Blue Lightning

Blue Lightning is a record on which Yngwie Malmsteen faces his roots in blues and classic rock, placing covers alongside new songs. Fast arpeggios and neoclassical phrasing of course remain, but here the theme is how he translates the melodies of the originals into his own guitar language. Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady” and “Purple Haze,” Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and “Demon’s Eye,” the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” and the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” — a run of classics lines up. Showing respect for the originals, the guitar is recognizably his own at a single hearing. Because a bluesier expression and dazzling technique coexist, it lets you savor Yngwie’s character from an entrance a little different from his usual path of formal beauty. New songs such as the title track naturally embody the theme of fusing blues and the neoclassical. It is a record with a relaxed appeal that conveys the breadth of a guitar hero.