Bob Seger
recorded the bulk of
Night Moves
before
Live Bullet
brought him his first genuine success, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that it's similar in spirit to the introspective
Beautiful Loser
, even if it rocks harder and longer. Throughout much of the album, he's coming to grips with being on the other side of 30 and still rocking. He floats back in time, turning in high-school memories, remembering when wandering down
"Mainstreet"
was the highlight of an evening, covering a
rockabilly
favorite in
"Mary Lou."
Stylistically, there's not much change since
, but the difference is that
Seger
and his
Silver Bullet Band
-- who turn in their first studio album here -- sound intense and ferocious, and the songs are subtly varied. Yes, this is all
hard rock
, but the acoustic
ballads
reveal the influence of
Dylan
and
Van Morrison
, filtered through a Midwestern sensibility, and the rockers reveal more of
's personality than ever.
may have been this consistent before (on
Seven
, for example), but the mood had never been as successfully varied, nor had his songwriting been as consistent, intimate, and personal. Thankfully, this was delivered to a mass audience eager for
, and it not only became a hit, but one of the universally acknowledged high points of late-'70s
rock & roll
. And, because of his passion and craft, it remains a thoroughly terrific record years later. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine