Magic | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 25, 2007 | |||
Recorded | March 12 – May 2007 | |||
Studio | Southern Tracks, Atlanta, Georgia | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 47:47 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Brendan O'Brien | |||
Bruce Springsteen chronology | ||||
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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band chronology | ||||
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Singles from Magic | ||||
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Magic is the fifteenth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen,released by Columbia Records on LP on September 25,2007,and on CD on October 2. It was his first with the E Street Band since The Rising in 2002,and topped the charts in six countries,including the US and UK,going triple platinum in Ireland. Two songs from the album –"Radio Nowhere" and "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" –won a total of three Grammys,making Magic the second of only two Springsteen albums with three wins,after The Rising. [1] It ranked No. 2 on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007. [2]
Magic was announced on August 16,2007,following months of speculation,and was characterized by Springsteen's manager Jon Landau as a "high energy rock" album with a "heavy E Street Band" sound. [3] [4] It consisted of new tracks,apart from "Long Walk Home",which had been performed once on the latter part of the 2006 Sessions Band Tour. Most songs had been written by the end of 2006,and Springsteen allowed Brendan O'Brien,who had also produced The Rising (2002) and Devils &Dust (2005),to pick the ones that worked the best. [5] [6] Recording commenced in March at Southern Tracks Recording Studio in Atlanta and took two months. [4] [5] [6] It was complicated by the band members' schedules,especially drummer Max Weinberg's weekday commitments to taping Late Night with Conan O'Brien . [6] The musicians did not record as a unit. During the week Springsteen worked on vocal tracks and production,and was joined on weekends by the core band of Weinberg,bassist Garry Tallent,and pianist Roy Bittan to record the basic tracks. [7] The other band members overdubbed their parts under O'Brien's watch,apart from saxophonist and longtime foil Clarence Clemons,who worked directly with Springsteen due to "a whole dynamic that spans decades." [6]
The lead-off single,"Radio Nowhere",had been slated for a September 4 release,but was leaked on August 22. [8] [3] The release of the CD on October 2 was preceded by a September 25 release on vinyl record,in order to qualify for the Grammy Awards. [8] [9] The album became available for pre-order on iTunes on August 28,with a promotion featuring "Radio Nowhere" as a free downloadable single,and the first legs of the accompanying Magic Tour were also announced. [10]
Several songs in Magic express disillusionment with the state of American society. Others,such as the title track ("I got a shiny saw blade/All I need's a volunteer/I'll cut you in half/While you're smilin' ear to ear") convey a more general sense of foreboding. "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" has been cited as a singularly "breezy" song on the album, [11] although A. O. Scott of The New York Times notes that not even this track is "untouched by melancholy. Its narrator,after all,stands and watches as the girls of the title 'pass me by.'" [12] Several sources have suggested that "Last to Die",with its chorus of "Who'll be the last to die for a mistake/Whose blood will spill,whose heart will break",was inspired by Vietnam Veterans Against the War representative John Kerry's 1971 testimony to the U.S. Senate,in which he asked "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?". [11] [13] "Gypsy Biker" concerns the homecoming of a US soldier killed in action in Iraq,and Springsteen has said that "Livin' in the Future" references extraordinary rendition and illegal wiretapping. [13] "Long Walk Home" is a metaphorical account of the narrator's sense that,in the artist's words,those people living at home "he thought he knew,whose ideals he had something in common with,are like strangers." [12]
Magic sold well,becoming Springsteen's seventh No. 1 in the UK,with first week sales of 77,692,making it his fastest-starting release of the 21st century. [14] The album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart,becoming Springsteen's eighth chart topper,and selling about 335,000 copies in its first week. [15] After falling to No. 2 for one week,it retook the top slot,selling about 77,000 copies that week. [16] Magic achieved its US sales despite receiving relatively little radio airplay. [17] Fox News reported that media conglomerate Clear Channel had instructed its classic rock stations not to play any tracks from the album,while continuing to play Springsteen songs from the 1970s and '80s. [17] Clear Channel responded by claiming that "in the first days after the CD's release" its stations had played the record more than others had. [18] By January 2009,Magic had sold one million copies in the US. [19]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 73/100 [20] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [21] |
Entertainment Weekly | A [22] |
Paste | [23] |
Pitchfork | (6.8/10) [24] |
PopMatters | [25] |
Christgau's Consumer Guide | [26] |
Rolling Stone | [27] |
Spin | [28] |
Times Online | [29] |
Uncut | [30] |
Critics generally responded positively to the album. Pitchfork noted that it was "a surprisingly complex album that hides its disillusionment deep within its music,mingling it with a weary optimism that has not diminished with age." [31] In The Village Voice's annual Pazz &Jop critics poll for the year's best albums,Magic ranked No. 9. [32] It ranked No. 2 on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007,and "Long Walk Home" was No. 8 on its list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007 [33] The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album but lost to the Foo Fighters' Echoes,Silence,Patience &Grace . [34]
All tracks are written by Bruce Springsteen
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Radio Nowhere" | 3:19 |
2. | "You'll Be Comin' Down" | 3:46 |
3. | "Livin' in the Future" | 3:56 |
4. | "Your Own Worst Enemy" | 3:19 |
5. | "Gypsy Biker" | 4:32 |
6. | "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" | 4:20 |
7. | "I'll Work for Your Love" | 3:35 |
8. | "Magic" | 2:46 |
9. | "Last to Die" | 4:17 |
10. | "Long Walk Home" | 4:35 |
11. | "Devil's Arcade" | 5:08 |
12. | "Terry's Song" (Hidden track) | 4:11 |
Two weeks after the album's initial announcement, which included an eleven-song track listing, "Terry's Song" was added. It is a memorial song for Springsteen's long-time assistant Terry Magovern, who died on July 30, 2007. [11] [35] Some pressings of the CD pre-ordered through Sony Music or other channels did not contain the extra track.
The E Street Band
Additional musicians
Technical
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [74] | Gold | 35,000^ |
Austria (IFPI Austria) [75] | Gold | 10,000* |
Belgium (BEA) [76] | Gold | 15,000* |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [77] | Platinum | 30,000^ |
Germany (BVMI) [78] | Platinum | 200,000‡ |
Italy | — | 120,000 [79] |
Ireland (IRMA) [80] | 3× Platinum | 45,000^ |
Netherlands (NVPI) [81] | Gold | 35,000^ |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [82] | Gold | 7,500^ |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [83] | Platinum | 80,000^ |
Sweden (GLF) [84] | 2× Platinum | 80,000^ |
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) [85] | Gold | 15,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [86] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [87] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
Summaries | ||
Europe (IFPI) [88] | Platinum | 1,000,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
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American rock musician Bruce Springsteen has released 21 studio albums, 23 live albums, 77 singles, and 66 music videos. Widely referred to as "The Boss" by the media, Springsteen has sold over 150 million records worldwide, listing him among the best-selling music artists in history. Billboard ranked him as the 24th Greatest Artist of all time. According to Recording Industry Association of America, he has sold 65.5 million albums in the United States, making him the 7th best-selling male soloist of all time. Born in the U.S.A. remains the best-selling album of his career, selling more than 30 million copies around the world.
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City is the name of a concert film done by HBO, featuring the first ever major televised Bruce Springsteen concert. It was later released on DVD with eleven extra songs not televised, and as a CD of the same name.
Greatest Hits is the first compilation album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released February 27, 1995, on Columbia Records. It is a collection of some of Springsteen's hit singles and popular album tracks through the years along with four new songs at the end, mostly recorded with the E Street Band in 1995. The latter constituted Springsteen's first release with his backing band since the late 1980s. Some of the songs are shorter versions of the original album releases.
18 Tracks is an album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1999. All but three selections had been on the boxed set Tracks, released six months before. This single album was intended to capture more casual fans, and thus was oriented towards the shorter, more pop-oriented selections from Springsteen's vault.
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We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions is the fourteenth studio album by Bruce Springsteen. Released in 2006, it peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 49th Grammy Awards.
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Chapter and Verse is a compilation album by Bruce Springsteen that was released on September 23, 2016. The album is a companion piece to Springsteen's 500-plus-page autobiography, Born to Run, which was released four days later. The career-spanning album features eighteen songs handpicked by Springsteen, five of which were previously unreleased. The album contains Springsteen's earliest recording from 1966 and late '60s/early '70s songs from his tenure in the Castiles, Steel Mill, and the Bruce Springsteen Band, along with his first 1972 demos for Columbia Records and songs from his studio albums from 1973 until 2012.
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