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The defeat of John Kerry stills resonates like a bell among his supporters, among them Bruce Springsteen, who, for the first-time ever in his storied career as a rocker, endorsed a political candidate-Kerry-in 2004.

Except for where the stories in his songs made reference to a larger world, Springsteen always stayed out of the political fray and even lashed out against Ronald Reagan when the president tried to co-opt the pop star's "message" on a campaign stop in New Jersey in 1984. Springsteen responded indirectly, in concert, by referencing Reagan's speech in the intro to the song "Johnny 99," a song about a laid-off auto-worker. Ruminating on if Reagan was really a fan of his music Springsteen quipped "I wonder if he ever heard this song," before launching into a blistering version of the tune about an American dream gone horribly wrong, with the former auto-worker ending up in a courtroom on trial for murder, pleading with the judge to put him in the electric chair instead of giving him life without parole.

Other politicians-on the left and right-have tried to gain Springsteen's endorsement over the years, but none have been successful, until John Kerry in 2004. Springsteen was clear in his reason why: it's the Iraq war, stupid. Springsteen was and still is very much is against it. Having played many left-of-center benefits over the years, no one who had been paying attention was surprised at the choice. Kerry lost the election, the Iraq war still goes on and Springsteen is still pissed-off about it.

The new album Magic-his only other one-word album title since the seminal Nebraska-opens rather innocently with the pop-bliss of "Radio Nowhere," which conjures up familiar Springsteen themes such as finding your way home between radio tower signals (only now with satellites involved). It sounds like a fully fleshed-out Nebraska song...only more poppy.

Next up is "You'll Be Coming Down," a weak, albeit well-produced entry into the Springsteen catalog that is listen-able enough but comes off more like a b-side to "Radio Nowhere."

Three songs into Magic comes "Living In the Future," where we hear about waking up to gray skies on election day. On the surface it's a snappy relationship song about two former lovers, but the astute listener gets the feeling something else is going on as well, amidst all the crafty production work.

Ditto for the next two tracks-"Your Own Worst Enemy" and "Gypsy Biker"-but whereas the former is ripe with over-hashed cliches the latter

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