College Times

Media Credit: Mark Seliger

When Bruce Springsteen tears into the line, “I want a thousand guitars/I want pounding drums” in the lead track on the first E Street Band album in five years, it almost sounds like a directive to the producer. Magic is a rock record, a big, proud and loud full-band album that should bear the printed legend on its cover, “Play this at full volume,” like some old rock records. “Radio Nowhere,” an honest indictment of contemporary radio’s failure in recent years sets the tone with its slashing guitars and wall-of-sound drumming. After spending one too many years indulging his folk fetish with those Pete Seeger cover CDs and the bone-dry 2005 acoustic solo effort, “Devils & Dust,” Springsteen has made the classic-sounding E Street Band album his hardcore fans have hungered for since at least 1984’s Born in the USA – or probably dating back to The River and Darkness on the Edge of Town. One could easily nitpick and fault Springsteen for including the stark “Terry’s Song,” a tribute to a departed friend, as a bonus track. It doesn’t fit and disrupts the album’s flow. Overall, these songs promise to sound even better sequenced between the old staples on the group’s fall tour. Four decades on, Springsteen’s muse remains fully engaged.

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