Artist: Beth Hart
Title: Better than Home
Genre: Blues / Soul
Release Date: 10th April 2015
Label: Provogue
Album Review
How must it feel if you use your music to evoke the demons of your past, the toxic ones, the devouring ones, to attract them with a fragile soul just for sonically punching in their face, blowing them away with energy and willpower? It must feel like Beth Hart´s current output. After dealing with her life´s wraiths in a more questioning and introverted way on the albums prior, ‘Better Than Home’ feels like a catharsis, a deep breath, relieving and redeeming. A musical exorcism... beautiful and vigorous. And it´s the depth of the psychical valleys, which make the light shines so bright now on the mountaintops. A drug addiction, mental and musical self-doubts, holes and scars... the demons were diligent it seems, but the album´s 11 tracks prove that she finally found some weapons to stand up to them broad-shouldered - that is to say a smiling and her voice.
Like a coppery armour it sparkles through all the clouds, shoals and shades, husky but pervious to light, determined but full of sentiments. Wrapped in the well-fitting dress of a velvet, handmade soul and blues, Mrs Hart impressively gives proof of her versatility and prowess, grabs you with intensity and passion while spanning the scope from Aretha Franklin to Janis Joplin, from devotion to vulnerability, from soulfulness to fragility. Be it the impelling, rocking tracks like the swirling ‘Trouble’, the trenchant ‘The Mood that I´m in’ and the brilliantly gospel-blues blend ‘Might as well Smile’ or the touchingly frail ballads like ‘We´re still living in the City’, the bitter-sweet ‘Mechanical Heart’ or the late summer sky-like title track... it convinces without any gap, credible and honest from the heart. An album with a heart that beats and a soul being alive.
Tracklist
01. Might As Well Smile
02. Tell ‘Em To Hold On
03. Tell Her You Belong To Me
04. Trouble
05. Better Than Home
06. St. Teresa
07. We’re Still Living In The City
08. The Mood That I’m In
09. Mechanical Heart
10. As Long As I Have A Song
11. Mama This One’s For You (bonus track on limited edition)
Line-up
Beth Hart – Vocals, Piano
Larry Campbell – Guitars
Zev Katz – Bass
Rob Mathes – Piano, Guitars
Charley Drayton – Drums
and many others
Website
http://www.bethhart.com/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 7
Total: 7 / 10
Comments powered by CComment