Once Beth Hart decides she’s going through, there isn’t much you can do, much like when a severe weather warning is issued. Even though Beth Hart’s most recent album begins with the blazing Savior With A Razor, which struts in like a cowboy kicking open saloon doors, before Slash enters through the window like Paul Kossoff, resentful of his Gibson Les Paul, she is much more than the blues siren that is the assumed shorthand for her. It’s excellent, too, and nobody would blame you if you suddenly realized that Beth Hart was a blues siren when a lightbulb went off above your head. We all feel the blues when Hart lets loose and tosses back her head.
However, that is merely a small portion of her auditory repertoire. On closer inspection, you may hear a smoky Tom Waits burr, a honkytonk roadside bar, country twang, and a broken-down ballad or two. Admittedly, there are times when it’s all Janis Joplin attitude and a hellhound on our trail. She isn’t trying on a musical style for size; instead, she is confidently shifting through the gears as though it were second nature to her.
It’s difficult to beat a Slash-fueled opener, but Hart kills it with the filthy funk of Suga N My Bowl (don’t ask us what the title means), which is driven to a frantic, er, climax by Eric Gales’s rumbling guitar. It rattles and shakes, swings and grooves. It’s an amazing racket. This adds to the allure of a song like “Drunk On Valentine,” which is a previously mentioned glimpse inside Tom Waits’ world, complete with a smoky piano bar, empty shot glasses, and a head full of sadness and regrets. However, Hart is just as comfortable with the country-tinged, open-road bounce of a song like Wanna Be Big Bad as she is with mascara tears and cigarette smoke. Playful and cheerful, Johnny Cash and full of warmth.
Still, if you want to experience a powerhouse in full effect then sit back and let Don’t Call The Police sweep you up and carry you away, Hart’s vocal rising and falling with the power of a crashing wave. Inspired by the death of George Floyd, it’s a bleak but beguiling highlight of an album that’s filled with them.