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From the first electric slide howl of the opening title track—one of several original numbers dissecting obsessive- compulsive love affairs—to the closing “Superman,” a herky-jerky stomp on recent socio-political fiascos, Dana Fuchs offers a virtuoso demonstration of primal blues-rock vocalizing in service to fundamental feelings of betrayal, lust, and longing as limned in this conceptual view of one woman’s bifurcated romantic life, wherein the thin line between love and hate is obliterated from song to song. Fuchs, who played the singing role of Janis Joplin to spectacular reviews in the off-Broadway production of Love, Janis and had a star-making turn as Sadie in Julie Taymor’s Beatles-centric film Across the Universe, often unloads vocally with Plant-ian authority. Yet the nuanced southern soul groove of her slinky, horn- inflected “Summersong” kissoff and her acoustic-based, shimmering soul ballad “Keepsake” show a singer-songwriter who can bring home bittersweet reflective musings as credibly as she can rage at the heavens. Sonically, she and co-producer/ guitarist Jon Diamond let it roar, hot and unyielding across the channels, Fuchs’s gritty wail issuing a jut-jawed challenge to the white-hot guitars and thundering percussion. Love To Beg is awe inspiring— unless you’re the guy who fueled the lady’s wrath.
By David McGee
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