Jeff Beck
Loud Hailer

Our usual, unusual Beck...

In this work, Loud Hailer, Jeff Beck joins Carmen Vandenberg&Rosie Bones of the London group Bones, respectively on rhythm guitar and vocals.
I won’t talk about the lyrics of the tracks which, according to most reviews, aren't very profound even though they deal with themes like revolution, protest, youth unrest, energy crisis, 9/11, and so on...

This time, we’re not facing the usual Beck tangled web (even though it’s still chaos).
What changes from previous works?
It changes in that, even though there’s more cohesion between the tracks (almost all sung), there is excessive compression that relegates Beck's guitar to the background while Bones' voice stands out: a voice that often sounds filtered and slightly annoying...

Jeff's gain is penalized by the final mix. A flattening of high frequencies makes his sound appear less sharp, dirtier, diluted, and with excessive use of chorus(do you remember the pink Jackson from the Flash era and the screeching solo in Tina Turner's Private Dancer?).

The first part of the CD is very similar to his previous techno-prog works; the CD opens with "The revolution will be televised," a sort of power plant in distortion with hard rhythms, Bones' filtered voice, and guitar entangled in the compression mess. Next is "Live in the dark," presented as the album's promo, which in my opinion is the most enjoyable track of the album. Here, in the solos, almost all of Beck’s guitar expressiveness is condensed.
"Pull It" is an instrumental piece that almost seems to come from the 1999 sessions of Who Else, about two minutes of pure ear-splitting Beck with the guitar in evidence...

In "Thugs club" we have echoes of Beck's Bolero while "Scared for the children" is a ballad where Beck shamelessly reprises the phrasings used in his live performances during the execution of Little Wing and, to tell the truth, at the minute 4’42’’ it really seems like it!
Next is "Right Now," a massacre of wha-wha with a "Zeppelin-like" sound where, in my opinion, Bones' voice is too "playful" for the track's atmosphere. Thankfully, the solo makes us forget the lightness of the voice...
Shame is another ballad that, for rhythm and style, comes out of the album's "hard" scheme with a nice guitar work that, however, suffers too much from the chorus effect... Honestly, I believe that in a similar track the voices of Imogen Heap, Imelda May, or Joss Stone would have been more appropriate.
Next is EDNA, the album's only minute of "pure Beck" with a succession of crying echoes ala Roy Buchanan.
Beck is known for driving the dynamics of the tracks using the volume knob (swell) paired with the lever, creating truly sublime atmospheres that otherwise seem nonexistent in this album...
The next track, "The Ballad Of the Jersey Wives" (it talks about 9/11!!!) is musically very interesting. There are "noir" echoes of Hackett-like memory but here too, in my opinion, the voice and rhythm clash too much with the track's atmosphere.
Next is "Oil," a funk track in a "Superstitious" style, the album's only "danceable" one, with a flickering solo vaguely reminiscent of Brian May.

The album closes with "Shrine," practically Cohen's Hallelujah... Here I believe that Beck's solo guitar contrasts too much with the other guitar’s arpeggios (maybe Vandberg's?). I've always believed, in fact, that Jeff should never be accompanied by another guitar, especially in a melodic setting where his phrases can clash too much with a conventional arpeggio. I see him more at ease with electronic keyboards or with just the bass as in BBA while, at most, I find acceptable his own overdubbed rhythm or vice versa...

What to say! Surely a "youthful" work, sometimes hip hop, too focused on Bones' voice, which doesn’t quite suit the varied stylistic nuances that Jeff is capable of generating with his Strat. Not by chance, he previously used female voices of different stature (see above) but almost always aligned to the various tracks (techno, rockabilly, blues).
Let's say that this time there's little "Beck," compared to the standards he has accustomed us to and there aren’t real instrumental gems except for EDNA.
Of course, Jeff's interventions are always fabulous but without exceeding his "norm..."
It’s a pity because the variation of his sound, which appears warmer and less angular, if well paired with other rhythms and/or voices, would have gifted us another Beck. Who knows what would have come out with less aggressive rhythms and a nice male voice...

What can we expect next time? One thing is certain, more women at his side... always and anyway!!!

Dang you, Jeff!!!