Bebe Buell Hard Love

By Cyndi Ford

OUT SEPTEMBER 27TH - Niji Entertainment

Bebe Buell
Hard Love


It is rare when someone is blessed with beauty and talent, but Bebe Buell has been blessed with both. She may be best known for being the mother of Liv Tyler and former wife of some of rock’s royalty, but she will surely shine on her own after the release of this album.

Start off with a hard hitting tune, I always say, and she certainly does that with “Mother of Rock & Roll”. Her vocals, reminiscent of Patti Smith, have that rough, yet melodic sound that captures your attention. “Devil you know” starts out kinda slow, but soon begins to take off and get you rocking, with fabulous lyrics. To keep things on a roll, the next song, “Heartbeat”, continues to have that rough edge that is reminiscent of the New York sound of days gone by. “Got it all wrong”, the song you are now lucky enough to hear in the background, hits me right in the core of my soul when the vocals come in and draws you in to the story line that is all too familiar, but putting it bluntly...you got it all wrong!.

The cover of the Vibrators' “Baby Baby” is fabulous, her version is very well produced, and is hot as ever. “Black Angel”, slows things down a bit, and sounds almost like Stevie Nicks would, if she had just a little bit more rock added in. Dedicated to her loyal fallen friend Joey Ramone, 'Walking down the street that bears your name', heartmoving and heartfelt, what a beautiful tribute to the face that launched ten thousand bands!

“Sugar” is sweet, with a hint of arsenic...as it kills, I particularly love the edge of the keyboards, and is possibly my fave on the cd. “I love a man in a uniform” has some great background vocals, as if the girls are giving the guys a cat-call this time, girl power at it’s best. “Timeline”, is beautifully written, and could easily be the sound track to a modern day romantic movie.

“Normal girl”, could be the anthem for the girls of New York City, as there a breed in themselves, just normal girls...yeah right! “I will wait”, the final song on the album, ends things on a nice note, with a promise that every person in love wants to hear, delivered appropriately with its dreamy sound.

I must admit that I was pretty excited to hear this album, but listened to it with an open mind, as I had not listen to many of Bebe’s tunes in a long time. This album was magnificently produced, and kudos to all who worked on it, fabbo job to say the least!

Cyndi
 

SoundCheck Rating :