There and Back

After an interesting but ultimately just-okay live album with Jan Hammer’s band, Jeff Beck took three years to return to the studio. There and Back kicks off with the synthwave-ish “Star Cycle” (you can tell me Perturbator’s never heard this track, but I will not believe you) before moving into the latter-day — it was 1980 already — disco-funk of “Too Much to Lose” and the slow, churning “The Pump.” The album was recorded with keyboardist Jan Hammer and programmed drums on the first three tracks, and keyboardist Tony Hymas, bassist Mo Foster, and drummer Simon Phillips on the rest of the record. It has a highly processed, technophilic sound, not quite AOR, but not New Wave or fusion or prog, either; it exists in its own zone just past the realm where Al Di Meola and Jean-Luc Ponty lived and shredded, and you can safely assume Joe Satriani spent a lot of time listening to it. “Space Boogie” is the hardest-charging jam here, with strong Deep Purple energy (though Phillips’ drumming will definitely bring Alex Van Halen to mind), while “The Golden Road” is basically a Quiet Storm ballad with guitar shredding. There and Back might not be as well-known as its predecessors, but it’s definitely worth hearing.