Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The act of sensuality is not lost, it has not become driven out into the cold and left to starve in a parking lot somewhere off the Pacific Coast Highway, shrouded by the deep greens and ambers of trees spoiling for a fight against the depths of a winter to come, sensuality is always around, it just has been overshadowed by the unremarkable and insidious. It takes a rock star of breath-taking quality to break through the over sexualised hype, a musician of conviction whose voice is the calling card to have lyrics gush in embarrassment at the attention they receive.
Fire On The Floor is Beth Hart’s latest album, the Blues Queen of America striding across the world stage once more and being nothing short of breathless and exhilarating in equal, determined measure; a burst of volcanic eruption and seismic shift in a world where far too often the bland gets mentioned ahead of the incredible simply on the basis of fashion and teen insecurity.
Staying at the top of your game can be exhausting, thrilling but weary, and yet somehow, as the American juices start to flow, as the writing of lyrics designed to kick the pulse up a notch and the sense of wonder into high gear, there is nothing but pure Rock and Roll to be seen, the Blues come a calling but Beth Hart makes them live, breath the fire she sings of until all that is left on the floor is the ashes of the unremarkable and the doubting remains of the singed, scorched and false sensitive.
Following on from the album Better Than Home is a tall ask but the lyrics tear at the door, scratch away at the lock and the small shaft of light that comes streaming through the door and little by little Fire On The Floor starts to smoulder, begins to rage and ignite and the result is one of unashamed cravings.
The emotion of Better Than Home may be the trigger of her incredible recent performances but this album is the big bang, the starting pistol of a marathon that sees creativity take on its own life and form and swatches patiently as Beth Hart picks up the pace until the day becomes a blur, a scenic wonder in its own right.
With Producer Oliver Leiber at the helm and with Michael Landau, Waddy Wachtel, Brian Allen, Rick Marotta, Jim Cox, Dean Parks and Ivan Neville on board, songs such as the opener Jazzman, Let’s Get It Together, Woman You’ve Been Dreaming Of, Picture In A Frame and No Place Like Home all groove and dance with the assuredness of a rock god displaying the fire as a living tattoo, burning up the sky and sending out the call, the smoke signal, that Beth Hart is back to take on the bland again.
Fire On The Floor covers all the bases and stamps wildly as the flames joyfully explode with passion.
Ian D. Hall