BETH HART: Bang Bang Boom Boom (BLUES): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Still unknown to the French public a year ago, Beth Hart reveals herself in Europe through "Don't Explain", an album of Blues standards shared with Joe Bonamassa. However, the beautiful American is not at her trial run since "Bang Bang Bang Boom Boom" is the ninth album of a career that began in 1993. Slipping with grace and power between Blues, Jazz, Gospel and even Rock, she is the only voice that Ian Gillan has never accepted at his side in a duo within Deep Purple ('Haunted' in 2003).

After such an exhibition with Bonamassa, this album had to reveal the whole spectrum and universe of this voice, as bewitching in its emotions as in its roughest form. And the bet is amply met because, apart from one or two more consensual titles ('Thru The Window Of My Mind'), the tattooed lady collects the successes. From the sweetness of its intro to the latent power in the voice when the rhythmic arrives,'Baddest Blues' opens the album with a plumb that commands respect. Hart's voice, powerful on the chorus, oscillates between light tremolo, depth and raging rumblings that at every sentence, every word, grabs you by the throat. Lighter and jazzy, the luminous eponymous universal melody has obvious radio potential, like Yael Naim's 'New Soul' in her time, and 'Better Man', more Rock in the mind, swings with class in this delicious landscape (we think as much of Koko Taylor as of Maroon 5's 'This Love').

The Soul keyboard of "Caught In The Rain" and the Jazzy orchestra that illuminates the guilleret "Swing My Thing Back Around" already convince you that less than half of the album, Beth Hart has a voice that integrates brilliantly with the multiple essences that are touched here. Mixing the strength of an Amy Winehouse and the emotion of a Natalie Merchant ('With You Yesterday') in the service of truly solid compositions because they combine immediate adherence with musical richness, Beth Hart is a master of the art. "Spirit Of God", immediate but never boring, evokes the artist's Gospel and Soul side, while "The Ugliest House Of The Block" is adorned with a welcome Reggae touch. The red wire in there? The voice of the artist of course, but also this authentic American Folk soul always present in filigree.

With their very personal compositions, whose sincerity and pure emotion transpire, both in the text and in the interpretation, "Bang Bang Boom Boom" is nothing more or less than a sacred tour de force that should finally bring the lady the success she so deserves. Because if Winehouse and Adele were able to conquer the world not so long ago, Beth Hart can easily do the same without embarrassing fans of real and good music. - Official website

BETH HART

BANG BANG BOOM BOOM

PROVOGUE RECORDS

BLUES