Jeff_Beck_Who_Else

Jeff Beck has always had a unique style and sound and over the years he\'s displayed it in many genres. On this album, some tracks are an almost \"modern dance\" production. Other tracks have jazzy elements ...like they\'re not in 4/4 so it\'s hard to tap your foot to them ;-p or have rather odd chord progressions. All the musicians are superb, the whole band crisp and tight and feel very much that these guys are \"in the groove\", while the overall production/sound is deep and glossy.
The gem for me is the slow track \"Brush With The Blues\" - I think this is one of the most superb displays of guitar control I\'ve ever heard.
There are a couple of excellent solo pieces near the end - just him and a quite clean guitar.


For the people who don\'t know much about actual guitar playing/recent Beck...
....he stopped using a pick(plectrum) long ago and uses his thubmnail and forefinger while keeping his hand resting on the bridge. It enables him to do almost everything one can do with a pick and a a lot of other things that one can\'t.
He fiddles with the tone controls, volume controls and pick-up selection constantly while playing and you can safely assume that all the variation of tones you hear are largely a result of that. It\'s particularly apparent during the blues track - sudden lurches/barks as he strikes a chord and simulateously winds the volume up to near full for a moment. There is a subtle little phrase in the second verse where he plays a quite loud variation on the main theme/melody, then winds his volume down to zero, strikes a high chord and winds the volume up, vibrato\'s the chord and fades it out again to supply a gentle \"call and response\" to the melody.

That\'s awesome guitar playing applied with impeccable taste - Sheer mastery of his craft.
I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.