FINGERPRINTS

by

Peter Frampton

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Guitar players that can only do three chords and a few blues licks could not pull off this album. Anyone that could get past the flowing blond hair and marketing to screaming girls back in the seventies, knew that Frampton was not just a minimally talented hype package, but instead was a very talented player that could drive home a power chord one minute and then do a delicate melodic run on an acoustic the next. Now that his hair is gone, the talent can stand on its own. In a world of pretty boys that are done as soon as the pretty wears off, Frampton continues because he was the real deal from the beginning.

This is a very fine album that could make average guitar players (like myself) feel like they don't know as much as they thought they did. It rocks, it is sweet, it is melodic and it flows perfectly from track to track. You don't get a sense of déjà vu in the middle, which says a lot that 14 songs can be distinctly different. While an instrumental, there are two minimal vocals including a Frampton obligatory talk box single line in "Black Hole Sun".

If there is one negative thing, I wish that Frampton followed the lead of others that did duet type albums, such as B.B. King. King made it a point to differentiate the guest guitarist from his own guitar by assigning a specific Speaker. King's solo notes come out of one speaker and Clapton's or Knopfer's (or whoever) come out of the other. I would love to know which lead was Frampton and which was say, Warren Hayes, both playing the same model guitar and with a similar phrasing over a slow blues shuffle. This is just a wish and does not reduce the score for me.

FWIW.... I bought my disc at Best Buy because it came with an exclusive DVD at no extra cost. The DVD is worth every bit the zero price increase. It is two songs right from the CD, with video of sessions from those songs. The playing rarely matches the actual music that is playing, in fact often there are no actual instruments being held. Still, it was nice to watch once or twice, but don't go out of your way to find one if you have the CD only.

Amended on 11 February 2007: This album just won a Grammy for instrumental record.