Billboard CD reviews: Springsteen, Rascal Flatts

ARTIST: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

ALBUM: MAGIC

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Somewhere between "The River" and "The Rising" falls "Magic," Bruce Springsteen's first rock record since 2002 and a sleek machine that's practically pleading to be taken out on the highway.

Fully resettled on E Street after two solo projects, Springsteen has injected the taut "Magic" with a fierce purpose you can almost taste. The first eight songs play like a joyous E Street history lesson: "Radio Nowhere" is an arena-ready call to arms, the winking "Livin' in the Future" hails from the "Hungry Heart" school of Clarence Clemons-powered Motown-rock, and "Gypsy Biker" is a wide-open epic-in-waiting about, well, roads. Yet there is more to "Magic" than meets the eye: "Livin' in the Future" and "Long Walk Home" drop in some sneaky politics, while "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" finds Springsteen indulging an inner "Pet Sounds," purposefully trying on different vocal styles and keys. In all, a pretty great return to form.

ARTIST: RASCAL FLATTS

ALBUM: STILL FEELS GOOD (Lyric Street Records)

The I-want-to-get-to-know-you first single "Take Me There" is vintage Rascal Flatts, but the band also takes some convincing new detours on "Still Feels Good." "Winner at a Losing Game" is fresh, familiar and conjures '70s country rock, while actor/singer Jamie Foxx's duet with Flatts' Gary LeVox on the soulful "She Goes All the Way" is a marvelous intertwining and a potential Grammy Award moment. "Bob That Head," a country-meets-rock-meets-rap tune, is likely to become a Friday night cruising favorite; that's exactly what the song is about. But this tremendous album also has its tender moments. "Better Now" is a vulnerable look at mistakes made, while "Help Me Remember" yearns for the better times in a relationship, and "It's Not Supposed to Go Like That" is a classic country tale of lives that end too soon.

ARTIST: PJ HARVEY

ALBUM: WHITE CHALK (Island Records)