The embodiment of the American dream

Bruce Springsteen, an influential American singer-songwriter and guitarist, was born in 1949 in a small New-Jersean town. He made up his mind to be a musician at 7, having seen Elvis Presley's concert on TV. His parents were rather poor, and Bruce's mother had to take a loan to buy him a good guitar. That is why the main themes of Springsteen's music are people living from hand to mouth and politics. Bruce strated making performances in 1965, in 1972 he gathered the E Street Band, though for a couple of years it was not called so. Springsteen and the E Street Band worked together for many years, though parted in 1989. Bruce Springsteen is best known for his albums Born To Run and Born In The U.S.A.. He has multiple Grammies and an Oscar for the Philadelphia soundtrack. He is also the inventor of lo-fi music that became the cult genre now among indie-rockers. In the ealry 2000s Springteen reunited with the E Street Band. In 2007 the artist recorded Magic, his long waited and first in about 5 years album with the E Street Band.

Magic: magically good

Magic contains 10 brand new songs by Springsteen and one alredy heard, Long Walk Home. The first single from the album, Radio Nowehere, is a very touching composition with deep lyrics. Girls In Their Summer Clothes is a very good rocky song with the E Street Band having done their best. A very beautiful work is for sure Gypsy Byker, it has an upbeat romantic melody reminding of travelling at high speeds on the American highways. Magic, the title track of the album, can boast of a wonderful arrangement and meditative melody, creating magical atmosphere thanks to the rythmical tinkling of the tambourine. The final track on Magic, Devil's Arcade, is the only one that deals with politics. It has a very strong lyrics and powerful images that are sure to leave no one calm. This song gives a perfect insight in Springsteen’s origination and his political views. Moreover, after listening it leaves everyone with a clear own view on these questions even if you are far from it all.

New masterpiece of the American rock-idol

Magic is the less politically oriented album by Springsteen in the last decade. The several previous albums (both with the E Street Band and without) were dedicated to the protests against George W. Bush as a candidate at the presidential elections, the Iraq War and the tragedy of September 11, 2001. The reason of such change is not commented by the musician. May be he just got tired of politics. Moreover, Magic was recorded in an extremely amusing way - during two months the E Street Band recorded on weekends, while Springsteen and his producer Brendan O'Brien worked over the vocals and made the dubbing on weekdays. It can be said about the result that this album is also the most guitar accentuated of all Springsteen's creativity. And as for the sound, there are more romantic and pop moments on Magic that were not typical of Bruce recently, though were very usual on his very first records. Anyway, it is an extremely good rock record by Springsteen and his friends from the E Street Band that has great moments and for sure features some of the best songs Bruce has ever written.

01.10.2007