Bob Seger: Like A Rock : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Enough already. Just when you thought you'd defect if you heard one more song with "America" or "U.S.A." in the title, here comes "American Storm," the first single off Bob Seger's new album, Like a Rock. A shallow rewrite of "Even Now" (a single from Seger's last album, 1983's The Distance), "American Storm" is a compendium of the kind of clichés about "America" and "struggle" that ring false. When people hear Seger sing, "We take no risks," they're either going to laugh at the unintended irony or quickly turn the dial.

This is a shame, because much of Like a Rock, Seger's fifteenth album, is likable and thoughtful, unlike "American Storm." On The Distance, Seger extended his vision beyond the rocker's standard concerns, and he continues to probe; this album's "Miami," for instance, is a haunting evocation of the dreams carried from Cuba to Florida on the Freedom Flotilla. But his best writing is still centered on stark domestic scenes. Now forty-one, Seger seems most comfortable and least overwrought when he slows down: the most fully realized of the album's dramatic ballads, "The Ring," describes a marriage crumbling into resignation. The sweetly nostalgic title track, a wistful sequel to 1976's "Night Moves," finds Seger's gaze fixed on the rear-view mirror, yearning for strength.

All well and good, but Seger doesn't break any new ground with this LP. For the past decade, much of the Silver Bullet Band's best music has been in E Street territory, a tradition continued here. There have been some updates, though. The vocal arrangements are exquisitely tight and supportive, and "Tightrope" and "The Aftermath," two synthesizer-dominated songs Seger co-wrote with keyboardist Craig Frost, are the most distinctly modern tracks he's recorded. Like a Rock is a modest album, but when it works, it picks you up, takes you out and brings you back home.