...
The sound is total garbage, everything is compressed and sounds fuzzy and lifeless, the same problem with the last Morrissey album as well, great songs but boring, lifeless production.
Music industry, please get your heads straight and give us some great sounding music again, you wonder why no one wants to buy cds, give us a reason to!
Free Music Review: Go get Brian Wilson
Hit: 5 Stars
I have only just got this album. WOW! This is a great listen but something just jumped out when I heard "YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY". Go get Brian Wilson and get his additional backing vocals on here Bruce!!! WHAT A TRACK that could be! The "boss" and the "cosmic 'oo'" on the same track! The opening music is Beach Boys/Beatles circa 1967 and then whoomph. This is the sort of music (lyrics excluded) that crank you up a few notches. A cracker, and the rest of the album is damm good as well...and I've only listened to it twice.Free Music Review: Awesome!
Hit: 5 Stars
Another awesome album from Bruce, with the added bonus of having the E-Street Band back. Greatest songwriter of our generation.