Beth Hart – You Still Got Me
Beth Hart is a blues contralto powerhouse (a voice that doesn’t seem to need any amplification yet can be equally delicate at the drop of a piano backed hat) who absolutely thrives in the live environment (where she is at her most powerful, vulnerable and giving).
But there’s an argument to be made (outside of the Hart-core faithful and inevitable #1 Blues Chart placings) that she has yet to deliver a killer solo album (there's no denying however her three albums with Joe Bonamassa turned out to be the perfect covers pairing; her recent Tribute To Led Zeppelin release also proved she can make a rock classic or three her own).
That’s not to say that Beth Hart hasn’t written some great songs (that her Greatest Hits release in 2020 was a 38 track double album is testament to that) or delivered some particularly good albums, such as the modern Americana/ lighter blues of My California and the contemporary sounds of Fire On The Floor.
And, now, You Still Got Me, which is her best all-original solo offering to date.
The album wins out not just through the quality of the songs and performances, but the fact it strikes the balance between deeply personal/ piano led intimacy, the more rugged blues landscapes and the stylistically different aspects of Beth Hart’s music, better than any previous offering.
Nor does it hurt that it kicks off with a purposeful one-two opening with guest star appeal.
Savior With a Razor is a dark, rock-blues that features Slash and his, rather fittingly, razor-sharp licks.
Beth Hart is in full, gritty cry here, including her trademark vibrato, which is so strong it’s even evident on consonants, such as at the end of the song’s vocally defiant tag line ("Like a savior, with a razor, I’m taking the devil downnn!"). The results are one of Hart’s best ever, heavyweight tracks.
The pulsating rhythm and double-entendre blues of following number 'Suga N My Bowl,' featuring Eric Gales (another player who knows how to lay down a tasty lick or three) has Hart at her sassiest, with bags of lyrically suggestive attitude to back it up.
That the song can also be heard as a 21st century rock nod to dirty blues song 'I Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl' (originally recorded by Bessie Smith in 1931) makes it all the more fun.
From there the various facets of Beth Hart come thick, fast, and very impressively.
From the vaudevillian folk of 'Never Underestimate a Gal' and piano & saxophone jazz-blues 'Drunk On Valentine' (Beth Hart at her Billie Holiday best) to 'Wanna Be Big Bad Johnny Cash' (which sounds exactly as the title suggests) and uplifting ballad 'Wonderful World' (written for Hart’s niece and inspired by the female lineage of her family), You Still Got Me presents itself as Hart’s most all-encompassing work to date.
But there’s an argument to be made (outside of the Hart-core faithful and inevitable #1 Blues Chart placings) that she has yet to deliver a killer solo album (there's no denying however her three albums with Joe Bonamassa turned out to be the perfect covers pairing; her recent Tribute To Led Zeppelin release also proved she can make a rock classic or three her own).
That’s not to say that Beth Hart hasn’t written some great songs (that her Greatest Hits release in 2020 was a 38 track double album is testament to that) or delivered some particularly good albums, such as the modern Americana/ lighter blues of My California and the contemporary sounds of Fire On The Floor.
And, now, You Still Got Me, which is her best all-original solo offering to date.
The album wins out not just through the quality of the songs and performances, but the fact it strikes the balance between deeply personal/ piano led intimacy, the more rugged blues landscapes and the stylistically different aspects of Beth Hart’s music, better than any previous offering.
Nor does it hurt that it kicks off with a purposeful one-two opening with guest star appeal.
Savior With a Razor is a dark, rock-blues that features Slash and his, rather fittingly, razor-sharp licks.
Beth Hart is in full, gritty cry here, including her trademark vibrato, which is so strong it’s even evident on consonants, such as at the end of the song’s vocally defiant tag line ("Like a savior, with a razor, I’m taking the devil downnn!"). The results are one of Hart’s best ever, heavyweight tracks.
The pulsating rhythm and double-entendre blues of following number 'Suga N My Bowl,' featuring Eric Gales (another player who knows how to lay down a tasty lick or three) has Hart at her sassiest, with bags of lyrically suggestive attitude to back it up.
That the song can also be heard as a 21st century rock nod to dirty blues song 'I Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl' (originally recorded by Bessie Smith in 1931) makes it all the more fun.
From there the various facets of Beth Hart come thick, fast, and very impressively.
From the vaudevillian folk of 'Never Underestimate a Gal' and piano & saxophone jazz-blues 'Drunk On Valentine' (Beth Hart at her Billie Holiday best) to 'Wanna Be Big Bad Johnny Cash' (which sounds exactly as the title suggests) and uplifting ballad 'Wonderful World' (written for Hart’s niece and inspired by the female lineage of her family), You Still Got Me presents itself as Hart’s most all-encompassing work to date.
The second half of the album is equally impressive, where highlights include piano led country-gospel ballad 'Little Heartbreak Girl' (offering an uplifting message of hope, resilience and strength, all Beth Hart lyrical traits), 'Pimp Like That' (a disturbingly inviting darker side of life blues) and back-to-back mini-epics 'Don’t Call The Police' and the title track.
The six-and-a-half minute former, arranged around delicate piano light and heavy blues shade, is an incredibly powerful number musically, vocally and in its unflinching lyricism ("Black bodies in the street… America, beauty; empathy, prosperity; consciousness, decadence; poverty, apathy!")
'You Still Got Me,' a slow string-backed blues, is an unashamed love song to Beth Hart's husband, manager, and rock of her life, Scott Guetzkow. It also, somewhat obviously, carries her most impassioned and emotional vocal of the album, with trademark vibrato in full cry (which can be, truth be told, a little overpowering).
That said Beth Hart seems to both recognise and intentionally play to that very part of her vocal armament on the closing track, the wonderfully titled 'Machine Gun Vibrato,' which plays out like a moody, heavy blues tango (with "woah-oh" interjections in full vibrato overdrive).
Is You Still Got Me the killer album Beth Hart is clearly capable of? It may well be.
As importantly, has she still got a killer voice? Absolutely.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Beth Hart upcoming UK Shows
28 Nov - Lighthouse, Poole
30 Nov- Dome, Brighton
2025
18 Feb - Beacon, Bristol
20 Feb - Eventim Apollo, London
22 Feb - Arts Centre, Warwick
The six-and-a-half minute former, arranged around delicate piano light and heavy blues shade, is an incredibly powerful number musically, vocally and in its unflinching lyricism ("Black bodies in the street… America, beauty; empathy, prosperity; consciousness, decadence; poverty, apathy!")
'You Still Got Me,' a slow string-backed blues, is an unashamed love song to Beth Hart's husband, manager, and rock of her life, Scott Guetzkow. It also, somewhat obviously, carries her most impassioned and emotional vocal of the album, with trademark vibrato in full cry (which can be, truth be told, a little overpowering).
That said Beth Hart seems to both recognise and intentionally play to that very part of her vocal armament on the closing track, the wonderfully titled 'Machine Gun Vibrato,' which plays out like a moody, heavy blues tango (with "woah-oh" interjections in full vibrato overdrive).
Is You Still Got Me the killer album Beth Hart is clearly capable of? It may well be.
As importantly, has she still got a killer voice? Absolutely.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
Beth Hart upcoming UK Shows
28 Nov - Lighthouse, Poole
30 Nov- Dome, Brighton
2025
18 Feb - Beacon, Bristol
20 Feb - Eventim Apollo, London
22 Feb - Arts Centre, Warwick