Before the release of 2008’s Real Animal, 59-year-old singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo signed on with Bruce Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau, a seemingly savvy move that appears to have had at least a subliminal (and not entirely welcome) effect on Escovedo’s music. Following up on the hopped-up, slickly packaged guitar anthems of Real Animal, Street Songs Of Love is a full-fledged stab at crafting the most radio-friendly mainstream rock album of 1984. Escovedo’s gritty snarl and survivor’s spirit are still as vital as ever, but Street Songs Of Love is hindered by dated, bombastic production choices—including intrusively sterile female backing vocals on loan from an Eric Clapton Michelob commercial—that sound more contemporaneous with Born In The U.S.A. than anything happening today.