Entertainment For Lively Minds
Is 'Magic' the near-perfect modern Springsteen album?
Posted by lisbon on 28 September 2009 - 5:10pm.
(Or even the near-perfect modern Adult Rock album?)
It could do with losing a flabby track of two, and I'm really not a fan of Brendan O'Brien's production, but EVEN SO... It's got everything you'd want from a Springsteen/E Street Band album - upbeat retro rock'n'roll, wistful songs about the home town going wrong, intimate songs, impassioned rockers ('Gypsy Biker' and 'Devil's Arcade' two of his most thrilling, powerful songs ever) - done really, really well. Played it again over the weekend, finished with my heart thumping.
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Well, there's no accounting for taste
Do this for me. Compile a 20 track Best Of Bruce Springsteen, tell me how many songs you've included from "Magic" and then tell me which other Springsteen songs you left out to put them in.
Why stop there?
Compile a 50-track best-of and do the same exercise.
I have seen Magic future and its name is "Lucky Town for the new Millennium".
little bit later...
... ok, I couldn't do it.
But he's been around a long time, he's got four decades worth of essential songs!
Still surprised at the lack of love though. There are an increasing number of days now, for me, when I've heard the '70s and '80s albums enough and reach for the new 'uns instead.
And I sulkily stand by 'Devil's Arcade' as one of his best.
I'm on your side, lisbon
I like 'Magic' very much. Radio Nowhere, Your Own Worst Enemy and particularly Girls In Their Summer Clothes are among his finest.
No accounting for taste
I'm glad it works for you, Mikhail, but for me repeated listening has only confirmed by first impressions: that "Radio Nowhere" is "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)" in a not-so-brilliant disguise, that "Your Own Worst Enemy" is just more evidence of what we've known since The River: he's not really very good at midtempo songs (unless they're proper stompers), and that "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" is just "Waitin' On A Sunny Day" dressed up all purty in a gingham frock. I'll stick with Mary's dress waving, I think.
The best thing I can say about Magic is that it's not Working On A Dream. And I'm a Springsteen fan.
Also a Fan
but I didn't warm to Magic (not to say that I won't) really disliked Radio Nowhere which was this albums 57 Channels (a dull rock stomper).
On the other hand I loved Working On a Dream from the minute I heard it (incl Outlaw Pete) especially the sublime This Life
Amazing how views differ.
I thought Radio Nowhere was a great show opener on his Magic tour.
It works live
but not on the recorded version.
Just reminded me on the HumanTouch/Lucky Town tour the backing singers sang 'no justice no peace' on 57 channels which worked very well in the context of the time.
Outlaw Pete is the same perhaps
As stated below I don't know what the track is doing on the Working On A Dream album but it worked live at Hampden Park.
good call on 'Radio Nowhere' and '57 Channels' comparison
Raaaaaaaaaaaaaawk stompers not his strong point.
'Livin' In The Future' would make my Bruce comp, though
Political lyrics tucked into his best 'good time' tune since '84.
the word is "modern"
I assume you chose the word "modern" deliberately and that you distinguish the post Born in the USA output from the true classics that came before in the late 70s/early 80s. If so, then Magic comes close though personally I prefer The Rising.
Of the old classics, for me the quintessential Springsteen records are Born to Run and The River.
What he said
We;re not comparing it to the early work but what he's done recently and yes, if that means since BitUSA then I'd say that its his best. Although I quite liked 'Devils and Dust'.
Some may think that being the best of his recent output ain't saying much but again, using that tired old hackneyed pompous smarmy phrase, there's no accounting for taste.
Not perfect but pretty good...............
and the first two verses of I'll Work For Your Love are magnificent..........
Pour me a drink Teresa
In one of those glasses you dust off
And I'll watch the bones in your back
Like the Stations of the Cross
'Round your hair the sun lifts a halo
At your lips a crown of thorns
Whatever other deals gone down
To this one I'm sworn
..............now that's good!
Magic is my favourite
Springsteen album. It's the only one I own. I've heard plenty of others but this was the first time - the only time - that an album of the old phoney's clicked with me, rather than just one or two tracks.
So to answer sniffy Hepworth's challenge, I'd start with this album, then the track Born to Run, then Brilliant Disguise, then I'd lose interest. Good day to you.
What
he said. Sums up my own take on the Boss to a tee. Actually, no. I'd have to have Jungleland in there too.
Danny Baker
has been using a little instrumental bit of "Tomorrow Never Knows" from Working on a Dream, in the background on his Saturday morning show. It made me drag the elpee off the shelf and listen again - a nice little song.
I think a selection of Bruce top-20's compiled by different people might be more varied than with many other acts
I agree with that last line of yours.
We have the he-hasn´t-done-anything-worth-while-since-the-early-eighties-people. Then we have the his-big-hits-are-the-best-people who possibly haven´t heard his early stuff and then we have the discovered-him-with-The Rising-people discovering something obscure called Darkness On The Edge Of Town as we speak.
Then of course there are the real Bruce heads but they like everything so we don´t have to worry abou them (or maybe that´s exactly what we need to do).
Magic v Working On A Dream
I think Magic is a wonderful Springsteen album but thought Working On A Dream seemed to be tracks that couldn't make the Magic Album.
Outlaw Pete was "laughed at" by several of my friends who are big Springsteen fans but it seems destined to become a concert classic.
"He was born a little baby on the Appalachian Trail
At six months old he'd done three months in jail
He robbed a bank in his diapers and little bare baby feet
All he said was "Folks my name is Outlaw Pete"
I'm Outlaw Pete, I'm Outlaw Pete, can you hear me?"
What going on?
as above
I think Working On a Dream is better but I will relisten to Magic and see how it stands up.
If Born in The USA is the cut-off I think. Tunnel of Love is the best (despite the dodgy 80s production), Tom Joad, Seeger Sessions, The Rising then Working on a Dream.
The worst of that era is Human Touch but its companion Lucky Town has some great tracks. In the end even the worst of Bruce is better than most of the rest and there are few if any albums that doesn't have a track that would stand among the best he has produced.
Queen of The Supermarket
Add Queen of The Supermarket to Outlaw Pete as well.
From Magic, Girls In Their Summer Clothes always makes me happy when I hear it - a fabulous song and production by any standards.
Late period Springsteen.
The Rising probably the most consistent and decent set of songs. And he'd been working on some of those for nigh on 7 years. The craft shows.
Devils & Dust, Magic and Working on a Dream came out at a rate of gunfire. The sound of someone filling up the pension fund hard and fast. There's no time to get to know those records before the next one appears over the horizon!
The puzzle of The Rising
I agree with everything you say about it. So why don't I ever play it?
I'm the same Archie
I think its that while I like and admire his recent output it doesn't (and couldn't) have the epic romance and desperation of his younger work.
But like I said I don't think there is anyone other big star whose average quality has been so high over so long a period.
Further On Up The Road
Johnny Cash's version of this rotated on to the iPod the other day, which prompted me to go back listen to The Rising in full, probably for the first time in 5 years.
It really is very good. The title track, Into The Fire, Mary's Place, Waiting On A Sunny Day, Counting on a Miracle - really up there with some of his best work. Sound of a man re-invigorated with something to say. Further On Up The Road is one that probably would make it onto any personal Broooooooce top 20 playlist.
I've a decent boot of the Crystal Palace show he did on that tour where he played most of The Rising. Took it another level. Excellent and that's my drive home listening sorted!
I stick on...
the DVD of the Barcelona show from the Rising tour quite regularly, which features half a dozen or songs from it. I just never seem to be in the mood for the album itself.
'So why don't I ever play it?'
Because it's very time-specific?
For me, there are a larger than usual number of dull songs on there, (wish people would make 30, 35 minute albums, even if CDs can take more...) but the best songs - 'Into The Fire', 'You're Missing', 'City of Ruins', the title track - are INCREDIBLY powerful.
BUT they're very specifically about 9/11. Without being all po-faced and messianic about it, I think Springsteen wrote the songs to help that healing process, and maybe they did, I don't know, but those events were 8 years ago now, so maybe they've served their purpose. A more general 'rousing' song like 'The Rising' itself still works, 'cause it works in a wider context.
(I don't play the whole thing much now either.)
Sense of Mortality
I read that because of the deaths of Danny Federici and Terry Macgovern (his PA) Bruce now has a sense of his own mortality and is therefore, increasing his output and touring more. Surely he doesn't require a pension?
New York City Serenade
I reckon he peaked with the beautiful New York City Serenade from his second LP. The chances of a man of his age and output coming up with anything ground-breaking these days are pretty slim, although as said above Devil's Arcade is a great song. I thought the Magic album was OK in a Bruce by numbers sort of way, likewise Working On A Dream.
I think fans
always compare any new stuff to the back catalogue when judging its worth but an artist doesn't do that even for a second. If the Boss had to consider if every new song he wrote was better than something he recorded 30 years ago then he'd go bonkers in the nut.