Beck-Ola

While Truth, the first Jeff Beck Group album, has often been touted as the blueprint for Led Zeppelin and much of the bombastic blues rock that followed, the group's sophomore outing arguably comes closer to fitting that bill. Which is to say it's decidedly heavier, if less ambitious and more narrowly focused, than its heralded predecessor. Beck and company (a young Rod Stewart in peak form, Ron Wood on bass, Tony Newman on drums, and here augmented by keyboardist Nicky Hopkins) don't get much more adventuresome here than reworking Elvis Presley chestnuts "All Shook Up" and "Jailhouse Rock" with almost comic lugubriousness, especially in the drunken, sinewy tones the ax prodigy coaxes from his instrument. That tightening of dynamics thus transforms the lovely Hopkins instrumental showcase "Girl from Mill Valley" into a placid island in a sea of greasy grooves. Truth gave us Beck's tasteful, if quirky heart, Beck-Ola is a jolt of his prodigious musical libido — and damned if less almost isn't more. This reissue features a long overdue remastering from the original source tapes. — Jerry McCulley.