In our speculations on Devils & Dust we expressed the hope that Springsteen might some day make an album, which will show his audience how to age with dignity. But isn't that a bit much to ask for? Well, considering what Springsteen's best albums have been about and what is really at the core of his artistic endeavour it doesn't seem to be too much. It might even seem to be the kind of thing to expect.
After all, Springsteen did show his listeners how to be young with dignity and make the decisions that will shape a lifetime (Born To Run, 1975). He showed them how to get the pieces together and move on when the visions of the early youth had been dissapointed (Darkness on the Edge of Town, 1978). He admonished them to come to maturity and commit themselves to 'the ties that bind' (The River, 1980). But, as things turned out, he was still there for the ones who didn't make it and were left as singles at 35 - without the innocence of the first time but still avoiding cynicism (Born in the USA, 1984). Maybe something essentially changed when Springsteen began to sing about married life from within. But he did deliver an almost brutally personal album about the dangers and pitfalls of the Tunnel of Love (1987). And later - five years and one wife later, to be exact - he succeded in the difficult task of making a rock album about a happy marriage (Lucky Town, 1992).
The point in this rattling off is that the last mentioned album is arguably also the weakest. And if this appears to be a rather hard verdict, at least its twin album Human Touch, which was released on the very same day, seriously betrayed that Springsteen had troubles reconciling his quiet family life with his artistic expressiveness. Human Touch certainly had its great moments - e. g. the title track. But it also contained some rather careless songs, which didn't really seem to reflect the existential intensity usually associated with their creator. So for the very first time Springsteen had made an album, which was somewhat lacking in coherence and authencity. After becoming a father i 1990 and getting married to Patti Scialfa in 1991 he didn't seem to need the music any longer as a way of coping with his existential problems. The reason probably was the simple one, that he had become too settled and too happy to face any substantial problems in his private life. The existential drama played out in Springsteen's music since 1973 was threatening to end just like the fariytales: "And they lived happily ever after...".
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