Product Description
When {|Jeff Beck|} last ventured into the studio it was to cut 2003's {|Jeff|}, a deliberately modernist album steeped in electronica, to which 2010's {|Emotion & Commotion|} almost feels like a refutation. Working with producers {|Steve Lipson|} and {|Trevor Horn|}, {|Beck|} has created an old-fashioned blues-rock-cum-prog record, balancing the sweeping vistas of a 64-piece orchestra with cool jazz-funk grooves, tarted-up {|Screamin' Jay Hawkins|} covers with a pair of {|Jeff Buckley|} tunes and a gentle reading of {|Somewhere Over the Rainbow.|} {|Joss Stone|} sits in for two songs, including {|I Put a Spell on You,|} with jazz vocalist {|Imelda May|} and opera singer {|Olivia Safe|} taking lead on two others, but the focus remains on {|Beck|}, who is in a reserved, lyrical mood. Occasionally, the tempo ratchets up -- {|Hammerhead,|} which begins as a '60s riff rocker before quickly heading to {|Blow by Blow|} territory; {|There's No Other Me,|} the other {|Stone|} showcase -- but {|Emotion & Commotion|} remains languid and even dreamy despite the crisp, cavernous {|Horn|} production that gives it a feeling of being trapped in 1990. All this is due to {|Beck|}, who has chosen to forgo his signature frenzied fretboard blitzkriegs and weave long phrases, his guitar rich, thick, and warm, sounding familiar yet different: he's never sustained this level of grace for a full record, and his soulful playing cuts through the clean sheen of the production, always commanding attention even when he's not demanding it. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
