Against the Wind is the eleventh studio album by Americanrock singer Bob Seger and his third which credits the Silver Bullet Band. Like many of his albums, about half of the tracks feature the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section as backing musicians. It was released in February 1980. It is Seger's only number-one album to date, spending six weeks at the top of the Billboard Top LPs chart, knocking Pink Floyd's The Wall from the top spot. Seger said that the album "is about trying to move ahead, keeping your sanity and integrity at the same time."[2]
Against the Wind was an immediate commercial success, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart in its third week and remaining there for five weeks behind Pink Floyd's The Wall before reaching No. 1 and holding the top position for six weeks.[3] By late 1981 the album sold 3.7 million copies in the United States[4] and was certified 5× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2003.
Rock critic Dave Marsh, writing for Rolling Stone, strongly criticized the album as a betrayal of Seger's longtime fans: "I'd like to say that this is not only the worst record Bob Seger has ever made, but an absolutely cowardly one as well" saying that Seger had crafted "failureproof songs that are utterly listenable and quite meaningless." Marsh had followed Seger since before Night Moves, when Seger finally gained national fame, and said in his review that Seger's long, tireless struggle to stardom is trivialized by this record. "He had to fight hard to prove there was still a place in rock & roll for a guy like him, and, with Night Moves, he won. This is the LP that makes such a victory meaningless ... It makes me sad, and it makes me angry (another emotion that's disappeared here, though it's often fueled Seger's finest work)."[12]
Marsh did concede that on the album "Seger sings fantastically well" and called it a "carefully constructed album." A review in The Boston Phoenix echoed some of Marsh's criticisms, saying that Seger offered nothing that hadn't been heard before or equaled his best work, "only heavy-handed efforts to simulate it."[13]
In a more positive review in the Los Angeles Times, critic Robert Hilburn said the album was "close to [Seger's] earlier works" but represented a "mastering of the form" and that the reflective ballads stood out.[14]John Rockwell of The New York Times called it an "honest, attractive album" and a "nice return to his Night Moves form."[15]
Bob Seger – guitar, vocals, background vocals, guitar solos on "The Horizontal Bop" (intro and outro) and "Her Strut", outro guitar solo on "No Man's Land"
The Silver Bullet Band
Drew Abbott – guitar, central guitar solo on "The Horizontal Bop"
Chris Campbell – bass
Alto Reed – saxophone on "The Horizontal Bop", "Betty Lou's Gettin' Out Tonight" and "Shinin' Brightly"