Human Touch - Bruce Springsteen > Reviews > In need of the Midas touch

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Unmemorable
Value for Money

Advantages:	A handful of good songs
Disadvantages:	Some mediocre songs

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I bought the “Human Touch” album when it came out, as I was a real Springsteen fan at the time, and I was pretty disappointed with it, concluding that it was a ‘grower’. I didn’t dislike it, and thought a few of the tracks were pretty good, and always meant to play it more than I did. But then other things came along to take pride of place at the top of the pile by the CD player. So it’s an album I have played very little in the 8 years that I’ve owned it.
For me, then, not an instant hit, in the same way that albums like “Born to Run” and “The River” were.

Listening to “The human touch” today, I wish I had played it more, as there are some excellent tracks on here. About half of the album still makes very little impact on me, though.
These are the tracks that make it all worthwhile for me:
“Human touch” is my favourite moment is when he screams heyy-yaargghh and the band comes back in, towards the end.
“57 Channels (and nothin’ on)” – now this song is very distinctive, and highly memorable. It’s a kind of “Indian Reservation” for white poets / rappers.
“Man’s job” – despite a questionable lyric (“lovin’ you’s a man’s job, baby”) this is a catchy, passionate song, and I love it.
“I wish I was blind” – with some highly worthwhile backing vocals from Bobby Hatfield.

Talking of the backing vocalists, there are several songs with some real quality vocals, from Sam Moore and Bobby King, which lend a kind of 50’s / 60’s sound to the songs, and remind me quite a bit of the work Springsteen did in the 80s with old-timer Gary US Bonds.
Much of the album sounds to me like it’s made up of below standard outtakes from “Born in the USA” – “The long goodbye” and “Real man” for instance. Even though they are rockers they make me yawn.
In fact, overall, it sounds like he’s just trying too hard – the vocals are strained, and the band is beefed up a little, but the in the end the tunes aren’t always good enough.
“Soul driver” and “Cross my heart” are prime examples of this (in Springsteen’s terms) mediocrity - both plod along and don’t invite repeat listens.

I’m sure I will play this album a lot more now, but I will be programming the CD player to just play these last 4 songs most of the time. The rest of it sounds fairly dated, and borders on mediocre, by Springsteen’s standards. When it comes down to it, there’s so much great music on some of Springsteen’s other albums and I’d rather listen to those.