JEFF BECK — Truth (review)

JEFF BECK — Truth album cover Album · 1968 · Jazz Related Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
dreadpirateroberts
Led Zeppelin lite? Just kidding.

Jeff Beck sneaks out of the heavy blues-based-rock ranks before former band mate Jimmy Page, compiling a strong cast to blast through an equal parts exciting, equal parts uninspiring set of songs.

'Truth' is a good album but it simply misses a few integral components, lacking some dynamic in songwriting and a few really killer originals. While Rod Stewart has a voice you can recognise anywhere, his rasp actually seems better suited to soul. While Beck himself has no shortage of grungy riffs and blistering lead parts, without a truly strong writing partnership the band seemed doomed. Had they been able to keep it together longer however, the Jeff Beck Group would have worked some real magic indeed.

Opening with a reworked Yardbirds classic (which is impressive) and sticking to the blues until 'Old Man River' where things are a little subtler, it's an interesting follow-up to the (in)famous 'You Shook Me.' From here the album gets a little more inventive, with the off-beat blues of 'Rock My Plimsoul' one of the only originals on the album, followed by the Page-Beck psychedelic-monster 'Beck's Bolero.' The band close the album with a fairly plodding blues workout before the fine cover of 'I Ain't Superstitious.'

How frustrating for the band to see Led Zeppelin do similar things a couple of months later with their debut (albeit with more power and dynamic) and take off.

For the jazz fan looking to check out Beck's jazzier side it would be safer to head for an album like 'Blow by Blow.' Three stars.

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