My favourite album of the 21st century is Magic. I have accepted the overproduction on it, but now listening to Letter to You this overproduction on Magic is more evident than ever. To the extent that for the first time it affected my enjoyment. I hope this does not last! I still think Girls in Their Summer Clothes and Long Walk Home deserve 10 out of 10 as songs but how I wish they has been recorded "live" as in Letter to You.
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Devil‘s Arcade - god, I love that song.
I love LWH for many reasons, but most of all the line "That flag above the courthouse means certain things are cast in stone, who we are, what we'll do and what we won't". Carve it onto the US Supreme Court Building. No-one has defined the Rule of Law better.
Had Magic been properly produced, it would have gone straight to the top 5 Bruce records for me. It’s a real shame that it was only when he had what in my opinion are such weak songs, that he decided to record like this again.
Girls in their summer clothes and Long Walk Home are two songs that would have benefited heavily from another production. Unfortunately, the only remedy would be live performances which are not likely to happen now 😥
I'd say for me the murky production is enough for me to consider Gypsy Biker an ok song on the album, but an absolute cracker based on the live Archive versions. Long Walk Home suffers similarly to an extent, with the live version far eclipsing the studio, but in that case the sonic sludge isn't as bad plus the song itself is so strong even the album version somewhat transcends the production. It's neede a longer outro though, it fades very quickly (too quickly and suddenly) on the album.
I was thinking this the other day but with Working on a Dream - a fairly similar album thematically, but musically I'm sure it would have benefited from being performed live with the band and with a little more E Street input, especially from Steve
For what it's worth I love Magic - the chaotic production almost makes it even better as far as I'm concerned
The live recording from Boston is one of my favorites in the archive series.
Yes! So many good songs on Magic, and some great. But awful muddy sound on the album.
Couldn't agree more ....