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. Ha...

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 of 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 Springsteen's first album that didn't aspire to greatness, Human Touch 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, Rovi