Album Review

Joe Bonamassa – Driving Towards The Daylight

• 30th May 2012

Here we have young Joe Bonamassa’s tenth (can you believe it), solo studio album since his debut in 2000.
Bonamassa’s unusually prolific nature could lead one to doubt the integrity of the product he puts out, but this would be a mistake.
In fact, ‘Driving Towards The Daylight’ sees him on very solid, if fairly straight ahead, form. The album features a mildly eclectic selection of well chosen covers in addition to just three original compositions. We will discuss the original material (or lack of it), later.

The album kicks off with one of the aforementioned original songs, and to be fair, it’s a doozie. ‘Dislocated Boy’ is effortlessly cool, and sounds like the kind of steroid pumped, Country infused, Blues/Rock that wouldn’t be out of place on something like True Blood (the HBO Vampire series). It’s a great start, and it’s mood and tempo allows Joe to really squeeze out some fine rippling solo runs of the demisemiquaver variety (something he tends to avoid once the tempo hots up a little). It slaps the listener in the chops and says, “Hey! pay attention, you’re gonna like this, and if you don’t? I’m gonna make you!!”
Bonamassa has an advantage over many of his guitar forebears and peers in that, while many great guitarists have walked a similar musical path before him, few in recent years have combined a truly top notch vocal delivery with the obligatory red hot fretboard skills (the amazing Jeff Healy comes to mind, God rest his soul, although I would say Bonamassa’s voice is still better). The combination is actually strangely unsettling until you relax into it. In this respect (and of course in some of his faster solo licks), he reminds me very much of the glorious Eric Johnson; there may be arguably a little less extreme technique on show, but it’s balanced out with that superior, more powerful voice. In fact, Bonamassa’s voice is so good, and adaptable, I’m surprised we have not yet seen him segue into truly Billboard Hot 100 friendly Country Rock yet. I can imagine him having massive crossover hits in the vein of of Keith Urban, Jace Everett et al. He’d have to back off on the old Geetar widdles a bit though, so maybe that’s why it hasn’t happened. But I digress.

The album continues well with the bluesier ‘Stones In My Passway’, and then changes gear for the album’s 2nd self penned (or at least ‘co’ penned) effort; the Country/Rock power ballad title track which, bizarrely, is one of the few cuts here that really could do with a blistering full tilt boogie solo and doesn’t really get one….weird. It’s great, but definitely my least favourite of the three originals on offer.
The next few tracks tread a slick line through the (slightly) Bluesier side of Bonamassa’s sensibilities, and at this point we are starting to get the feeling that the album is generally keeping itself quite safe and tidy. Certainly in terms of pushing compositional, or production boundaries within the Blues/Rock idiom. There is nothing wrong with that per se, and this is not a condemnation, merely a subjective reflection of the listening experience. I don’t suppose anyone ever pointed a finger at Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘Texas Flood’ and thought it should be more cutting edge and progressive. However, something in Bonamassa’s DNA tells me to expect more sonic surprises than there actually are, so when they indeed don’t emerge, I do get a little frown on my face.

So at this point in the proceedings, I’ll admit my own sensibilities are screaming out for a more progressive, daring compositional or production direction; and, as if in answer to my prayers, we get ‘Lonely Town, Lonely Street’ a deceptive little gem that over the course of its runtime throws out a fair few cool tingly ear candy moments, setting it apart from the genre norm. I guess it helps that the song itself (a Bill Withers number), is a good, fresh left field choice to run through Bonamassa’s Blues/Rock filters. Things continue to sparkle with ‘Heavenly Soul’ which is the third of the original compositions. It’s another supreme cut too, and really helps to elevate the tone of the album thus far into more rarified air. Bonamassa sets his balance between blues and rock firmly leaning towards the latter, and seldom changes the settings by too many notches. This can lead to a little ear fatigue by the time one reaches the home straight, as the album has for the most part ripped along within a certain tempo and style range. I was rather hoping for maybe a plucky little acoustic number perhaps along the lines of Eric Johnson’s ‘Song For George’ to bring things down a little, something to really shake things up and present Joe’s skills in a different way. The absence of anything like that, or even a really slow, melancholy number perhaps, robs the album of more dramatic contrast. It is in this context that both ‘Lonely Town, Lonely Street’ and ‘Heavenly Soul’ really shine, and dispel some of that fatigue.
The last three songs of the album include another left field cover in the form of the Tom Waits song ‘New Coat Of Paint’, which for me is a little less successful than the Withers track from earlier. Sometimes, Bonamassa’s arrangement/treatment of a song is so comprehensive, a little something of what made the song choice so interesting in the first place, is lost in translation, buried under the sheer Bonamassaness of it.

Despite any concerns over contrast, or intense Bonamassaness (I kinda like that word); our man does what he does with supreme confidence and as a guitarist, he shines very brightly. I like that the many extended guitar solos found throughout the album really sound like continuous one takers, i.e. where some guitarists might have used a call and answer device to ‘drop in’ their best rehearsed solo licks during an extended lead break section, Joe often chooses the road less travelled to let rip, and burn it through in one continuous outpouring of rippling notage. In places, this approach is so good that the listener can really jump on board what then becomes a truly organic wave of expression, and ride that thing all the way to the end. If there are any dropped in ‘fixes’, I couldn’t hear them. It’s great when a guitar player can express that kind of power in their solos, as it takes an intimate, and holistic knowledge of the ‘what’ and ‘when’, in order to do it. So many players these days seem to know little or nothing about this, much to the chagrin of those of us that care, and take pride in the deeper construction of lead playing. Joe obviously cares about it too, and it shows. That’s not to say he doesn’t very occasionally miss the mark in terms of one or two solo breaks sounding ever so slightly obligatory, but this is a small gripe, and one I know most ‘non muso’ fans would take me to task over.

Having listened to the album a lot while writing this review, I would definitely playlist it and repeat listen, moving forward. Overall, It’s a winner, and a grower. I would be perfectly happy for it to sit alongside SRV’s ‘Texas Flood’, or Jeff Healey’s ‘See The Light’ in my Blues/Rock collection (even though, as previously mentioned, Mr. Bonamassa swings significantly more to the ‘Rock’ side of that sub-genre). There’s really only one cut that I would want to omit from future listens, and that’s the Jimmy Barnes sung number topping out the album ‘Too Much Ain’t Enough Love’. Now, I know it’s Barnes’ own, post Cold Chisel, solo era song, and truth be known, I like Bonamassa’s treatment of it over the 80s vibed original. The problem for me, is the presence of Barnes himself. He always was a bit of a shouter (a rough diamond so to speak), but he ain’t as young as the springtime anymore, and here, he just wails out the song in such overblown, strained tones as to make one feel that at any second, the poor man’s sump is going to prolapse. It is not an enjoyable experience, and rather detracts from the otherwise winning arrangement. Barnes’ presence also jars (and this is not strictly, his fault), in terms of having spent an entire album sonically absorbing Bonamassa’s smoother, more agreeable vocal timbres. This renders Jimmy’s efforts all the more abrasive when they arrive. Naturally, this is a totally subjective stance, and others may well like the combination of Bonamassa’s arguably superior arrangement, with Barnes’ vocals. For me, it doesn’t work, and I would rather leave the album ending with the penultimate song ‘Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go’.

This brings me to my final point on ‘Driving Towards The Daylight’, and that is the lack of original Bonamassa penned material, alluded to earlier. The three originals present, prove that Bonamassa’s writing can more than hold its own against any other material, so it is frustrating to see the situation being so in favour of covers. Ultimately, I would certainly forego the quantity of Bonamassa’s future album output, for an album entirely conceived and composed by the man, unfettered and free to explore his obvious deep deep talent for progressive Blues/Rock. I think all those varied and unusual influences he sites would benefit from such an endeavour. Bring it on Joe, do it do it!

Incidentally, regardless of this writer’s weird musings, and crazy progressive tendencies; I’m more than confident that the album’s solid, direct focus, blistering guitar work, and melodic accessibility will ensure its safe passage high into the US Billboard ‘Hot 200’ album chart. At the time of writing it has just blasted in to the UK album chart at #2!! Pretty darn fantastic for a guy that no-one (and I mean, no-one) who listens to the biggest 3 radio stations during the day would have ever even heard of.

The album is out now, and if you like strong, straight down the middle, honest to goodness Blues/Rock…….here it is.