Jeff Beck – Emotion Commotion

“Emotion and Commotion” is Jeff Beck’s latest album and it yet another stunning piece of work by the real-life guitar hero. The album comes across as two albums mashed together into one as Beck not only shows off a softer classical side in addition to his rip-snorting, blues-singed brand of rock n roll.

The emotion part of “Emotion and Commotion” is show in songs that features Beck backed by a symphony. This allows Beck to adding his soaring eagle-like guitar to songs like Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” and “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”  Beck also enlists singer Imelda May to give the some “Lilac Wine” an extra little punch.

The commotion part of this album definitely comes from the two songs that feature the criminally underrated British singer Joss Stone. You can tell that having Stone’s soulful and powerful vocals pushed Beck to echo Stone’s volcanic range with equally eruptive guitar playing. Their cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put A Spell On You” was the perfect song for these two talented musicians to cover as they completely tore the house down between Joss’ sheer power vocally and Beck’s artistry on the six-string.

The closer, “Elegy For Dunkirk”, which was in the movie “Atonement”, shows just how much of a virtuoso Jeff Beck is and how it’s quite unfortunate that his name’s not brought up immediately into the conversation of who’s the best guitar player in the world. Between his work with Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds and awesome solo albums like “Emotion and Commotion,” Jeff Beck, without argument belongs in the Pantheon of Guitar Heroes and this album is yet another example why. ****1/2