Jeff

As much as I disliked "Flash", this is the absolute worst. I liked "Who else" and "You had it coming", but "Jeff" sounds like music that had been picked over from a scrap heap and put together
just to fulfill a lost bet or something. I can't believe a talent like Beck would allow this garbage to get out to the public. His first two albums are classics. His work with Tench and
Middleton were good. His jazz fusion period was sensational. Since then it's as if he's lost his direction. His live albums are always good, but Beck, do what you do best and quit trying to
reinvent yourself. You only put out a couple albums every ten years, so please play some rock again.

Jeff Beck may not be the possessed virtuoso that is Jimi Hendrix or the gifted composer/producer that is Jimmy Page, but he is one of the finest musical artists of our time. JB has created some of the most astounding, original rock sounds to blast off that British Isle. I can hear you hard core Beck fans screaming that Jimmy Page stole his act from Jeff, but c'mon. Page took what he borrowed from JB and transfomed it into his very own grand dark celtic blues rock sound. They were BOTH stealing from the same original American music.

So this particular Jeff Beck album is a lot more of that familiar incredible guitar sound, so smooth and hot, but laid over and wrapped around some neat new beats and rhythms. It's great to hear Beck still exploring new sounds, and some of these are even pretty good, but some are not so great. A few, like, "Porc-U-Pine", "Hot Rod Honeymoon", and "Pay Me No Mind" are more than a little corny. "My Thing" just escapes being tedious, thanks only to Jeff's guitar. On the other hand "So What", "Plan B", "Trouble Man", and "Grease Monkey" are all radical good fun. Very tight and satisfying beats. "Seasons", "Jb's Blues", "Bulgaria", and "Why Lord Oh Why?" are all beautiful, sublime, delicate slow tempo blues ballads that resonate with the forty plus years of performance history that is Jeff's soul.

Jeff doesn't need me or anyone else to hype his talent to the unaware masses, he's done just fine in the twisted, evil music game. So I'm not going to worry about maybe discouraging anyone from checking out this disc; if you're already a Jeff Beck fan then you know about this CD, and if you're not, then there are much better ones to check out. Like "Wired", for instance, which is one of the top 25 rock albums of the 20th century.

I was generally pleased with the product. However it was a bit different genre than I expected from Jeff Beck.

I'm thumbing through the bins in 2003 with no particular purpose and little expectation. I just stopped in on my way home from work, hoping for something interesting to jump out at me. It happened so seldom any more to this fiftyish guy who still has a thousand vinyl records pre 1986 and no turntable-when the in store music caught my ear. About the third time it caught my ear it was near the end of the disc and I decided, holy dung, this album is great! Finally something modern I can sink my teeth in to. So I schlepped up to the 70's version of myself at the counter and asked what it was. That figures! Jeff Beck. I have Wired and Blow by Blow gathering dust in the basement. I confess I bought those because it was hot in the circle I travelled in, but personally, it never got hold of me-shocking for a lot of you, I know. All I can say is buy it. You won't find Jeff Beck at your county fairgrounds playing his first 2 albums into the nursing home, like most 70's groups. Beck is an evolving creature. Even if the names in my collection seldom change, I'm glad one or two of them is growing new fruit and not squeezing the daylights out of 30 year old stuff.

Jeff Beck still relevant. I've got a fair bit of Becks music over the years, as well as most other notable guitarists like SRV, Tommy Bolin, Gary Moore, Steve Morse, Steve Howe, Robin Trower, Roberet Fripp etc. I think this CD and Who Else shows that Jeff Beck is still wanting to keep updating his techniques & styles after his more commercial successes of Blow by Blow, Wired, There & Back. This newer style is grungy, thick, techno or whatever but top notch as usual and I think proves that some of these older guys can show the younger, flashier jerks that they still have a long way to go to be mentioned in the same sentence as the legends. Worth adding this one to your collection, sound quality great and it's not even remasterd! (what a rip off some of these supposed remasters are, there are albums recorded properly 20 or more years ago, so why dont these remasters sound way better with the technology thats around)