Beth Hart – Fire on the Floor

Beth Hart is back with a new album – Fire on the Floor.   In the last few years her career has reached new heights, helped in part by her two collaborations with Joe Bonamassa which brought her to the attention of a wider audience.  An appearance on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny collaborating with Jeff Beck brought her even more attention.  What really brings the crowds to her shows though is not the collaborations she’s done, it’s her incredible voice.  Beth Hart is one of the best blues singers around in my view – her voice is simply superb, it’s versatile, powerful and carries a huge amount of emotion.  Given this, then it’s fair to say I was excited to hear the new album.

Comments on a few tracks…

“Fat Man” is more of a rock track and that’s apparent right from the start with the guitar riff.

“Picture in a Frame” is performed with Beth playing the piano and singing while the rest of the band take a break.  It’s a beautiful song and is one where the emotion comes through in her voice, not just in the lyrics.

The final track, “No Place like Home” is another beautiful song featuring just piano and vocals.  It’s a logical topic for her to sing about – when touring for weeks on end, you start to miss home.  It’s the opposite to “Better than Home.”

With this album Beth Hart has put together a collection of songs that are quite diverse and range from the emotional piano tracks to the more fun and upbeat songs.  It’s a wider range than on some of her other albums and really demonstrates the range of her vocals, and also gives the album a well balanced feel – not too much happy stuff and not too much dark emotional stuff, but a bit of everything.

I had high expectations before hitting Play on this album for the first time, and after listening to it pretty much non stop for a few days I can say that this album didn’t just meet my high expectations, it far exceeded them.  There is a great mix of styles and influences and Beth performs them all to perfection.  Beautiful well written songs, a great band and stunning vocals, all combine in this excellent album.  Highly recommended.

“Fire on the Floor” will be released on 14th October 2016 via Provogue records (Part of the Mascot label group).

Track listing:

1. Jazz man
2. Love gangster
3. Coca Cola
4. Let’s get together
5. Love is a lie
6. Fat man
7. Fire on the floor
8. Woman you’ve been dreaming of
9. Baby shot me down
10. Good day to cry
11. Picture in a frame
12. No place like home