BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Tunnel Of Love (Columbia)

Musically speaking, this album is the story of a man and his band. Or rather, a man without his band. Well, not entirely: each member of the band makes at least one appearance here, just not as a member of the full band. Am I coherent yet?

No? Let’s start again. This is a Bruce Springsteen album, not a Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band album. After the tremendous success/overexposure of Born In The U.S.A. and the live box, it’s evidently time tor a more personal approach. Not another Nebraska—only “Cautious Man” reprises its slow-moving, detail-laden narratives—but a mostly solo show just the same. The thing is, without the E Street Band behind him, Springsteen is just another talented singer-songwriter-multiinstrumentalist in search of the right sounds for his songs, and as a result, Tunnel Of Love occupies a stretch of Everyman’s land between more-thana-bunch-of-demos and less-than-agreat-album.

Yeah, I said multi-instrumentalist. From hearing this record, I now know that Bruce can pound out a basic drumbeat, play elementary bass lines and hold down synthesizer chords. Considering how long he’s been leading bands, these are minor revelations.