The Boss is back

More than a week before the release of Bruce Springsteens new album, the Internet was already abuzz with interpretations of his new songs. The source of inspiration for the rocker Gypsy Biker generated particularly passionate debate, with the Web consensus settling on Pat Tillman, Dick Cheney, Gram Parsons even Jerry Seinfeld.Now in the fourth decade of his career, Springsteen still inspires the sort of fanaticism usually reserved for the Crimson Tide and Red Sox. He may be 58, but the release of his albums remain eagerly awaited events, at least for the legions of Backstreets faithful.Extra hype accompanies Magic because it coincides with the start of a world tour, and its Springsteens first new studio record with the E-Street Band since the magnificent 9/11-inspired The Rising in 2002. Magic lacks the thematic thread of The Rising or 2006s The Seeger Sessions, but the new album is more musically varied. Its a pop record: Springsteen croons and rocks out, pledges his love and tries to find his way home. On a hidden track he pays tribute to a friend who died in July.Springsteens latest fanfare for the common man features two recurring topics: the Bush administration and the Iraq war. The Boss mentions neither by name but clearly condemns the conduct of both.He makes his case most eloquently on Livin In The Future, with a reference to gunpowder skies on Election Day. My faiths been torn asunder, he sings. Tell me is that rolling thunder, or just the sinking sound of something righteous going under? More strident is Last To Die, which bemoans spilled blood and wise men who were fools. Wholl be the last to die for a mistake? Springsteen sings. Some listeners misinterpreted Born In The USA”; this time they should get the point.Elsewhere the lyrics are more opaque or personal, while the melodies are strong throughout as the Boss and his band revisit familiar turf. Theres a Hungry Heart beat on one song, a Jungleland intro on another, the Wall of Sound on two cuts and a brief appearance by Mary, a recurring character in the Springsteen songbook. The opening Radio Nowhere ranks with his best rockers, and when Clarence Clemons lets loose with a sax solo on the second song, you can almost hear the crowd roar.Time to hit the road, Bruce. Your fans are waiting.Steven Wine, Associated Press

The British group The Pipettes have reached the U.S. with the release of We Are The Pipettes, 16 tracks oozing of retro, sass and every mid-1960s pop-sound stunt in the bag.Now quick, somebody hand me a crate of tea and point me to Boston Harbor. The revolt starts here.This cloying album from Gwenno, Riotbecki and Rosay is simply too much kitsch to consume. The genre redo simply overpowers any good songwriting or vocal talents the trio purports to offer. The bulk of the album was released last year in Europe, and the trip across the pond appears wasted.Pull Shapes is full of energetic orchestral stabs that give way to soaring strings while the drummer keeps a downbeat you can dance to you. But why would you? Weve certainly tread all of this ground before, for about five decades running in fact.Why Did You Stay tells the tale of a cold-hearted gal who ponders why her man stood by her side. The potential for plot is there, but the banal approach leaves you wanting more heart from The Pipettes.Many of the tracks are little more than a minute and a half long, hardly enough for you to sink your teeth into. And after about three of those ditties youll begin to wonder if these arent simply three pretty faces who got hung up on Vespas, pattern print dresses and all the accouterments of another era.In the end, theres nothing in this pipette worth experimenting with. Ron Harris, Associated Press

PJ Harvey has long been known as the queen of indie rock n roll blues; a British rose blackened at the edges.From 1992s raw debut Dry to 2004s snarling Uh Huh Her, she has released an onslaught of fuzzy guitar and worldly lyrics.White Chalk, her eighth studio album, is Harveys biggest departure yet a piano-based collection of 11 solitary and lovely tunes.Co-produced by Harvey and her longtime collaborators Flood and John Parish, the album starts off with Harveys normally growled vocals turning airy on The Devil. The album ends with a haunted moan on The Mountain.A poet at heart, Harvey always bites with her words, whether theyre lifted in rage as on her early work or plunged down to earth with depression here.The ceiling is moving, moving in time. Like a conveyer belt, above my eyes, she croons scratchily over a refined melody on When Under Ether.Harmonica and staccato piano feed the breakup tune Silence.I freed myself from my family, I freed myself from work, I freed myself … and remained alone, Harvey laments in an elegant vibrato.True, 1998s Is This Desire? and 2000s Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea mined Harveys more atmospheric tendencies, but White Chalk proves she has a matured knack for intimacy without the cushion of loudness or fuzz. Solvej Schou, Associated Press

No superstar country act strikes a balance between playing on their strengths and taking new risks quite as well as Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn. Cowboy Town continues their strong, second-decade surge, as they keep rocking harder and incorporating more soul and spirituality into their songs.On their mainstream songs, they find ways to punch up familiar territory. The title song uses a swaggering backbeat, a ringing guitar and sustained organ fills behind a lyric about the righteous toughness of men who live with pride and morality. Similarly, the albums first single, Proud of the House We Built, is a slow-building anthem about a couple who start too young but find a way to hold the course through all the challenges.But its in the adventurous album cuts that their on-going inspiration shows. The dark-haired Brooks stretches like never before, whether hes recalling a pungent night with Lone Star poet Jerry Jeff Walker or getting Southwest psychedelic on the dizzying Drop in the Bucket. Tall, big-voiced Dunn gets just as out of his mind on the high-speed Tex-Mex stomper, Tequila.As usual, the duo can get too silly (“Put a Girl in It”) or too philosophical (“God Must Be Busy”). But thats all part of not holding back. In a genre known for playing it safe, Brooks & Dunn show the value of careening out of control. Michael McCall, Associated Press