BLOW BY BLOW

This my 50th review and I am choosing one of my all time favorite albums. If you look at my reviews you will notice that I have mostly 4-5 star ratings. I do that because I would rather look a the positive than the negative so I tend to review albums I think are the best. I always rate high on what I feel are the best moments in progressive music and I could point to that and say this is a shining example of the music. This is one of them.

I remember in 1975 at a friends apartment who had purchased a quad audio player and we listened to three very important albums in quad. Brian Salad Surgery, Dark Side of the Moon and this one. Produced by The Beatles own George Martin this album is as stellar now in its sound as it was then. Lightly applying strings in some passage really adds to the romantic sound of such track as Cause We Ended as Lovers that was written by Stevie Wonder.

Beck changes his guitar here and his sound putting down the Strat and picking up a gold sunburst Les Paul. Just an incredibly different way of hearing him play. Jeff also was hanging around such people as John Mclaughlin who he would tour with on this album. You can really hear the influence on this record. This is Jazz fusion but more on the rock side than the jazz. Hauntingly beautiful this is Jeff Beck's finest work and the reason he is here. The biggest highlights for me are Scatterbrain, Freeway Jam, Cause We Ended as lovers and Diamond Dust although there is not a bad song on this album. Another one I can point to and say this is a classic! 5 stars!