Bruce Springsteen – Human Touch

Not a top shelf album and not dismissible …

Without the E Street Band at his side, this was an album folks loved to hate, yet there is some really fine material here that should certainly be explored. Does the album drag in a couple of places? Of course it does, where at nearly 60 minutes in length, Bruce certainly could have trimmed it down, but he didn’t, and you can.

Others are going to point to this record and say that Human Touch is his most inconsistent collection of songs to date, though methinks most of that failure is due to the tracking order, as “Human Touch,” “57 Channels,” “Real Man,” “Man’s Job” and “All or Nothing at All” are simply sensational, meaning this is an album one needs in their collection. Of course, even I’ll it that if the filler numbers had been tossed out of both albums, Human Touch and Lucky Town that would have made for a very remarkable record indeed.

Human Touch and Lucky Town are dance partners of sorts, they travel the same path, are comprised of the same attributes, and bring forth a likeminded vision. Originally meant to come out in 1990, Springsteen shelved the project until he’d completed Lucky Town, and in so doing, both of these records got released on the same day in 1992. Considering that Springsteen was standing on top of the world at this point, as with many artists, he’d nothing to aspire to, nothing to complain about, he was happy in his new marriage, so what was lacking here and on Lucky Town was a focal point that was bigger than Bruce.

If anything, what Human Touch brought forth was a series of what should have been hit singles rather than a formal album, because contextually it goes nowhere, yet as a series of singles, those songs would have paved the way into his next musical vision with grace and ease. And if that weren’t enough, there were to be an additional three tracks that would have stretched the album out beyond reason, beyond even the capacity of a compact disc, yet alone a single vinyl record: “Red Headed Woman,” “Secret Garden” and “All the Way Home.”

Listen, I’m not going to defend this album, an album that was certainly over produced and polished to the high heavens, nor am I going to cut it to shreds, the record is what it is, where I’m more than happy to have those aforementioned songs, songs which have been dropped into an ever increasing collection from albums I felt had little to offer. Yet if I can snag a single Springsteen song that rides well in my back pocket from an iffy album, man, I’m grateful for that one number and the smile it wraps around my face. , this isn’t silly pop music that’s dismissed with the wave of a hand, this is Springsteen painting significant pictures in a different fashion, it’s all worth your consideration. I’m not going to make excuses for the weak material either, even though the man was working with a totally new band, a new sound, with the only hangover from the E Street days being Roy Bittan.

Human Touch was a defiantly different affair, this was a record that featured Bruce, there where no cinematic personas created for him to hide behind here, this was Bruce standing out in the open … where that concept might just be the aspect that sets this record apart, as listeners could no longer channel themselves into these songs, this was Bruce singing about himself. Leaving listeners with nothing to say but, “Hey, I’m happy for you,” but your life is not my life, and listeners were looking for that communal collective atmosphere of the ‘every man’, which sadly is missing.

Human Touch was Springsteen’s ninth album, where he’d delivered endlessly great material, and with that in mind, I will confess that this is where Bruce took a turn for me. Perhaps he was effected by the lackluster response to this album and Lucky Town, as he changed his overall musical direction and aspirations, where albums such as The Promise, Working On A Dream, Magic, Devils & Dust and The Rising offered up only a few good songs per record, almost as if Bruce where saying, “Well, if that’s how you feel,” and went off down a path he found interesting with little concern for the listener’s at this point.

Review by Jenell Kesler