Beth Hart - The Discography - The Audiophile Reviews

[audioguy3107]

The second female artist in line here is Beth Hart, singer songwriter and Joe Bonamassa musical partner with one heck of a powerful voice that I would put more in the blues category than rock/pop although she's a very versatile singer. Some would say her gravelly voice takes some getting used to, but I've always loved her power and passion when she sings. I haven't listened to her debut album in quite some time, so I can't remember what to expect from this mid 90's redbook CD, so let's have a listen and see what she has to offer.

Beth Hart - Immortal, 1996, Atlantic/Lava Records
Review version - 1996 Redbook CD mastered by George Marino @ Sterling Sound



From Wikipedia: Hart entered L.A.'s High School for the Performing Arts in 10th grade as a vocal and cello major. At the prompting of a classmate, she soon began singing during open mic nights in the Belly Room of the Comedy Store.[3]

Hart began playing clubs in Hollywood at the age of 15, and eventually enlisted bassist Tal Herzberg and guitarist Jimmy Khoury for Beth Hart and the Ocean of Souls, which was recorded in 1993. It includes "Am I the One" (which later appeared on her first official record "Immortal") and a pop-rock cover of the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". The first released album with the Beth Hart Band, Immortal, was released in 1996 through Atlantic, scanning 13,000 copies and featured the single "God Bless You". It also included "Am I the One", a fan favorite that ended up on her first DVD that was released in 2005. After touring the record, including at Lollapalooza in 1996, the Beth Hart Band disbanded due to infighting. In 1993, Hart appeared on Ed McMahon's Star Search, ultimately winning the Female Vocalist competition. Hart has stated that winning the show did not land her a record deal due to the stigma associated with performing on the show, and that she had burned through the prize money she received by the time she struck a deal with Atlantic Records.

1. Run - Nice but fairly flat beginning, there's not a whole lot of depth on this song.....Beth's voice is nicely centered without a whole lot of air or depth which makes it sound pretty much even with the baseline also centered in the middle of the soundstage. The guitars can be clearly heard out of each channel with the lead being prominent in the right channel. Nothing spectacular to listen for here.

2. Spiders in my Bed - Now this is a much more fun foot tapping song. Beth's voice is a bit smoother in this song than the first, the cymbals as well sound very natural as well. Tal Herzberg's bass is just a bit more powerful on this as well....hits a bit deeper. Like the first track, I wish her voice was featured a bit more prominently in the mix here.

3. Isolation [DEMO] - Don't think it's my imagination, but once again, this track sounds/is mixed a little cleaner to my ears. It beings with the lead guitar coming out just inside the right speaker...this is the best "imaging" track on this album so far, instruments are nicely separated as well, I turned up the volume on this song and it sound pretty smooth and clean. Toward the end of the song, listen for the guitar solo directly in the center of the soundstage against the backdrop of the drums. This is a pretty nice sounding song overall, I could use this as a pretty good demonstration for what it is.

4. Hold Me Through the Night [DEMO] - Best sounding demo track so far on this album, the song begins with Beth's voice and solo piano, the piano has a nice big rich tone. Beth's voice has more air and sounds more natural if not a bit on the dry side which is how her voice is supposed to sound! This is one of those medium tempo songs which can sound excellent on a properly dialed in system....now this isn't nearly up to par with your standard audiophile female vocal album, but still sounds very nice front to back and start to finish. I turned this one up.

7. Immortal - Pretty cool song but sounds more compressed than others.....Beth channels her inner Axl Rose halfway through this song, good example what you get with her voice when she's on.

8. Summer Is Gone - Beth's voice, medium tempo song and clean acoustic guitar make for a really enjoyable song. The bass guitar much more powerful on this song as well but the highlight is the acoustic guitar in this song. The kick drum is more evident as well and toward the end of the song you get a nice electric guitar piece. I like it. Don't know if it's demo material but very close. This is the type of song I would play for someone who has never heard a Beth Hart album before.

10. God Bless You [DEMO] - This is a really good track if you want to see how well your speakers handle the bass guitar....it's right up front in the mix and you can hear every single note change, there is absolutely no muddiness whatsoever. This is also a good test to see if your system suffers from any mid bass muddiness or congestion. Listen closely for the bass .......the volume of almost each and every note should stay roughly the same. This isn't the best OVERALL demo track but it is excellent for seeing how your speakers handle a good deep baseline.

11. Am I The One - Bluesiest (is that a word?) track on the album.....you can almost imagine Stevie Ray Vaughan here playing lead guitar. Sounds nice, especially the guitar solo toward the end of the song that reaches out of the left side of the soundstage and the powerful drum beats right at the end. One last thing to listen for is Beth's voice at the end of the song, powerful to say the least.

12. Blame the Moon [DEMO] - I believe this final song on the album is the best vocal demo on the album....if you close your eyes you can almost hear her breathing through the mic on this track. Again, it's not up to the typical audiophile female vocals, but if you want to hear how Beth Har's voice sounds in a natural, breathy style, then this is your chance on this record.

I really like her first album, it gives us a mix of rock and blues and you can really feel the passion in her singing throughout. Sonically it's a mixed bag, the album seems to start off a little more rough sounding than toward the end, but heck, maybe that's just my ears adjusting to the recording, who knows? What I do know is that overall it sounds pretty good, right in the middle on a scale of 1 to 10 which is why I gave it a 5. There are some good things to listen for as well....I'm more familiar with some of her later recordings which I'm looking forward to since some of them sound excellent, especially considering the rest of them will be on vinyl! Beth's voice may not be for everyone, but you owe it to yourself to at least give a couple of these songs a try and see what you think.

Audiophile Rating: 5/10 (overall sonics)
Demo Rating: 33% 4/12 (number of cool demo tracks/tracks on album)

[clpetersen]

Very nice! I/we enjoy Beth Hart, though only have two albums so far - 'Better than Home' and a collaboration with Joe Bonamassa - 'Don't Explain'.

Keep 'em coming!

[jmw31]

I love this reviews. Thank you. Is out outside of the goals to include an evaluation of the quality of the music given this is focused on sound quality? I'm as guilty as the next person listening to bad music because it "sounds" good but generally I would rather listen to great music even if it's badly recorded.

[audioguy3107]

Originally Posted by jmw31

I love this reviews. Thank you. Is out outside of the goals to include an evaluation of the quality of the music given this is focused on sound quality? I'm as guilty as the next person listening to bad music because it "sounds" good but generally I would rather listen to great music even if it's badly recorded.

Thanks! It's been interesting turning a more critical ear toward some of these albums. To answer your question, two things, the first is that I wanted to focus on sound quality for a couple of different reasons, one is that as far as I know, I don't think or haven't seen general music reviews that focus on sound quality other then the music reviews you see in Stereophile or on Michael Fremer's Analog Planet site and those tend to focus on new releases or re-releases such as the one's by Mobile Fidelity and Analogue Productions. I guess if I wanted to find a good review of how an older album, lets say, R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People, sounds, I don't know where to find that kind of review. I can find PLENTY of album reviews of the music, so I figured that I really wouldn't have a whole lot to add, many if not most of these albums have been reviewed ad nauseum, so I don't know what I could add that hasn't already been stated in the past (other than my opinion which is subjective). Second, I really thought about doing this after last year's RMAF and more so after this one. I've posted this before, but it's unfortunate how some (not all) of those rooms at the shows are run....in some ways it feels like you're interfering when you ask them to play something for you since they're so afraid to play something that will show off their gear in a negative way. I thought about this and figured that maybe the problem is that most of these guys don't realize that there may be a hidden gem or a particular track on a non-audiophile release that sounds amazing! That's what I aim to find out....by playing standard (and audiophile stuff of course) to find out which songs may offer some great sound as well as actually being stuff you may want to listen to. The entire album may not offer demonstration standard material, but what if that one song on there for some reason can blow your mind? That's what I'm going for.

- Buck

[Robc33]

Thank you Buck for taking the time to do this. I am enjoying your reviews very much. Well done!

[miner]

Big Beth Hart fan here since her early years when she was blacklisted by the US record labels. That caused her European success across the pond. Have every LP and many are signed, plus her collaborations with JB are signed by both. Thank you for your reviews, enjoying them immensely.

[audioguy3107]

Originally Posted by miner

Big Beth Hart fan here since her early years when she was blacklisted by the US record labels. That caused her European success across the pond. Have every LP and many are signed, plus her collaborations with JB are signed by both. Thank you for your reviews, enjoying them immensely.

Thanks! Appreciate it.....It took a little bit for her voice to grow on me, but I think she's an amazing artist, you can really feel the passion in her singing, not to mention her later efforts sound pretty darn good.

- Buck