I am rather disappointed with Bruce Springsteen's long-awaited new album, "Darkness on the Edge of Town." And I am not even altogether sure why.

It's not that I don't think there's a lot of good music here. But it's my opinion that Springsteen's recorded output till now constitutes the finest body of work by any rock-and-roll musician in this decade, and I'm kind of bugged that his new album is unlikely to alter the contrary opinions of those cold-hearted folks not already on his side. There are a lot of reasons why it won't. For starters, "Darkness" is much more of a piece than one would have expected. It sounds very much like a live set, and the arrangements, as a result, have a certain sameness. For another thing, it's a very down-tempo effort—not so much ballad-heavy as it is restrained, without the multiple bridges and the...