Bruce Springsteen Lucky Town and Human Touch

At 42, Springsteen is no longer the Jersey kid of romantic boardwalk nights and songs of escape. (1992)

Even before anybody had heard Bruce Springsteen's two new albums Human Touch and Lucky Town (Columbia), people were bitching about what nerve he had to release two records instead of one and asking why he didn't just make it a double album for a cheaper price. Americans have this thing about owning their artists, and besides nobody is making anyone buy one or both. The albums are two separate collections of songs, and while one may lead into the other in terms of the emotions expressed, that's how Springsteen wants them viewed which is his right as an artist.

These are Springsteen's first albums in five years, and during that period he divorced, remarried, fathered two children, moved to California and dissolved his band. The albums are about coming to terms with all of that. They are also about coming to terms with being a very rich man. At 42, Springsteen is no longer the Jersey kid of romantic boardwalk nights and songs of escape. He hasn't been for quite a while, nor does he want to be. He made it beyond his wildest dreams, hit the top, and no one can say he didn't work at it or for it. He did it with without compromising his integrity, and while trying to hold on to his values, at the same discovering what those values meant. No small feat in the media glare of show-biz and the insatiable hunger of demanding fans. So after Tunnel of Love, and a couple of years of massive touring, it was clearly time to retreat, regroup and find the next level. That next level is something rockers have been coping with for quite a while now. How to you take this teenage rebellion music and make it satisfying and keep it fun as you get older?

These two albums make clear that Springsteen has no desire to top himself only to keep going. Despite using different musicians, with keyboardist Roy Bittan the only E Street band holdover, there's no great change in his sound, and his melodies often echo past work. The change is in the emotional landscape of the songs. There's no more desperate characters trying to make a fast break on the open road from dead-end jobs and dead end towns. The fast break has been made. Human Touch, written and recorded first deals with that break, and how to make it work. The specter of Springsteen's first marriage hangs like a shadow in the background with the best songs searching and questioning. The search and questions are of the inner soul, of belief in one's self and faith.

Lucky Town doesn't necessarily answer these questions or end the search, but it accepts them. "I had some victory that was just a failure in deceit/Now the jokes comin' up through the soles of my feet," he sings in the title track. In "Local Hero," he returns to his home town to find his face staring out from a velvet painting in the window of the five and dime.

The killer track, the one that got me immediately is "If I Should Fall Behind," a simply beautiful ballad that works because it's so simple. Set at a wedding, it crystallizes hopes and fears: "Now everyone dreams of a love lasting and true/But you and I know what this world can do."

Both albums share clinkers and throwaways. "57 Channels," a typical Springsteen jokey rocker and the too long "Big Muddy" despite it's spare arrangement on "Lucky Town" don't hold up too well, and I can't hear "Leap of Faith" without thinking of Lou Reed's far superior "Busload of Faith."

Lucky Town has more of a stripped down feel and is more accessible though both albums share Springsteen's affinity for a big sound and Human Touch tends to rock a little harder. Maybe Springsteen could have edited and put out one super album instead of two very good ones, except that both albums get better with each listen. He may not be breaking new musical ground, but he's not slipping either.