Jeff Beck - Truth - 150g Vinyl LP

2023 release

The classic debut album, originally released in 1968. Features Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood on guitar.

Legendary English guitarist Jeff Beck, widely considered as one of the most influential and extraordinary players, initially rose to prominence as a member of The Yardbirds (replacing Eric Clapton) and afterward founded and fronted The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogart & Appice. After breaking ground in the rock genre he switched to a more instrumental style in the mid-seventies with a focus on innovative sound, with releases spanning genres and styles from blues, hard rock, jazz fusion, and even electronica.

Truth was almost as groundbreaking and influential a record as the first Beatles, Rolling Stones, or Who albums. Its attributes weren't all new — Cream and Jimi Hendrix had been moving in similar directions — but the combination was: the wailing, heart-stoppingly dramatic vocalizing by Rod Stewart, the thunderous rhythm section of Ron Wood's bass and Mickey Waller's drums, and Beck's blistering lead guitar, which sounds like his amp is turned up to 13 and ready to short out... It was a triumph — a number 15 album in America, astoundingly good for a band that had been utterly unknown in the U.S. just six months earlier — and a very improbable success.

Bruce Eder, AllMusic, 5/5