The speed with which Magic follows the Seeger Sessions album has been a surprise for all Springsteen fans - recorded at the start of 2007, while still pushing the Seeger project, this is his fifteenth studio album. Unfortunately, the speed and even the return of the E Street Band, has not helped this album. Some of the songs still stun, and the album seems to reference a number of previous discs - The Rising and Devils and Dust mainly - but it also has a few tracks that would have previously only made it to the Tracks collections of outtakes. Your Own Worst Enemy and Girls In Their Summer Clothes are among the weakest songs that Springsteen has ever recorded, and others seem rushed to disc ahead of their time, with so-so lyrics. The variety of styles recalls (the underrated) Human Touch or The Rising - having started strongly with Radio Nowhere, and the excellent You'll Be Comin' Down, the mood swings to New Jersey shore soul with Livin' In The Future (like a River outtake) before Side 1 (on the LP) goes to pot. Side 2 is a lot better - I'll Work For Your Love, Long Walk Home and especially Last To Die (the last two the only overtly political songs) are excellent. The song that closes the disc, Broke The Mould, is unlisted, and refers to a friend who died recently. It is one of the best songs on the album. In the Springsteen canon, Magic is sadly not one of the classics - it is less Rising II than Human Touch II.

ACE rating 8/10

Head Home sounds like some wild-eyed Appalachian hillbillies borrowed Tom Waits' junkyard orchestra and headed to the Balkans, headbanging to electric bluegrass and sizzling punk country, and whirling as hard as the Pogues at their glorious best. This is about sound - the songs that form the core of the album seem a perfect base from which to go nuts - and energy that sounds chemically, or moonshine alcoholically, enhanced. More aggressive than Beirut and more country than Gogol Bordello, O'Death have had a 'next big thing' tag that has seen this album re-released to build on the reaction to their live shows. The New York five-piece has a raw sound like Two Gallants, but builds with almost religious fervour to climaxes on almost every song - banjos and guitars electrified and rocking evangelistically. Head Home is infectiously great, a backwoods barbecue feast of sound.

ACE rating 8/10

The third album (in 2 years) from this NYC-based band builds on the phenomenal Meek Warrior with a rounded out sound and concept. There is no single band that sounds like Akron / Family - there are several that come to mind when listening, including III-era Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival, but that would ignore the euphoric harmonies and Annuals-like symphonic build and sweep. Love Is Simple is based on a lovely psych rock that doesn't ignore its Beach Boys pop - acoustic guitars drive a lovely hypnotic vibe. The band have a philosophy of music, which they call AK, and its understated instrumentation and meandering melodies are rendered wonderfully here - Love Is Simple, the song that opens, and in reprise closes, the album could be a John Lennon All You Need Is Love ghost. Akron / Family are one of the best bands you've not heard, and they're even better live apparently.

ACE rating 8/10