BEST
1. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Magic (Columbia)
Here's the rarest magic act of all — making art that unites the personal and the political without getting bogged down in the polemical. Springsteen pulled off that hat trick with his latest, a protest album that boils down to this sentiment: America has lost its course. Me too. Lest the ruminative journey prove a tough sell, the Boss raucously regrouped his E Street Band for the ride. Familiar touchstones recur, but the group has never given us anything quite like the brittle multiguitar attack that drives ''Radio Nowhere,'' and ''Gypsy Biker,'' an explosive elegy for a dead soldier. The Grammy-nominating committee snubbed this exhilarating achievement for Album of the Year, but perhaps that's only fitting: Magic is an album-of-the-decade contender.

This is an online-only excerpt from the EW Year-End issue. For Chris Willman's complete appreciation, pick up EW's year-end issue, on stads Dec. 21.

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