Bruce Springsteen: Ranking His Albums From Worst To Best

13. Magic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BjnGzmtuYk Year Of Release: 2007 Key Tracks: Radio Nowhere, Long Walk Home, Terry's Song Magic was a welcomed return to the E Street Sound after the acoustic Devils and Dust (and a brief foray into Americana in 2006 with We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions). Aside from Long Walk Home, which had been played on the Sessions Band Tour, all of the songs were original material. The album certainly has a lot more energy than Devils and Dust and several of the songs really translate well live. The guitar-heavy fist-pumper Radio Nowhere is just awesome and Bruce does his best Roy Orbison impression on Girls in their Summer Clothes (also great live). A recurring theme throughout the album is Bruce's disillusionment with the American lifestyle and, in particular, with the politics of the Bush administration. Several of the album's songs reference the Iraq war but it is Long Walk Home, a tale of a man who returns to his hometown not recognising anything and realising that the world has changed, that is especially powerful and telling. Terry's Song, a hidden track that appears at the end of the album, is a loving dedication to Springsteen's longtime assistant Terry Magovern who passed away a couple of months before the release of Magic, and is well worth worth sticking around for.