Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band: The Distance (Capitol)

IT WOULD be both easy and unfair to write off Bob Seger's followup to Against The Wind as a bid for the widest possible audience. Granted the grizzled Motor City rocker has sacrificed his shoulder length locks for a trimmer, blown-dry cut, and likewise trimmed his Silver Bullet Band to allow a host of familiar studio heavies to supply much of the instrumental muscle here, but Seger's performances and the themes of these new songs still testify to an earnest rock sensibility. The problem rests with the familiarity of Seger's mission, which undercuts the portentous trappings.