Recorded at Abbey Road studios, Joe Bonamassa\u2019s newest album pays tribute in spirit to his British blues guitarist heroes: Beck, Page, Clapton, Green. To anyone familiar with Joe\u2019s work, this seems like kind of a strange thing to say, since it seems that not only has Joe been doing this for much of his career, but that the white British guitarists drew from the same well of blues inspiration as American guitarists\u2026the Black artists that invented the genre.<\/p>\n
So, essentially, this becomes another quality Joe Bonamassa album, filled with the loud, confident riffs, great solos, strong songwriting, and little tweaks (horns, a couple stray off-topic songs) that drive his best work. And make no mistake, this one belongs in the upper echelon of the man\u2019s voluminous output, on par with The Ballad Of John Henry <\/i>and Blues Of Desperation<\/i> for consistency and excellence.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s any nod to the Brits outside of the title, it\u2019s the opening seven-minute cut \u201cWhen One Door Opens,\u201d which arrives in a blast of horns and a stately, albeit somewhat underwhelming, prog-like opening half. Around the four-minute mark, Joe unleashes a burst of staccato and then a hard alt-rock solo that takes the song in a much better direction. It doesn\u2019t quite cohere, but its ambition shows that Joe won\u2019t stay in a rut, and that remains commendable.<\/p>\n
The title cut is a loping, confident cut with an earworm background vocal hook, while \u201cWhy Does It Take So Long to Say Goodbye\u201d is the requisite but welcome slow blues\u2026for the first half. The song then pivots to a midtempo instrumental buildup with some Who-like overtones, a double-plucked chord helping build the tension until the release of the solo. \u201cHigh Class Girl\u201d is a faster, chunkier tune with good keyboard work and an aura of smoke. If bar bands were a thing in 2020, this would be a killer piece; as it is, we\u2019ll wait for touring to resume someday so Joe can bust this one out mid-concert.<\/p>\n
As great as these are, the standout cut is \u201cLookout Man!,\u201d a funky, bass-heavy, harmonica-laden wad of attitude as dark as anything Joe has put to vinyl. \u201cA Conversation With Alice\u201d is another great track that also nods to the British conceit, sounding like it could slot into your classic rock playlist. The speedy \u201cI Didn\u2019t Think She Would Do It\u201d gallops with a Zep-like \u201cAchilles\u2019 Last Stand\u201d beat, keyboard and wah guitar accents, coalescing into a great song.<\/p>\n
\u201cLonely Boy\u201d injects a brief burst of energy as a fun blues romp that\u2019s all flash and piano, a party song that won\u2019t leave much of a mark. \u201cBeyond The Silence\u201d tries for an atmosphere but doesn\u2019t quite stick in the memory like the others, while the Americana of \u201cSavannah\u201d seems like an afterthought when compared to the rest of the album. <\/p>\n
But even with those two less-than-stellar cuts, Royal Tea <\/i>is still simply great, bluesy enough for purists, fun enough for parties, hard rock-enough for guitar enthusiasts, and good enough to be one of the best of 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":34183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7758],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46014","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-joe-bonamassa","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46014"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46014"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}