Soulful Seger Even Though ‘It’s A Mystery’ Is Not His Best Work, Bob Seger’s Voice Is Always Constant
Detroit rock stalwart Bob Seger dishes up his first album in four years to record stores this week.
We’ve got good news and bad news. Messy stuff first. “It’s a Mystery,” the 18th album of Seger’s three-decade career, is an often plastic affair, crammed with drum machines, synthesizers, tepid lyrics and vocal melodrama. It’s enough to drown the solid work of longtime sidemen Alto Reed (sax), Chris Campbell (bass) and Craig Frost (keyboards), and new guitarist Tim Mitchell.
The good news? Other elements of the album are just about wonderful.
Either way, it was high time for something new from Seger. Last year’s “Greatest Hits,” double platinum and still kicking back on the Billboard 200, soothed some appetites. But it’s been four years since Seger’s last album of new work, “The Fire Inside,” which whisked into the Top 10 and sold 2 million copies.
That album found a frisky Seger ready to rock, and with the help of producers Barry Beckett and Don Was, it did just that.
But Seger’s not quite as loose and bouncy this time out. The self-produced “It’s a Mystery” reveals a man concerned about a cruel world that hasn’t managed to clean up its act much since the ramblin’, gamblin’ man first trod the charts back in 1968.
The album is a litany of complaint, but don’t expect sheer, unbridled angst. Picture, please, a 50-year-old father who long ago learned how to love (“Night Moves”), party (“Old Time Rock & Roll”) and get sweet and sentimental (“Mainstreet”).
Been there, you know. Done that. Now it’s time to get testy - to rail about corrupt power (“Rite of Passage”), lament inner city disarray (“Manhattan”) and carp on sleazy media (“Revisionism Street”).
But Seger is still at his best, lyrically and musically, when he doesn’t try too hard. The finest Seger songs - the quiet, contemplative ones - can induce chills, even tears, after 500 listens. That’s why the sweeping proclamations of “It’s a Mystery” roost best in trimmed-down nests.
“By the River” is the album’s top cut, a sparse and spare stroke that rolls out of the speakers like warm honey. Setting aside computer beats and feathery keyboard riffs in favor of earthy acoustic strumming and a gentle dynamic buildup, the music is rich and soothing, sitting with the sort of comfort demanded by its foursquare lyrics: “There was rhythm/and there was order/there was a balance/there was a flow.”
Problem is, Seger forgets his own revelation just three cuts later, on the album’s title track: “It’s a mystery/it’s a wonder/how we keep from/ sinking under.” And it’s not just the song’s trite lyrical delivery that hurts.
With its histrionic Petty-esque guitar lick, Euro-metal synthesizer riff, and monotone falsetto chorus, “It’s a Mystery” fits the ear like an oversized Q-Tip. It’s one of several likeminded sins, including “Rite of Passage” and “Hands in the Air.”
Seger’s saving grace may always be his voice, shorn of grit here but still as husky and soulful as ever. His register has dropped a touch, but he mercifully avoids the misstep of aging peers who continue to strain recklessly for out-of-reach high notes. And lucky for rock-vocal gourmets, the delightful, twisty vibrato that decorates the tails of his sustained notes is still intact.
It’s easy to see where Seger’s strengths lie - and where they’re not applied. Thus, listening to “It’s a Mystery” can be an exercise in frustration.
Perhaps Seger should take a closer look at the adage he rolls out on the album’s first single, “Lock and Load.” “Mediocrity’s easy, the good things take time/The great need commitment, right down the line.”
Think about it, Bob.