Face the Promise (CD+DVD)

Bob Seger

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 12, 2006)
• Original Release Date: September 12, 2006
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000HC2PDQ
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #55,879 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
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

Product Description
BONUS DVD includes career retrospective and a "making of Face The Promise" interview segment with studio footage. Includes previously unreleased historical concert performances of Still The Same and Hollywood Nights recorded live in San Diego in 1978. Also features the classic music videos for Like A Rock and The Fire Inside.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Several Seger gems, both rockers and ballads, September 16, 2006

By	Mike Heath (North Woods of Michigan) - See all my reviews

A song-by-song review. I also added some comments from the man himself I read in a Detroit Free Press interview with Seger the day before the album was released. My perspective on Seger is that he's one of my favorite artists, his music has been incredibly inspirational to me, and I'm of the age that I go back to the Beautiful Loser album where we couldn't wait to go to "Katmandu" or be a "Travelin Man" ourselves.

As an album, this has the best collection of hard rock, mid-tempo numbers, and ballads since Stranger in Town, though nothing at the level of "We've Got Tonite" and "Hollywood Nights". Starting with Against the Wind I was wondering if Seger should stop with the rockers and focus on the country charts, however this album destroys that idea starting with Wreck This Heart and three other really solid rock songs.

1- "Wreck this Heart" A very Stones-like rocker, loose and vigorous. A great leadoff song!!! Seger's lyrics often are a point of view narrowly drawn to a specific age group and this shows that while he's 61, the pressures are those of a man with young children, which Seger has. Bob's always had a very special relationship with those 10 - 15 years younger than him, like me, as he provides insight to their experiences from a position of having just lived it with the perspective and wisdom that comes from experience yet still near to the experience. Great song.

2- "Wait for Me" - This song is really growing on me. Very inspirational, a very Bob-like ballad. Seger's voice soars into the bridge like it did with "Like A Rock". Another great song that requires some time to appreciate. Bob is as good a singer as ever in terms of putting a ton of soul into each song, his voice is even better in the mid and low notes with a little more gravel adding more levity, as if he needed more, however, he does concede the higher notes but that only hurts him on one song in this collection (the Loveless duet).

Seger's comments - I don't think anybody got it. In my mind you've got to have the discipline to allow your kids to make their mistakes. . . Sometimes I've got to get away, but I'll always come back.

3- "Face the Promise" - Hard guitar track like "Makin Thunderbirds". Good filler. Makes you think he's hangin' with the post-college crowd now though, working-class people are moving to North Dakota and Arizona, not away from there.

Seger's comments on "Face the Promise" - This is about small town kids looking at the big American dream. "I'm gonna to out and face the promise of the promised land. . .".

4- "No Matter Who You Are" - Great song. Mid-tempo rocker like "Still the Same", while the lyrics are reminiscent of "Against the Wind" in terms of providing strength by realization that we all have challenges.

Seger's Comments on "No Matter. . ." - You have to guard your special, pure thing and cherish it.

5- "Are You" - Drum driven song, rocker with a great groove line and classic Seger lyrics. Memorable line, "This is a whole new faith almost like a new religion". He also does a great "Ow" backed by the soul singers, this one will get cranked!!!

6 - "Simplicity" - Music sounds like it came from a band named "The Time", an old band associated with Prince. Lyrics are obvious and contrived. Filler.

7 - "No More" - Bob singing against a background of classic strings. The lyrics are a negative indictment of how Bush got us into Iraq. While I agree with his political position, I would have preferred he chose different lyrics for this song, they sound mismatched, with uplifting music coupled with a negative indictment.

"Real Mean Bottle" with Kid Rock - a Vince Gill song written by Gill as a homage to Merle Haggard (Kid's a big fan of Haggard). Lots of long notes that take advantage of Gill's great voice which cause Kid and Seger to strain in places. Seger and Kid turn this into a 50's style boogie-woogie rocker, including rock piano. I am a little underwhelmed with this song, Bob's covers are usually excellent choices like Rodney Crowell's "Shame on the Moon". This song doesn't do Kid justice either. Because the lyrics are fun, and everyone loves boogie-woogie, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a minor hit on the Country charts.

Seger's producer on "Real Mean Bottle" - He (Kid) came in and said, "Man we've got to rock this thing." He started singing it at double speed with all this attitude."

9- "Won't Stop" - A very sparse song, acoustic guitar, Bob, and a little drum. A counter to "Real Mean Bottle" preaching the dark reality of obsessive behavior. Bob sings great in this song, however because there is very little accompaniment, you can hear how his voice has weakened from the pinnacle of his singing on "Live Bullet" and "Stranger in Town". Still, Bob was always much, much more than the range and power of his voice. His talent has always been writing music and lyrics, making the personal universal and the universal personal, making music that is either a joy to listen or sustenance for trying times.

Seger on "Won't Stop" - We were kind of making fun of drinking (Real Mean Bottle). . . but then I wanted a serious song about addiction - like, I don't condone this.

10 - "Between" - Contains the best lead guitar on the album by Kenny Greenburg. A beat similar to Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry".

Seger's comments - I think my favorite song on the record is Between. I just love the groove. I love the way I sang it, I love the way I played it, I love the way the girls sang it. And it says exactly what I wanted to say.

11 - "The Answer's in the Question" w/Patty Loveless - I loved the lyrics and the melody and the basic structure of the song. However there are some incredibly poor choices in which notes to hit that had me physically cringing three times, all three times because I think Bob can no longer hit the high notes. I think this could be a huge country hit, but they need to release a single version that eradicates the cringe factor.

Seger's Comments - "I thought what a cool idea for a song: The answer is in the question. "Will you be home late again?" OK, if you ask someone that, there's something wrong.

12 - "The Long Goodbye" - Should have been placed between two rockers because as the last song, it causes the album to end with a whimper, I would have preferred seeing the album end with "No Matter Who You Are". Some interesting musical sounds and verses that linger after the song ends, "The long goodbye continues on, through fog and rain and far beyond, you stay awhile and then your gone again" is haunting and some of his best work.

Seger's Comments - It's about Alzheimer's disease. I dealt with that with my aunt after my mother died. And now, my wife is dealing with it her father. So it became fresh again.

Summary - this album is not perfect, where it's pretty easy to make the case Live Bullet and Stranger in Town were. Because Seger is not prolific, his fans have much higher expectations than those of say, Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen who publish a lot more music. This album is definitely one every Seger fan will want, enjoy and savor for years to come. For those that are too young to have grown up with Seger, I recommend buying the following songs which you can find at Apple's Music Store: Wreck This Heart, Wait for Me, and No Matter Who You Are.

Is the DVD worth the extra bucks? I'd say yes for two reasons, the DVD includes the video for "Like A Rock". I don't know of any song where the singing and lead guitar melded so perfectly, only Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart doing "People Get Ready" comes close. It also has some great concert footage from '78 of Seger doing two songs in San Diego, which really displays how great a performer he is, though his band was really lacking on those two songs. I was very disappointed there were no videos from this album on the DVD, Wait for Me is released as a single, why not at least that song's video? I did appreciate the short interviews they did with Seger showing him working on the album but really disappointed only two old videos were included besides the two song concert footage.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good then and now., September 17, 2006

By	Kenneth L. Matthews "Kenny" (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Back on May 12, 1983,
"sold out" show at the San Antonio Convention Center Area.
I remember when they were setting up the stage ( set ) for Bob Seger. A red drum set? One tom-tom up and two floor tom-toms....
Wow!! The only drummer that came to mind was Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad. ha! ha! Boy! I was right...he was the drummer for the tour. If you know the songs on both live CD's ( Live Bullet & Nine Tonite )then you were here during this great live concert.
Anyway, everyone is talking about the CD so......I thought that you would like to know about the DVD here.
Interview with Bob Seger - Old History of his music/ group
( short old footage of the songs listed below during his interview ) A must see for true Seger fans!!
1. Old Time Rock -n- Roll
2. Katmandu
3. Hollywood Nights
4. Her Strut
5. Nights Moves
6. Like A Rock
7. Beautiful Loser
8. Against The Wind
9. We've Got Tonight
10. Turn The Page

Interview with Bob Seger on his new CD/ DVD "Face The Promise"
Songs below during the interview:
1. Wrech This Heart
2. No More
3. Real Mean Bottle
4. Simplicity
5. Wait For Me

Live ( full ) Footage from San diego 1978
1. Old Time Rock -n- Roll
2. Hollywood Nights

( full ) Videos:
1. Like A Rock
2. The Fire Inside

You got to hear these interviews from Bob Seger to appreciate
the mans pass and present of his music and life. I Just told you about the songs you can see of him live: now and in the passed concerts during these interviews.
Thanks, Kenny
San Antonio, Texas

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1 star???, September 22, 2006

By	J. Phoenix - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One star for this CD is ridiculous. Funk, rock, soul and more is dripping off this thing. Bob is on fire again. Hope we don't have to wait another 11 years. Excellent CD.