Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Beck, Robin
Label: Her Majestys Music
Release: 2013
Duration: 41:03
Rating: 4/5
The tenth album in the long-running career of the superb rock singer Robin Beck, »Underneath«, lands right on cue amid the flood of this and that. Give it a spin and within moments it’s clear it was made by a crew of seasoned music masters who know exactly how to serve up »combustible« anthemic hooks and how to use »studio wizardry«! This is an album where the singer takes her traditional rocker stance, undeniably grounded in the fundamentals of the AOR tradition, and successfully fuses it with the fashionable, modern studio sound-processing tricks of today. Fashion and tradition crossed successfully, then! The one holding all the reins on the record’s sound was definitely her husband James Christian, the ultimate head honcho of the American band House Of Lords, who put out his own solo studio album just one month before his wife.
Beck has never made a bad album, but commercial success came only ten years after her debut, with the famous 1989 album »Trouble Or Nothing«. Today it’s considered an ultimate hard rock classic, one that every household in this galaxy should have in its record collection if it takes itself seriously. The hit single First Time is one of the most famous hard rock standards and eternal evergreens ever fired off onto the face of the Earth.
»Underneath« also carries on in the direction of Beck’s earlier work and keeps the high compositional standard of its predecessor »The Great Escape« (2011). Another excellent album, then, one that doesn’t know the meaning of »artistic misfire«. Once again Beck is surrounded by a tried-and-tested squad of seasoned studio masters who know how to handle their craft and deliver the goods! Alongside the dependable James Christian and the Swedish genius Tommy Denander, Glen Burtnik, Barry Jay and Fiona also play on the album. Then there are the other refined arrangers and forgers of infectious listenability, such as Daniel Volpe and Thomas Lipp, known for working with the Dutch teen idol Jeronimo and the German girl group Monrose. On top of that, songwriting ideas for this album came from the 2013 Swedish Eurovision winners Linnea Deb and Joy Deb (Robin Stjernberg), plus Charlie Mason (Miley Cyrus), Mark Smith (Cinema Bizarre), Christian Rabb and Frida Molander (Nina Zilli).
Robin Beck’s voice just keeps getting better with the years. She sounds fantastic. In every situation. She can’t fake it. The power she unleashes still floors you in an instant with its huge expressive character, the melodic payoff of her vocal colors stays spotless, and Robin brilliantly adds to her clean melodic stance a bigger or smaller pinch of throatiness. That gives the singer that famous, recognizable and sweetly seductive femme fatale charm she has always known how to arm her songs with. A female lead vocalist in melodic hard rock simply has to deliver exactly that! And Robin does it with her little finger. One of the finest examples of the wide palette of vocal shades with which Beck masterfully paints the many moods in her songs is caught in the third track, Sprain, and, toward the end, in one of the album’s best compositions, I Swea Nights. The opener Wrecking Ball, with a top-notch adrenaline bomb in its predatory chorus, is certainly one of the best songs of her whole career, not just of »Underneath«. The title track is a real fired-up icebreaker caught in a fantastic power hard rock ballad, cunningly crossed with a pop element, and it comes closest on the album to the ever-evergreen First Time. Catfight brings punkish mockery in just the right pinch, though a mild pop hairdo still clings to it, so it’s not hard to imagine even the vocals of acts like Roxette or even Pink on it.
Among the flirtations with novelties from the last decade of pop rock as MTV loves it (I’m talking especially about the kind they »sell« to the masses under the »alternative« label), Check Your Attitude comes closest on this album, and does so very successfully. It’s the biggest detour on a record that is otherwise still sworn to the tradition of the old school of melodic hard rock. The ballad Buirning Me Down is something of a family affair, since it’s a vocal duet with James Christian, and even their daughter Liv shows up on backing vocals. That James Christian has his fingers in everything is announced most obviously by Perfect Storm, which is one of the darkest and most dramatic songs on the album.
An extremely infectious album. Robin Beck has delivered yet another document of an outstanding vocal performance, and with a skilled arranging crew behind her, it’s impossible to expect anything else anyway. The composers practically lay the melody right onto her voice so that it reaches its peak in her interpretation! »Underneath« is therefore an album with which Robin Beck keeps enjoying full bloom in her new artistic spring, and a must for every true fan of melodic hard rock! The album is an excellent mix of fired-up hard rockers, big ballads, and also tracks composed in the mold of the latest fashionable rock trends! Add the radio-friendly angle (the pop element). Simple as that. Judging by what »Underneath« shows, it’s clear that Robin Beck will surely bring a nice bundle of hot rock treats to the stage.
Lineup
Robin Beck – vocals, backing vocals
James Christian – guitar, keyboards, bass guitar, backing vocals
Tommy Denander – guitar
Jimi Bell – guitar
Jeff Batter – keyboards
Bj Zampa – drums
Fiona – backing vocals
Liv Beck – backing vocals
Production
James Christian
Track List
01. Wrecking Ball
02. Aint That Just Like Love
03. Sprain
04. Underneath
05. Catfight
06. Check Your Attitude
07. Burnin Me Down
08. Perfect Storm
09. Ya Can’t Figth Love
10. I Swear The Nights
11. Follow You
