Beth Hart – You Still Got Me
Release Date: 25th October 2024
Label: Provogue Records
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Genre: Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country.
FFO: Joe Bonamassa, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Ana Popovic, Meena.
Review By: Mark Waight
If you have never come across world renowned artist Beth Hart before then please allow me to welcome, you to planet earth. You Still Got Me is a cross genre reaching album that fully demonstrates Beth Harts ability to dip her toes into many ponds with seemingly relative ease and to very great effect.
If Rock, Blues, Jazz or Country lights your fire then You Still Got Me is going to be a real treat for your ears and soul, as there is something here for everyone to ignite that flame and keep it burning. Like everything Beth Hart has previously achieved, she pours absolutely everything into You Still Got Me, allowing all that raw emotion to really shine through.
Savior With A Razor (featuring Slash) is a hard rocking opener with a big vein of the blues running right through it. Next up, Suga In My Bowl (featuring Eric Gales) takes things right down low with a sweet as honey on the ears riff to tantalise and tease your taste buds.
With a tinge of jazz infusion, Never Underestimate A Gal takes us right back to the dawn of modern music with this timeless cheeky little tune. Drunk On Valentine is simply pure jazz with dreamy vocals, a sassy saxophone and a perfectly played piano – beautiful!
A big nod to a fallen giant of country music, Wanna Be Big Bad Johnny Cash is a very fitting tribute to the one and only original man in black star of music. Released as a single, Wonderful World is a fabulously beautiful song that pulls heavily on your heart strings throughout. Stunning!
Slow burner Little Heartbreak Girl drifts along nicely, just try and resist singing along if you can, you won’t be able to. The darker and heavier Don’t Call The Police cries out with deep emotions of sadness and woe, you can even hear the guitar weeping in unison with Beth Harts soulful vocals.
Tearjerker You Still Got Me reminded me very much of the classic Elvis Presley gospel tunes of my parents used to play. Beth Harts vocals have never sounded so endearingly powerful!
Pimp Like That takes us once again back to the era of jazz and the seedy nightclubs of the time. Dark smoky rooms, prohibition and vice! Final track Machine Gun Vibrato builds slowly in intensity to an explosive finish that will leave you gagging for more. That’s a wrap!
The dictionary definition for Rock Star is “a member of a band or solo artist who has achieved celebrity status and is renowned or revered in his or her field of accomplishment”. Hence, Beth Hart is a genuine bona fide Rock Star in every sense of the word as well as being one of the standout female artists of this generation. You Still Got Me is well worth checking out and if you like it, then there is a back catalogue of superb Beth Hart albums stretching back almost thirty years.
(3.5 / 5)
