If Bob Seger had his way, I wouldn\u2019t be saying anything about Noah<\/i>, the second release from the Bob Seger System. Not only has he disavowed this particular album, it\u2019s one of the few that has never been released on CD or any streaming service.<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s because Capitol Records allegedly tried foisting Tom Neme as the new \u201cde facto\u201d leader of the band. Maybe it\u2019s because of the overall content. Seeing that Bob\u2019s not returning my phone calls these days, we\u2019ll probably never know, and unless you\u2019re willing to pick this up on a bootleg CD or shell out around $100 for a used copy on vinyl or cassette, you\u2019ll probably never see this officially re-released until Seger no longer inhabits the planet.<\/p>\n
In certain ways, that\u2019s a shame. Noah<\/i> is no masterpiece by any means, but it also isn\u2019t completely wretched.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not going to lie\u2026 I didn\u2019t want to like the title track that opens the disc. It\u2019s definitely not the best work that Seger ever did in his career. But\u2026 it\u2019s so damned catchy that you can\u2019t help but find yourself with the basic rhythm locked into your head for a few hours after you listen to it. (Obviously, someone felt the same way, as this was released as a single when the album came out.)<\/p>\n
In fact, the first four tracks on Noah<\/i> suggest significant improvement over their previous release Ramblin\u2019 Gamblin\u2019 Man<\/i>, even if it\u2019s not quite as catchy. The double decker of \u201cLonely Man\u201d and \u201cLoneliness Is A Feeling\u201d shows the growth that the band went through over the course of a few short months. Perhaps, Seger was mistaken about his hatred of this disc?<\/p>\n
Ah\u2026 but then, there\u2019s \u201cCat\u201d\u2014a track where one has to wonder just how much dope was smoked before recording it and deciding that it was a great idea to include it on the album. Six minutes of this atonal bullshit is six minutes too long. If you do decide to search it out, don\u2019t say I didn\u2019t warn you.<\/p>\n
The second half of Noah<\/i> tries to regain the equilibrium that the bulk of the first half established, with limited success. Tracks like \u201cFollow The Children\u201d and \u201cPaint Them A Picture\u201d aren\u2019t terrible efforts, but they\u2019re also not quite as strong. In fact, I can\u2019t say that any of the five tracks that close the album are bad\u2026 but they also don\u2019t make me excited about the album as a whole.<\/p>\n
So, where does that leave Noah<\/i>? At best, it\u2019s an uneven but slight improvement on their first album, though the production work (at least on the files I was able to gleam) is extremely varied (which is not a good thing). At worst, it\u2019s a failed experiment that tried to push Seger out of the spotlight and into a sideman role. (Apparently, it nearly worked, as Seger considered quitting the music business after this album.)<\/p>\n
Is it worth searching out? If you can locate a copy just to listen to it, with the major exception of \u201cCat,\u201d it\u2019s worth spending 30 minutes. But, in terms of making this a permanent part of your collection, this one has to be for the diehard fans only (notwithstanding the sky-high prices this one commands).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5623],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-46519","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bob-seger-system","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46519"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}