Bob Seger

Diddy has yet to bastardize a classic rock riff from Bob Seger, which is great because I don’t care to hear Diddy’s rap tribute to James Brown slapped down over “Night Moves.” The Seger songbook is just too underrated for that kind of modern-day MTV molestation. Indeed, it seems that since 1986, every Seger album was a present only for the faithful.

But the new songs on Face the Promise boast some of the best material of Seger’s career, from the rockin’ roadhouse blues of “Wreck This Heart,” to the strolling, soulful “Are You.” Seger’s duet with Kid Rock on “Real Mean Bottle” lends a moment of biker-outlaw edginess to the album, and of course there is the obligatory winsome and thunderous Seger piano rock ballad (“No Matter Who You Are”). But even that sounds like another instant classic.