Provogue [Release date 25.10.24]

Beth Hart is back with a powerful restatement of who she is, on an album that digs deep for emotion and is illuminated by her subtle phrasing.

‘You Still Got Me’ is her 11th album, and the fact that it takes its title from a retro sounding string-led sweeping ballad, on she reaches for the epic, says much about her musical approach and intuitive vocal ability.

In between the opening, edgy rock-blues bluster of ‘Savior With A Razor’, on which Slash contributes gnawing guitar tones alongside a honky-tonk sounding piano, Beth explores a string of observational and confessional singer-songwriter style numbers.

You could argue the closing ‘Machine Gun Vibrato’ might have been a better album title, if only for the fact that it’s more of a general reference to her unmistakable vocal abilities, than the heartfelt title track itself.

But maybe that is the whole point, in as much as the task she sets herself on this album is to bring her impressive vocal range to bear on songs that she can emotionally connect with.

So having rocked hard with Slash and paired up with the sinewy toned guitarist Eric Gales on ‘Suga N My Bowl’ – on which she mines a familiar metaphor on a resonant stomp and indulges herself with a feral scream (revisited on both ‘Don’t Call The Police’ and ‘Machine Gun Vibrato’) – she slips into the first of several songs that push her vocal ability to the centre of attention.

In fact the clue to the album’s overall direction comes in the sepia tinged cover photo which finds her deep in vocal artistry pose with a mic in hand.

She explores everything from deep introspection of the title track to the light humour of ‘Never Underestimate A Gal’ and the resilience of ‘Little Heartbreak Girl’.

It’s an album crafted by lyrical weight, musical versatility and the emotional tug of her phrasing, which drags it back from the dreaded MOR tag.

The after-hours, jazzy feel of ‘Drunk On Valentine’ is shot through with a cool muted trumpet and is nothing short of a celebration of her vocal artistry.

And while ‘Wanna Be Big Bad Johnny Cash’ might test the patience of her rock fans, there’s no denying the vibrant country picking and exaggerated vocal swagger.

And that really is what this album is all about. It finds a restless artist in search of new challenges, while ‘Wonderful World’ reverts to her ability to pen an emotive radio friendly melodic ballad with a universal lyrical appeal:

“If your troubles and your doubts,

Are freaking you out,

And you feel like the sky’ gonna crack,

into shades of black,

Baby I Got Your back.”

She’s in her singer songwriter element on ‘Little Heartbreak Girl’, a song full of intricate phrasing and a repeated hook, which builds a momentum that is suitably topped by big choral finish.

Then we’re back on the street, with the heartfelt socio-political impact of ‘Don’t Call The Police’, an observational piece on which she gets raw and low down.

Built on portentous booming chords, subtle dynamics and a perfunctory drop-down with tinkling piano and Rhodes, her husky breathy close-to -the -mic vocal taps into the raw emotion of the song.

It builds still futher on the back of a climactic slide solo and another feral scream at 5.33, before the song plays out with a closing heartbeat.

Such is the impact of ‘Don’t Call The Police’ that it takes a while to connect with the emotion the title track, while another piano-led piece ‘Pimp Like That’ has a sleazy 70’s cinematic feel.

The whole album flows naturally into the closing ‘Machine Gun Vibrato,’ a percussive amalgam of her close-to-the- mic husky timbre, punctuated by a distant vibrato over crashing chords.

Perhaps only Beth Hart could make a coherent whole out of a variety of musical styles by constantly searching for meaning, deep emotion and those priceless moments when she can soar. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)