Tuesday, January 29, 2013

#724 Jeff Beck - Truth

Heavy crunchy crush that maybe doesn't sound all that groundbreaking until you consider it came out in 1968. That clean guitar sound, the soaring vocals (courtesy of Rod Stewart - what happened to that guy??), that overall big bad hard rock juggernaut roll, this surely influenced the 70's bands that influenced all the rock that followed.

The blues overtones that define the guitar bands of the era make their presence known, but here they're stretched, rendered altogether more rip-roaring and huge than usual. The key seems to be Ron Wood's bass, which throbs high in the mix, rolls on, up and down, lilting and lolling and lurching, giving all the headbobs an extra elliptical whiplash, keeping everything tripping just one step ahead, making everything more exciting.

So, it' great and all. But this kind of guitarey, blues-dipped stuff isn't my scene (see also the Yardbirds, Cream) and I don't actually love Stewart's voice which seems stretched to real the heights it gets to. Once again, I'll leave you with a below-standard score around 3.5/5

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