Jeff Beck & Johnny Depp Capture Bluesy Vibrancy In Rather Unusual Combination on ’18’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

Photo Credit: Malcolm Connolly

The Jeff Beck/Johnny Depp alliance as captured on 18 benefits both men creatively and otherwise. For one thing, the album has received more advanced attention than recorded work by either man alone might garner. And while the actor/musician can reasonably gain some measure of catharsis in the wake of his recent public travails, he also seems to have inspired the man who replaced Eric Clapton as the guitarist of the Yardbirds: the latter is far more deeply engaged on this LP than on either of his previous two studio efforts, 2010’s Emotion & Commotion or its successor Loud Hailer. El Becko’s playing is, in turns, noisy and gentle as can be, flurries of notes as well as lines all proceeding with that idiosyncratic logic he’s honed now for fifty-plus years.

This project provides Depp a chance to progress as a musician/vocalist and songwriter, but, in keeping with his primary vocation, he nevertheless sounds like any fledgling musician still in the process of finding his own style. Meanwhile, Beck makes it quite clear from the very start this is his album: “Midnight Walker,” a composition by Irish musician Davy Spillane, is the familiar and highly atmospheric sound of vintage Beck fusion, while the clattering mechanical rhythms of Killing Joke’s “Death And Resurrection Show” recall You Had It Coming in 2001 and Jeff two years later. One of a pair of Johnny’s original songs, “Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade,” isn’t all that dissimilar to the sound of those albums or that aforementioned cut and the other of his compositions, “This Is A Song For Miss Hedy Lamarr.” is an exercise in the Beck/Depp co-production (further shared credit for which also goes to various engineers including Ben Thomas and Robert Adam Stevenson for their technical expertise).

Yet Jeff Beck’s musical preferences dominate the largely instrumental effort that is 18. Long a fan of Motown (and Stevie Wonder in particular), his choice of the Miracles’ “Ooo Baby Baby” allows him a chance to demonstrate his fondness for melody, even as the ‘Edward Scissorhands’/’Pirates of the Caribbean’ star acquits himself honestly on vocals for Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”

Two Beach Boys selections find Beck wringing every ounce of bittersweet emotion he can from the tunes, albeit in the most delicate way possible: “Caroline No” is totally sans vocals for maximum purity, while “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” features soprano Olivia Safe buried deep in the mix to haunting effect. In contrast, he provides an appropriate noisy drone for this rendition of the Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs;” here Johnny Depp’s singing is all too imitative of a young Lou Reed there (not to mention early David Bowie), so it’s somewhat surprising his more conventional phrasing distinguishes this cover of the Everly Brothers’ hit “Let It Be Me.” 

To some extent, the saccharine close of that track may validate skepticism toward this artistic partnership. But Beck himself sounds comfortable in the presence of his multi-instrumentalist/vocalist friend and co-founder of the band Hollywood Vampires (with Joe Perry and Alice Cooper), not to mention long-time bandmate bassist Rhonda Smith and current touring partner cellist Vanessa Freebairn-Smith, among other stalwarts from his past discography. In fact, it’s the oblique angles from which this British guitar hero squeezes lines from his fretboard that redeem this literal-minded take on Janis Ian’s “Stars.” In contrast, the two men who share billing on 18 find mutually heartfelt means of expressing their kindred spirits on the late John Lennon’s “Isolation:” Depp wails as the lead singer, while Beck uses his command of the electric guitar to match him in intensity and then some.

Appropriately sequenced as the final track of a baker’s dozen, therein lies the most accurate manifestation of the relative virtues on display throughout the fifty-five-some minutes of this unusual collaboration.

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4 Responses

  1. The mainstream media hates Johnny no matter what he ever does they will try to smash him down. Your review displays true critique thanks

    1. This review was well done. Honest, detailed, with a true knowledge musicians rather than adding in your two cents about what dredging up what main stream media tries to echo.
      I can’t wait to pick up this album.

  2. Agreed thank you for an Accurate review of 18, its refreshing indeed!!!Thank you for the background info on the tracks! The Album is great! Bravo to Beck Depp and the Whole Band for delivering a solid European Tour!!! What about the Mention of John’s Vocals on the Miracles track??? Pretty surprising and an amazing effort. Venus in Furs sounds like Depp meets Ville Valo. BIG BLESS UP!!! TO NEW BEGINNINGS

  3. Jeff Beck still continues to be the most vital, living guitar player currently breathing air.
    Hendrix
    EVH
    Beck.
    The Holy Trinity

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