This may be his first album in over a decade, but veteran Detroit rock icon Bob Seger shows he's lost none of his signature songwriting chops, sense of blue collar yearning or distinctive vocal prowess during his record biz sabbatical. Rather than reinvent himself for a turbulent marketplace that's regressed from alt.rock to teeny-pop in his absence, Seger stays largely true to his roots here. The album's Nashville recording locale and Seger's winning duet with Patti Loveless on "The Answer's in the Question" reaffirm how much the lines between roots rock and contemporary country have blurred while he was on the sidelines, a notion that's underscored on Seger's raucous turn with fellow Motor City native Kid Rock on their cover of Vince Gill's "Real Mean Bottle." Yet forceful ballads like "Wait For Me" and "Won't Stop" show there's still gold to be mined in the vein of the singer's epochal '70s work, while "Wreck This Heart" rocks admirably and the melancholy closer "The Long Goodbye" showcases Seger as accomplished one man band. All in all a compelling musical argument for the notion that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. --Jerry McCulley

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BOB SEGERS LATEST IS BACK TO HIS ROCKING BEST THE ROCKERS ARE BACK TO HIS HOLLYWOOD NIGHT DAYS.WHILE THE BALLADS ARE THE STRONGEST BUNCH OF SONGS RECORDED IN YEARS BY SEGER

I agree it is great to have Mr. Bob Seger back with his music, our music. Over the holidays I listened to Little Drummer Boy and it was just the best I have ever heard it done. I think that Mr. Seger should do a Christmas CD for next year. His music has so much spirit and truth you have to be a Seger - Silver Bullet person to understand. And I know there are lots of us out there. Keep the music coming.

This is a wonderful CD...There is not one song on here that is not good.
It is somewhat mellow, but what a collection. I could listen to it all day. You will not have the urge to skip around because you will enjoy every cut on it..My personal favorite! This one will stand the test of time! Love it!!!

Don't judge a book by its cover, nuestros abuelos taught us in a spasm of earthy wisdom.

If you did, you might think Bob Seger was about to declare himself washed up and done for in the blues-rock entree to this 2006 album. Where the younger Seger could claim that things were gettin' better and better', the grizzled graybeard of FACE THE PROMISE finds things decidely on the downswing, and toys with the idea that he m ight just 'wreck this heart'. But don't take the old boy's crotchety pose too seriously. Even in this complaining first track, he concedes that when he gets back home to his lady, everything'll be all right. Really, Seger i merely setting himself up to deliver a classically Seger-esque affirmation of life and love of the kind we've come to expect.

'No need to wait any longer than Track 2, a fallible man's ode to long-lasting love and his own bootstrap ability to pull himself up to love's measure when the heat is on.

If Seger has caught a touch of the blues, it's not the poor-me variety but the more robust variant called I've-paid-my-dues-baby-I'm-fed-up-and-I'm-goin' home'. If the blues like the flu are inevitable, it's much more dignified to catch the kind Seger's symptoms sugggest he has. 'So long, Arizona', he says, dissing every small-town repeat of his show when his soul has already made the turn and headed westward towards home.

This is an edgier, older, less accomodating Seger than we've known. A bit rockier, a little less balladesque. But it's still our Bob in there, belting out the blue-collar convictions about trusting the heart, your good woman, and little else.

He sounds like a man with designs on becoming an elder statesman to the kids who will get knocked about a little as they learn the truths that have come down to him over the year. Hear track four, 'No Matter Who You Are', a kind of democratic Hard Knocks Creed:

No matter who you are no matter what you do
There's gonna be someone wants something else from you
Yeah
This is an ancient test, it's a shiny lie
Discover somethin' pure then sit and watch it die
Yeah
No matter who you are no matter where you've been
No matter what you've done you'll have to start again
No matter who you are
Between the soaring dreams and the bottom line
So much is given up so much is left behind
Yeah

This is the price you pay, this is the beast you feed
When you abandon hope and you give in to greed

No matter who you are no matter who you've been
You'll have to sort it out and start again

No matter who you are
No matter who you are
Don't take this wrong don't let it bring you down
It's just the way things work in this great big town



Seger's take on the reality he describes is interesting: 'Don't take this wrong, Don't let it bring you down, It's just the way things work in this great big town.'

Gentle cynicism is, after all, perhaps not an oxymoron.

'Truth is, song after song on this album is shot through with the sentiment that 'this world is out to get you the way it's gottten me' ('Between'). That, and the kind of poignant statement of love's bereavement that we hear in his gorgeous duet with Patty Loveless and in the album's closing track, 'The Long Goodbye'.

So what is our Bobster up to? This album reads like a man's statement of his legacy. I don't mean to suggest that Seger is anything close to finished singing. I simply observe that the very fine rock and roll that comes at you track after track on this album congeals into something like a statement.

Of what? Gentle cynicism. Loss of faith but not of energy. Weathered old wood that still shines when just the right light falls upon it.

This new CD restores my belief that Bob Seger is one of (and still is) the greatest rock and roll icons.

Unlike It's a Mystery and The Fire Inside, where a few great tracks exist on a largely mediocre album, Face the Promise is the total package. Tracks like 7, 8 and 11 show a newer finish from his usual style. Tracks 2, 3, 4 and 12 display the classic MO that fans have loved for years.

I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of true rock and roll music.