Dez Reviews Jeff Beck's Emotion & Commotion, 2010

More emotion than commotion this time around, but that's alright. This is probably the most mellow and lyrical record in Jeff Beck's entire catalogue. If you want to find out what the big deal is about Jeff Beck as a shredding, balls to the walls guitar player, I would not recommend starting here (instead I would check out the trilogy of studio albums that came before this one for evidence of that, especially You Had It Coming, as well as his recent live record, Live at Ronnie Scott's). On the one song here where he does go full throttle, "Hammerhead," he makes it count. He opens "Hammerhead" with a wicked wah wah that must be an homage to Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile," before soaring over the thunderous groove laid down by teen bass phenom Tal Wickenfeld. As is typical with many of Beck's tunes, he doesn't actually solo until near the end, where fires out angular, jagged bursts of Jeff Beck greatness. But "Hammerhead" is the exception here, not the rule.

His comments in the liner notes for "There's No Other Me" explains his approach this time out: "Originally, I was going to play all over this song, but we brought Joss (Stone) in to sing and the direction changed. That says a lot about where I'm at right now-letting other people be a part of the music rather than have full-shred guitar on every track." Instead he wants to "have the guitar provide a short burst of energy." The genesis of EAC was actually a project where Beck recorded Mahler's 5th Symphony with a symphony orchestra. He liked the sound (from all accounts this still unreleased recording is amazing), and so decided to use the orchestra on about half of the album here. Rarely has his playing been more melodic and lyrical. He has decided to focus on melody over the pure energy and shredding of his recent output.

Also, straight out of the Book of Tufnel, Beck evidently was chopping carrots during the recording of this record, and he chopped off the tip of one of his fingers. It was sewn back on (and now is fine), but still hurt as he was finishing the recording of the record, so that might also be a reason he decided to slow it down this time around (and why some of the solos might be "a bit dodgy," he jokes). I am not making this up. This is according to Beck himself in a recent interview. But slowing it down does not necessarily mean less interesting.

Beck definitely has a thing for Jeff Buckley, because he covers two of his tunes here. "Corpus Christi Carol" opens the record with a beautiful, plaintive guitar line over the accompanying orchestra. (It is a great contrast, by the way, as the last lovely strains of "Corpus Christi Carol" give way to the wild wah intro of "Hammerhead"). The other Buckley tune is "Lilac Wine," featuring newcomer Imelda May on vocals. "Lilac Wine" closes with some of the loveliest and most fluid guitar work I've ever heard from Beck.

As I said, the mood here is mostly quieter and more contemplative than we usually hear from Beck, as he tackles a dreamy version of "Over the Rainbow" (trying, I think, to recapture the magic of his recent wonderful cover of "A Day in the Life," but not quite reaching those heights this time out), as well as classical pieces like "Elegy For Dunkirk" and a gorgeous "Nessun Dorma" (would Clapton have the stones to try that? I think not.) Tunes like "Never Alone" and "Serene" are in danger of veering into smooth jazzy territory (the former avoids it with a sharp melody from Beck, but the latter probably does get there). Joss Stone provides a wonderful gritty vocal foil for Beck on two numbers, a spirited and steamy cover of "I Put a Spell On You" and the rocking "There's No Other Me." Beck doesn't often work with vocalists, but Joss acts as a kind of female version of Rod Stewart, who was Beck's most successful vocalist in the earlier days of the Jeff Beck Group.

This record would be damn near perfect if he had balanced it a little more with a couple more "Hammerheads" and one or two less "Serenes," but much of what is here is still very good and interesting, and Beck is one of those few guitar players whose every note is a gift to us all. In a recent interview Beck was musing that he is one of a dying breed. The guitar god a la Beck, Clapton, Page or Hendrix doesn't really exist these days. Not that the talent isn't out there, and Beck was not being egotistical when he said it, but the focus in today's music world has shifted. He thought that was kind of sad, and so do I. We all need our rock gods, don't we?

***1/2 out of *****