Bruce Springsteen
has always been steeped in mainstream
pop/rock
music, using it as a vocabulary for what he wanted to say about weightier matters. He has always written generic
pop
as well, but
Human Touch
was the first album to consist entirely of this kind of genre material, which he seems capable of turning out endlessly and effortlessly. Having largely jettisoned
the E Street Band
,
Springsteen
enlisted some sturdy minor talent to play and sing, among them ace studio drummer
Jeff Porcaro
Sam Moore
of
Sam & Dave
, and
Bobby Hatfield
the Righteous Brothers
. It's pleasant enough stuff, easy to listen to, and at nearly 59 minutes it was the longest single-disc album of his career. And although it was
's first album that didn't aspire to greatness,
did contain several songs that could have been big hits: the
"Tunnel of Love"
sound-alike title track, which actually made the Top 40;
"Roll of the Dice,"
an AOR radio favorite; and
"Man's Job."
~ William Ruhlmann