CD Reviews

Bob Seger

Face the Promise | Capitol

By MIKAEL WOOD | January 22, 2007

3.0 Stars

“I will answer the wind,” Bob Seger sings in “Wait for Me,” a cut from his first new studio album in more than a decade. The lyric, of course, is a sort of September-of-my-years nod to “Against the Wind,” one of the biggest hits in Seger’s deep catalogue of meat-and-potatoes Motor City rock, and so is the music, which pairs rambling roadhouse piano with bar-band guitar in the instantly identifiable way Seger’s been doing for years. (Nobody makes songs about wind sound more windswept.) Face the Promise is full of echoes and reverberations, but because Seger has honed his craft to such a silver-bullet point, the album never feels like a retread; as on John Fogerty’s underrated Deja Vu All Over Again from 2004, roots-rock tradition seems renewed in Seger’s hands. Promise does feature one concession to record-biz currency in “Real Mean Bottle,” a borderline-corny duet with fellow Michigander Kid Rock. But Seger hardly needs help rocking out: “Between,” one of the most potent tunes here, winds itself into a hard-swinging Middle Eastern jam.

Bob Seger | TD Banknorth Garden, 100 Legends Way, Boston | January 27 | 8 pm | 617.931.2000

Too many shows
If this winter’s concert scene were a crazy tag-team wrestling match, rock would be the ass-kicking king of the ring.
Forward into the past!
Could it be just a coincidence that as I sit here writing this, a grizzled Bob Seger is gearing up for the release of Face the Promise , the Detroit rocker’s first proper studio album in, oh, forever and a day? The Lemonheads, "No Backbone" (mp3)
Music Seen: Man-Witch CD-release at Geno's
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Of Montreal
Now that the Apples in Stereo are reunited and have a new album coming out next month, Of Montreal can no longer lay claim to the distinction of being the only Elephant 6 band of note to outlive the once-sprawling psych-pop collective’s sad demise.
Albert Hammond Jr.
The strong-but-silent Strokes guitarist sounds sheepish on his debut solo album, but his voice is suitably dreamy and the songs are just short enough for it to hold together.
Recovery projections
You might not be able to tell from the glazed psych-pop glimmer of We’re Already There , Mazarin’s new disc for the NYC indie I and Ear, but singer/guitarist Quentin Stoltzfus counts old-time gospel and country among his favorite and earliest influences.
Those were the daze
He goes by the Mad Peck, Dr. Oldie, and a few other cheeky monikers, depending on his pursuit: making posters, writing record reviews, archiving comics, spinning discs, or selling rare recordings.
Hot summer nights
The annual Sound Session festival is a weeklong sonic soiree that is expected to draw upwards of 65,000 partygoers from July 6 through 12.
Alt- together now
At some point during the recording of their new album, someone in the Broken Singles realized that Sarah Borges had been botching the chords to their cover of the Lemonheads' "Ride with Me."
Brown Bird in Williamsburg
Along with other Mainers in Brooklyn this weekend playing at the Slumberland Records 20th anniversary celebration, Maine/Rhode Island chamber-folk standouts Brown Bird were also in the borough, playing the narrow Williamsburg bar Spike Hill Sunday night.
Beach House | Teen Dream
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Bob Seger, Songs from Face the Promise

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