Like the first chapter of Bruce Springsteen with the E-Street Band, Magic comes out during a fragile time in our country’s existence, in a world that’s manufactured and manicured. That longing for excitement comes through on the surging opening track “Radio Nowhere.” But rather than finding paradise, much of it deals with post-Mission Accomplished scenarios. “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” and “I’ll Work for Your Love” offer a brief respite from the blood spilled in “Gypsy Biker” and “Last to Die.” It’s a bleak picture that’s saved from severe melancholy by Springsteen’s lasting infatuation with the ‘60s pop of his youth plus touches of folk and Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys. The release of The Rising five years ago was viewed as Springsteen reunion with the E-Street Band, but it was as much about the band searching for its identity in the 21st century as it was developing some understanding following the events of Sept. 11. Magic represents a man and his band that’s much more assured with their place in the world. While this album’s imagistic language can make it more difficult to grasp as immediately as the words of hardship, survival and freedom heard on 1975’s Born to Run, there’s nothing here that diminishes a legacy that just keeps on giving.
