FLASH

Beck's guitar sound can be recognized among 10000 guitar players: it is really the case here more than ever. The music is pseudo pop music, but it is definitely not accessible. Some tracks like "Gets Us All In The End" remind me Freddy Mercury. Many tracks correspond to an electric guitar exhibition through sophisticated modern & scattered pop rock textures with a nervous and noisy new wave style a la Art of Noise or Yello, due to the thundering rythmic keyboards patterns. I think he uses automatic drum sequences. There are tons of guest lead vocals, including Rod Stewart! Some bits remind me slightly the Steve Hackett's solo albums of the 80's (Highly strung, Cured). There are lots of thundering drums and percussions on this album, really sounding like if they were synthesized. The record pretty well gives the pace for the sound and orientation of the next album Guitar Shop. So, Flash is definitely a 100% good album, but not a very good one.

Rating: 3.5 stars

I'm convinced that there was an MTV-induced disease that swept through the music world in the crazy 80s that devoured almost all creativity and perspective in its path. The very same virus that almost completely destroyed progressive rock in all its wonderful, innovative facets initially attacked the collective psyche of legendary groups like Genesis and Yes, causing them to put out increasingly inferior material that seriously damaged their sterling reputations. Jeff Beck had avoided this cancerous blight for the first half of the decade by not putting out any new works after releasing his excellent "Wired" album in 1980 but eventually this despicable bug bit him, too, and in 1985 he succumbed to this mind-numbing illness and made "Flash." There is a silver lining on this cloud, however. The music included on this record isn't quite as bad as the God-awful jacket he's wearing on the cover. Holy moley, Beck, that sport coat is louder than a stack of Marshall amps!

Evidently someone talked Jeff into performing songs with a vocalist again even though he hadn't employed a singer since disbanding the Beck, Bogert & Appice power trio in 1973. But at least he found a good one in Jimmy Hall who had fronted the talented 70s southern boogie/funk band "Wet Willie." He also brought in Nile Rodgers and Arthur Baker to assist him in producing most of the album but their contemporary, urban leanings may have added to the many problems this project has. Yet, as I said before, the whole music biz was off its meds at that time so it may be a case of having to mercifully forgive them for they knew not what they were doing.

Rodger's "Ambitious" is the first offering and, relatively speaking, it ain't too shabby. There's not a lot of chord changes going on but Beck has a monster guitar effect here that is most intimidating. Hall's vocal is powerful and the lyrics do a good job of describing the "ME" generation's selfish attitude that was pervasive in that narcissistic era but it's Jeff's ferocious solo that cuts a swath through the tune like a scythe and makes a memorable impression. Next up is Baker's disco-ish "Gets Us All in the End," which typifies the overly slick, glossy music of the period that sappy bands like Starship and Loverboy were spewing out relentlessly. And even though Carmen Appice receives credit as being a participant, there isn't a non-electronic drum track to be found and that's a big part of the problem. Program them till you're blue in the face but you can't program soul into a drum machine. There's not a rhythm track on this album that wouldn't have benefited 100% from a human touch, especially when JB had access to the best drummers in the business. All is not lost, however. Beck's backwards guitar track at the beginning and his hot as Hell lead at the end go a long way in saving the song from being unlistenable. Jeff's old partner in crime, Jan Hammer, is credited as composer and Fairlight programmer on the instrumental "Escape." It's all Jan at the outset, then Beck supplies the melody line a ways in but other than some mildly interesting synthesized noises nothing exciting happens at all. Still, the cut garnered a Grammy and charted as high as #39 so maybe I'm just not hearing it correctly. My bad.

It had been sixteen long years since anyone had heard the raspy, charismatic tones of Rod Stewart on a Jeff Beck album so their wonderful rendition of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" is easily the highlight of the proceedings. JB provides tasteful, melodic guitar lines and Rod sings his tail off as you would expect, making this one of the coolest versions of this classic tune you'll ever hear. But then things take a decidedly downward swing, starting with "Stop, Look and Listen," a song that sounds like it would fit better in a cheesy modern stage musical than as part of a guitar God's album. JB turns in a nice ride but it's not nearly enough to overcome the embarrassingly corny vocal breaks. It gets worse, though. Somehow Nile convinced Jeff that he should showcase his vocal style on the following tune, "Get Workin'," and I hope that Beck doesn't try it ever again. It's barely more than a dumb chant but there's absolutely nothing positive to report so I'll move on.

The dreaded Wang Chung disorder is very much in evidence on the forgettable "Ecstasy" and even JB himself knew to stay far in the background on this dog. It stinks. "Night After Night" is next and it's not necessarily a step up although Jeff does throw in a zesty solo. At least the album ends on an uplifting note. Tony Hymas' instrumental "You Know, We Know" is more like the quality music we heard on the fantastic "Wired" LP. Beck utilizes a huge-sounding guitar effect and he wails away unfettered over Hymas' atmospheric keyboards, making us wish that Tony had been allowed to be a more influential presence on this project in general.

Every artist has at least one regrettable, season-ending pitch that he would like to have back and this one just might be Jeff Beck's hanging curve that failed to break and sailed right over the middle of the plate. It didn't ruin his stellar career but it did drive him back into seclusion for another four years to continue restoring his antique cars. If you are new to JB's music please start anywhere but here. "Flash" is yet another sad example of the need to exercise caution when handling any album that has a release date between the years of 1980-1990. Those were dark times, indeed. 2.4 stars.

Simply one of the most atrocious albums I can remember buying and probably one of the shortest stay in my collection too, since this got sold top an ex-friend, which became "ex" on the moment I sold him this crap. The major selling point of this album was of course the reunion of Stewart and Beck for the People Get Ready track, which happens to work semi-convincingly, as if it seemed Rod was doing a payback to Beck for his original stardom. Don't be fooled by the cover of the album, where it seems that the guitar is still king, as this is sooooo much less the case as his previous albums. For this album, Beck doesn't have a solid band, but different musicians playing on specific tracks, including the hit single, which gained of course much "unfair" attention (I mean the track is barely more than correct) more on the accompanying videoclip on regular rotation on MTV.

Most of the album is actually Jeff experimenting with Jan Hammer-style of electronic effects and other new instruments (his Gibson is not new), sometimes going as far as sounding new-wavey. I mean generally going experimental on this site means going more progressive, and somehow I'm sure Jeff thought he was progressing experimentally or even experimenting progressively, but all in all, you've got another 70's giant getting lost in the 80's, trying to stay afloat or survive, by following the "technology path" and ending almost on Ridicule Lane. Even Carmine Appice's drumming is 80's-sounding. It's hard of course to say this about the giant of guitar Jeff is, but let's face it, you'd better avoid this stinker, which is about as bad as his "trendy" suit on the cover. Not the only one of his blunder (BBA was the first one really, but Flash easily crushed that low, making it average), but the first real one, and probably his worst too. Best avoided, as there is absolutely nothing to content the progheads.

Another album which suffers a lot from the eighties typical production, a production style which was very characteristic of a lot of albums produced during that decade, a decade of "artificial sounds", drum machines, excess in the use of synthesised sounds, reverb, and a "plastic sound", if a thing like that could be defined in some way. A lot of albums from that decade sound like very "sophisticated" things, with more emphasis in how the musicians looked at that time using the fads in their clothes and hairdos more than in the music authenticity. Look, posing and image above musical quality.

Well. This album unfortunately is another typical "product" of that decade. Jeff Beck obviously dislikes this album, and I can understand why. He said that this album was more a record company product and that the time of the recording of this album was a very unhappy time for him. Apart from his very good guitar playing, which is very much recognizable from him, this album does not sound as a Jeff Beck album. The only song which deserves a good commentary is "People Get Ready", a song from 1965 composed by Curtis Mayfield and originally recorded by him with the band "The Impressions". A song Beck recorded for this album with Rod Stewart on lead vocals, which, despite the very eighties drums sound, still shines by far as the best track on this album. The rest of the songs, most of them composed and produced by Nile Rodgers (at that time one of the most sought after record producers, and one of the founders of the Disco band "Chic" in the seventies, one of the few Disco bands which I like from that musical era) really sound more suitable for "Chic" than for Beck. Other tracks sound like recorded by some Arena Rock bands with a lead singer which sounds a lot like GTR`s Max Bacon or the lead singer from the band "Europe" (whose name I don`t remember now).

Another very good musician from the sixties and seventies who unfortunately had to listen to the "fad whims" of some of the record company executives of the eighties, and found his work marred by them.

This is a rather disappointing album from the Jeff Beck I've grown to know and love. It is absolutely nothing like his instrumental fusion albums of the 70's and is quite a lackluster accumulation of talent given that it features such stars as Rod Stewart, Jan Hammer, Jimmy Hall and Carmen Appice. Aside from two or three tracks, it is little more than 80's pop rock with Jeff Beck playing on it. I've come to terms with one of the pop tracks, "Gets Us All In The End", which is a comically typical 80's power ballad that can be fun to sing along to. There is only one song that I'd consider strong, which is the first instrumental, "Escape". If you don't have any qualms with 80's-sounding production and drum machines, then it comes across as a very atmospheric guitar-driven piece that wouldn't sound out of place on "There And Back" or "Guitar Shop". To reiterate, if you're a fan of the progressive rock and jazz fusion, this album would not be for you. If you're a fan of Jeff Beck, this album would not be for you. If you fit into either of those two categories, however, give "Escape" a listen and consider downloading the individual song on iTunes; the whole album just isn't worth an investment from anyone.

And how the times did change. Ten years prior JEFF BECK was stunning the world with his unique approach to jazz-fusion on "Blow By Blow" which launched him to the top tiers of the guitar god list. A decade later and three albums further BECK had completely dropped the world of fusion altogether and did the unthinkable for many fans, namely join the 80s new wave scene with a vocal oriented AOR / synthpop / pop rock release titled FLASH. This must've come as a shock for those who thought the jazz-rock days of yore would continue on in perpetuity but in hind sight it's really not that big of a shock since many a progressive rock artist had succumbed to the changing of the tides. Prog was out, pop hooks and synth-laced danceable music was in. So if you can't beat em, join em as the saying goes. Join em he did.

Pretty much an anomaly in the otherwise jazz-fusion and blues rock oriented albums that came before and after, JEFF BECK pretty much reinvented his entire sound to fit in with the glitz and glam of the video-killed-the-radio-star 1980s. Rather than put together a new band, this is an entire album of guest musicians including a reunion with Rod Stewart on the track "People Get Ready." Also returning from previous works was Carmine Appice on drums and both Tony Hymas and Jan Hammer on keys. Add to the list a total of four lead vocalists including BECK himself, two more keyboardists, four extra percussionists, bassist Dough Wimbish with several backing vocalists and you had yourself a bonafide 80s dance party only this one had a top tier guitarist adding some serious guitar sizzle to the monotonic drum machines and synthpop cheese.

The new wave scene was basically the antithesis of everything the 70s represented. Complexity in music was replaced with simple instantly infectious pop hooks. Subtleties were replaced by gaudy flashiness and visual interactions once reserved for live performances were suddenly available on your TV screen with oft contrived video performances leaving no wiggle room for creative interpretations of what was being presented. It must've been a nightmare for those seeing a musical experience through a certain lens but isn't it every generation's duty to shake things up and force those who came before to take a look at things in a radical new way? While some progressive artists like King Crimson and Mahavishnu Orchestra simply called it a day, others like Genesis and Yes happily accepted the new terms of agreement for their very survival and in the process learned how to craft some excellent pop tunes.

Like many artists of the day JEFF BECK was pretty much forced into the world of 80s synthpop and new wave by his record company and after a long five years after "There & Back" the album FLASH emerged replete with every 80s new wave cliche possible. Hey, if it worked for Duran Duran what could go wrong? Despite the contempt for this album by true BECK fans, the album still managed to hit the top 40 on the Billboard chart and spawn a couple singles. The first single and opening track "Ambitious" found some MTV play with a list of cameo appearances from Donny Osmond, Cheech Marin, Herve Villechaize, Marily McCoo and many others. Despite the full incorporation of 80s pop music techniques, BECK still managed to showcase some excellent guitar playing chops albeit in the context of straight on rock guitar with all traces of the world of jazz jettisoned.

Given the huge number of performers on FLASH, this one is by far the most diverse sounding of any JEFF BECK album i've experienced. Granted it's all firmly cemented in that tinny mid-80s synthpop based style but other than that the tracks range from spicy upbeat dance parties to earnest ballads and even delivers two instrumentals in the form of "Escape" and "You Know, We Know," the former of which ironically won BECK a Grammy in 1986. How much you like this one will be completely dependent on how you approach it. If you are hopelessly living in fusion-land with no flexibility then this will be the worst thing you could possibly imagine in terms of music however if you are well versed in the new wave 80s (as i am) and totally love some tubular bitchin' synthpop (like i do) then this one isn't as bad as one could imagine.

When it comes to 80s new wave there were a gazillion artists with many one-hit wonders populating the charts but relatively few consistent albums beyond the singles and MTV videos. FLASH may not be the equivalent of a Duran Duran or Oingo Boingo release but the diversity of the album and the performances are actually pretty decent for a record of this style. The pop hooks are solid, the vocal performances decent and the instrumental interplay fairly sophisticated for a pop-oriented album. It's apparent that the musicians on board are more talented than the music lets on and they offer subtle complexities between the cracks so to speak. As for the guitar performances BECK does an excellent job of offering some rock guitar over the synth-laden compositions. In a way this is one of those surreal albums like Jethro Tull's "Under Wraps" where things sound slightly familiar but eerily distant. I actually like this better than expected. The two bonus tracks on CDs are also decent AOR / pop rock.