Blogs
  • Go! 3/7-3/9
    06:00PM 03/07/08
  • R.E.M. Accelerate: An Advance Review and Song-by-Song Analysis of the Band's New Album
    04:06AM 03/08/08
  • Your Weekly St. Louis Food Blog Digest
    03:45PM 03/07/08
  • This Is Hawkwind -- Do Not Panic
    06:08PM 11/09/07
Recent Articles
Related Articles

Recent Articles By Roy Kasten

  • The Campbell Brothers
    8 p.m. Friday, February 15 and 11 a.m. Saturday, February 16. Edison Theatre, 6445 Forsyth Boulevard
  • Nina Nastasia
    8:30 p.m. Saturday, February 9. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Richard Thompson
    8 p.m. Monday, February 11. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard
  • Parachute Musical
    9 p.m. Friday, February 1. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Giant Bear
    9 p.m. Wednesday, February 6. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

National Features

  • Houston Press
    "It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"

    For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.

    By Chris Vogel
  • SF Weekly
    The Candidate

    Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.

    By Matt Smith
  • The Pitch
    How Not To Be a Rap Star

    First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.

    By Nadia Pflaum
  • Village Voice
    Project Runaway

    What becomes a gossip columnist most?

    By Michael Musto

In his worldwide scoop on Bruce Springsteen's fifteenth studio album, Jean Paul Sartre expressed his nausea as the absence of "the significance of things" and the dissolution of "feeble points of reference" into existential absurdity. So if one feels a little barfy by early encounters with Magic and its spellbound critics, it's not due to some stilted Okie drawl (hallelujah, Springsteen left it with the Seeger Sessions) or some massive Rushmore of rockitude, but because all dissent is futile, devoid of meaning, a null set of spitballs against your boss — the Boss. And if you doubt it, just ask Pitchfork, who've claimed Bruce as an ur-indie rock idol. Let the queasiness begin.

Much of Magic recalls Dylan's Street Legal, on which a great band goes for broke while a great songwriter goes a little bonkers trying to write exactly the kind of song that made him great — forgetting that greatness never needs such exertion. Springsteen tries very hard to be Springsteen (even the album jacket echoes Darkness on the Edge of Town). He fares better than Dylan playing Dylan. For every middle-of-the-open-road "Gypsy Biker" there's a flat-out E Street boogaloo such as "Livin' in the Future"; for every pushy, crypto-Catholic "I'll Work for Your Love" (his wordiest anthem since "Mary Queen of Arkansas") there's a plainspoken sense of place like "Long Walk Home"; and for every Big Man sax honk (he's still playing the one break he's always played) there's a Telecaster solo that sounds like the wiry, canny semi-punk kid who didn't just preach that rock & roll can change your life, but seemed to do it. Magic won't because the myths are dead, and myths are nearly all it offers — that and a hell of a band that can still play some sick rock & roll.

About Us | Work for Riverfront Times | Esubscribe | Free St. Louis Classifieds | National Advertising | Privacy Policy
Problem With the Site? | RSS | Site Map
©2008 Village Voice Media All rights reserved.

Riverfront Times Insiders

  • Local food, music and news blasts
  • Free Stuff

buy, sell, trade (3,283)
musician (445)
rentals (3,962)
jobs (2,697)
adult entertainment (1,107)
Personal of the Day


More Personals >>
NOW CLICK THIS
  • - SXSW Showdown!
  • - Ultra Music Festival
  • - Cocktails for a Cause!
  • - Virtual Career Fair
  • - St. Louis Home Search
  • - Restaurants 2007
  • - Digital Jukebox
  • - St. Louis Spaces
  • - 2008 RFT Restaurant Guide Poll, Vote Now!
  • - RENTstlouis