Jeff Beck - Loud Hailer (2016)

It's often a challenge to find enough inspiration to get out of bed in the morning, let alone try to craft any kind of lasting creative expression. So it's hard to fathom what it's like for guitarist Jeff Beck to go to the well for more than 50 years and still achieve something creative. But he's been able to accomplish just that on his new album, Loud Hailer.

Jeff Beck albums are a special kind of experience, because of course we're listening for the kind of playing that makes him the guitar legend that he is. But Loud Hailer, like so many others, is carefully constructed to spotlight the lead vocals as much as his guitar work. Over time, Beck has absorbed so many forms of music in his career that he's equally adept at cover songs and originals.

Loud Hailer doesn't bother with too many references to contemporary music. This is strictly a Jeff Beck joint, built around that amazing tone and variations on the 12 bar blues. But he's hardly stuck in the past: Instead, the new album serves as a reminder of how a guitar should sound, as well as the way it feels when someone has no questions about what he was put here to do. When the result sounds like Loud Hailer, why tamper with what fans want ?

Over the last few years Beck has gravitated towards assembling groups of musicians with staggeringly virtuosic chops, such as bassists Tal Wilkenfeld and Rhonda Smith, and drummers Narada Michael Walden and Vinnie Colaiuta. Now it seems like the 71-year-old is pushing himself in a different way—by setting aside his over-the-top instrumental acumen for more lyrically-driven material.

At a party at Queen drummer Roger Taylor’s house, Beck met singer Rosie Bones and guitarist Carmen Vandenberg from Bones, a hip, gritty pop-rock band based in London. Filippo Cimatti, who also worked with Bones, was brought in to co-produce Hailer with Beck, and Cimatti rounded out the group with bassist Giovanni Pallotti and drummer Davide Sollazzi.