Track Listing

1. Human Touch
2. Soul Driver
3. Fifty Seven Channels (And Nothin' On)
4. Cross My Heart
5. Gloria's Eyes
6. With Every Wish
7. Real World
8. All Over Nothing At All
9. Man's Job
10. I Wish I Were Blind
11. Long Goodbye
12. Real Man
13. Pony Boy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10486 in Music
• Released on: 2000-01-10
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
After a five year recording hiatus following the emotionally eloquent TUNNEL OF LOVE (and a subsequent world tour), Springsteen returned in 1992 with the tandem release of HUMAN TOUCH and LUCKY TOWN. Though released separately, both albumssignalled the singer's more mature preoccupation with introspective, complicated themes of desire, despair and regret. The albums were also Springsteen's first without the full E Street Band. HUMAN TOUCH and LUCKY TOWN marry Springsteen's popular persona of fist-waving, stadium rocker with the morereflective, rootsier sound the singer favoured on NEBRASKA.
Of the two albums, HUMAN TOUCH is the more successful inthis endeavor; songs like "Roll of the Dice" and "Real Man"are vintage, hell-raising Springsteen whereas the haunting "With Every Wish" and the roiling undercurrent of "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)" travel more uncertain avenues. "Human Touch" is pretty melodic pop and "Cross My Heart" generates pure sexual heat, gyrating with a bluesy guitar groove. HUMANTOUCH and LUCKY TOWN may never be revered in same way as some of his other releases, but both albums are immensely satisfying as a double shot farewell to the raucous rebelliousness of Springsteen's youthful rock and roll years.

Customer Reviews

Not good enough by Springsteen standards
If there was one Springsteen album that I could do without then Human Touch would be it. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a totally bad album, infact it's actually quite listenable for the most part. The title track is up there with some of his greatest ever songs, and there are a few other notable songs. However the album is let down by a few clunkers, for example Real Man - some of the lyrics are just embarrassing and it really does surprise me that Springsteen of all people wrote them.

So my advice to people would be to get the other albums before picking this one up - I have a feeling that if someone who wasn't familiar with Springsteen's work listened to this album first, they would be puzzled as to why he's such a major artist.

Enjoyable but patchy outing for The Boss
Human Touch has five great songs, the title track (my favourite Springsteen song), Soul Driver, With Every Wish, All Or Nothing At All and I Wish I Was Blind plus quite a few good ones. The main problem, barring a few scraps of filler, is that it sounds more like a collection of songs thrown together than a whole album - the beautiful, wistful ballad With Every Wish is ruined by immediately going into the raucous rock of Roll Of The Dice. Human Touch is ultimately a poor relative of its sister record Lucky Town, one of Springsteen's best albums that was released on the same day. Ironic, because it was supposed to be the other way round.

hard to explain
Having spent the last 30 years being a fan of Springsteen, in all of his various projects, I have returned to this album to see if my initial response was too harsh. Sadly, my first thoughts still hold true today.
Although there are a couple of good tracks (Human Touch, I Wish I Was Blind), there are too many songs that sound like filler, and the two worst tracks of his entire career (57 Channels, Real Man). In fact, Real Man would be the worst song of anyone's career.
Strangely released on the same day as the massively superior Lucky Town, this album has the dubious distinction of being the worst album the great man has ever put his name to.
This was the happiest he had ever been in his personal life; it seems strange that the greatest lyricist ever, couldn't find the words to express this. The musicianship is so plodding and uninspired, it is hard to understand why the E Street Band were twiddling their thumbs at home, whilst session rubbish like these guys were being used.
Maybe with the E Street Band, they could have saved some of the average songs, and made them better......and told him to bin the rest!!
The lowest point of an absolute legends career, which has thankfully been forgotten, as he is now re-united with The E Street Band.